Samut Sakhon Thailand
Samut Sakhon is a large industrialised city about 50km SW of Bangkok, nestling in the NW corner of the Gulf of Thailand at the mouth of the Tha Chin Klong River. The principle industry is fishing and fish processing. In fact the stink of fish, pervades throughout the place, whether its the waste from the numerous processing plants or just the smell of rack upon rack of fish drying in the sun it gets everywhere, up your nose and even on your clothes.
The city is very close to or below sea level so flooding is common. To combat this a series of canal(klongs) have been built to try and keep the water at bay. This works to some extent but during high tides wide spread flooding often occurs. Part of the reason why flooding is common at high tide is that many of the klongs are blocked with all manner of rubbish. People seem to treat the klongs and river around Samut Sakhon as a large open rubbish dump and this combined with industrial effluent pumped directly into these water courses makes for some highly polluted and unattractive places. Its like living in a place with open sewers!
Even when I was at Wat Samakee Satharam I found mounds of rubbish everywhere, the area where the monks lived was actually the worst and I swear the toilets had no holding tanks but just drained into the nearby canal.
Quite how the Thai people can live in these condition I really don't know. Because as I pointed out to Duen, even collecting and burning the rubbish (not very green I know) has to be better than just throwing the stinking mess into the nearest canal or piling it high like in today's photograph. The only country that I have travelled too that comes anywhere near the pollution levels I witnessed in Sumat Sakhon is in fact India and certain areas of the big cities there.
The Tourist Authority of Thailand(TAT), rightly in my opinion, refers to Thailand, as "Amazing Thailand." Lets face it the country has some fantastic beaches, a great culture and breath taking scenery. However if you want to see another version of Thailand then I suggest you visit Samut Sakhon because if you do then your vision of this tropical paradise might well take on a different perspective.
Me? Today, fully recovered from my trip North I am heading to Hat Wanakorn to experience the amazing Thailand that the tourists see, not a plastic bag in sight, just miles of beautiful sand, blue sea and a cooling breeze that are there to be had in this wonderful little marine national park.
Enjoy your weekend!
If you enjoyed this post why not subscribe to my RSS feed
3 comments:
Mike, like you one of the things that boggles my mind about the Thai people , is their utter lack of concern for sanitation , they will throw their waste and garbage anywhere, and think nothing of the ungodly smells and all the flys and mosquitos and who knows what else , Sometimes when we have visitors that come , I am embarrassed for them , but it doesn't seem to embarrass them at all . A short story , when we first moved here 5 years ago all my neighbors threw all their garbage and sh-- in a pile at the end of the road ,and even tho we have 3 times a week for garabage pick-up at 20 baht per mth . none of them had a garabage container in front of their house , crazy or as they say bah bah ba bor, well I had the garabage man bring one for my house with a lid , which most seem to ignore also , and had him place one in front of each neighbors house it was like they had gotten a gift from heaven or something they acted like they never knew they too could have a garbage can (sometimes I just shake my head in amazement at their lack of concern) for their very own , they were almost child like... ., and I had Ciejay ask them not to throw their trash at the end of the road and sooooo far after 5 years we have a cleaner neighbor hood , and less soi dogs coming for a free meal every day , and it sure smells a lot better when the wind is blowing from up the Mt. way. I agree with you ,I don't know how they can live with themselves sometimes and all their garabage, and I see it as a major reason for some of the sicknesses and other problems with their health, they have in the villages , But then again I just have to remind myself that TIT, the LOS. Malcolm
Mike,
I don't think I've ever thanked anyone for letting me know where not to go....Thank you.
It really is sad that so much trash just gets tossed out wherever. The Thai's have a very real unnatural fascination with plastic bags for some reason and if someone could get them to stop using them that would do a great deal towards cleaning up Thailand.
Malcolm its bin day today here, my bin is full, half of it not my rubbish. The lengths some people go to to avoid 30 Baht a month! You are right about the lids too- mine stays firmly in place but the rest of the soi just leave them open-logic?
Talen-yes not the place for a holiday, I also believe several other cities are similar-someone mentioned Rayong?
Don't get me wrong there are fly tippers in the UK but Thailand beggars belief for such a naturally beautiful country.
Post a Comment