Michael Batson

The road from the Cambodian border to the eastern Thai city of Trat is a great drive. Vehicles in Thailand drive on the other side of the road (the UK side) from Cambodia where I’d come from, so closest to you on the left (the passenger side) are the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Thailand and to the right, the hills and jungle of the Cardamom range which form a natural border between the two Southeast Asian neighbours. The road is squeezed between these two features with a good surface, little traffic, and gentle bends. A vehicle can clip along at a fair rate, a contrast from the current state of some roading infrastructure found just across the border. Sharing the road with little other traffic in Thailand being a good thing: the country having the deadliest roads in terms of fatalities per 100,000 population in Southeast Asia (over 30 whereas in the UK it’s two). It's not hard to see why with the habits of the country’s drivers including: multiple lane changes, following too closely behind, looking at their phones among other poor driving habits all conducted at excessive speeds including in adverse weather conditions like monsoonal downpours.

I was left at the Thailand-Cambodia border crossing by the rest of the bus passengers crossing over to the Kingdom of Smiles, though to be honest I’ve always felt that Cambodia was more deserving of that particular moniker. By chance, a minivan was turning around having dropped off a load of passengers going the other way, though where’d they’d got to, I’d no idea. The driver agreed to take me to Trat. I didn’t argue cost, I just wanted to be gone for on previous trips I’d sat around this border crossing sometimes for hours waiting for transport to appear. The most common form of transport here are usually Toyota minivans which for some reason in Thailand come in any colour so as long as it’s a dull metallic and monumentally inconspicuous.

I was the only passenger, so after the cramped spaces of Cambodian buses, this was like a limo with décor and seats to match. We set off the driver careful to stick to 100kph constantly pumped the accelerator to sit just on the Thai speed limit. His choice of music sounded like jazzercize hits of the eighties and he liked his music loud. North of the border is the Boonsiri Ferry Port where ferries depart for Ko (or Koh) Kood (also Ko Kut), the self-styled “prettiest island in Thailand”, the ownership of which is disputed with Cambodia. The road then takes you through the narrowest part of mainland Thailand, located not far from the Cambodian border crossing on the Trat-Khong Yai Road. At just 450m across, it's much narrower than the other part of Thailand sometimes referred to as the country’s narrowest point, on the Kra Isthmus between Burma and Thailand where it's 10kms wide. Then there is the Kitrawan seaport, a freight transit and customs clearance facility as Thailand seeks to grow its freight distribution capacity across the region. Along the road are military checkpoints though the scrutiny of inspections seems to have dissipated over the years to the point the vehicles barely stop just slow down and no foreigners get their passports inspected anymore.

Looking at the map of this part of Thailand is not hard to see why the island and indeed this part of the coast might be a bone of contention between the two Southeast Asian neighbours. The entire Trat-Khong Yai Road, known as Sukhumvit Road, all 90kms of it, runs along a narrow coastal strip that looks suspiciously like it’s been carved by Thailand out of Cambodia territory. To avoid confusion Had Lek (or Hat Lek) is the name of the border crossing where there is Thai customs and immigration and a few tourist stalls whereas Khlong Yai (or Big Canal) is the district Had Lek border crossing is located. The border on the Cambodian side is the Cham Yeam crossing. Khlong Yai was once part of Patchan Khiri Khet Province (which is the long thin coastal strip seen today on the map) ceded back to Saim by France in 1904 (see below).

We didn’t stop at all along the 90kms of Khlong Yai to town and the driver took me to my guesthouse located on the Mueang Trat River (or Trat River) about 5kms outside of town along country roads lined with stalls and small farms. He wished me good luck and headed off back to his base in Bangkok. It was a pleasant enough trip after an arduous drive along Route 48 in Cambodia to get to the Thai border, and here I was surrounded by trees and the sounds of birds. There were rooms and bungalows for rent. Breakfast was included. The owners ran a kind of garden centre growing plants for sale online. They had a dog which was overly-friendly and wouldn’t leave you alone. It was more of a retreat than a guesthouse. The owners told me that some people stayed for weeks and one or two for months. One of the guests they said, was some high-powered Thai government official who would be called away in the event of some major crisis for them to solve and having done so would return retreating to their room, not to be seen again for days. I got the impression it was a place for people seeking solitude not company, maybe artists or writers or those burnt-out or recovering from a breakdown. It was quiet and peaceful but too much so for me. Transport to town and food were the issue. There were no shops and no restaurants, so after a short stay I headed for the bright lights of Trat.

My first visit to Trat was way back in 1990. I’d come from Krabi on the west coast near what was then called Burma where I’d stayed at a beach place. It was laid back and basic. I’d got the overnight VIP bus from Krabi to Bangkok and then the regular bus to Trat and on to Ko (or Koh) Chang, which was then even more laid back and basic than the beach place in Krabi. It was one of those “you should have seen it 20 years ago” events, except I was living it, and not saying it. Travel to and from the island was by fishing boat there being no ferries. There was then no mains electricity and the island had no roads. When I left Ko Chang after a blissful fortnight or so forced back to civilization and a job back home, I stayed a night in Trat. I can’t remember where but I think it was on the main road in town. I’ve passed through Trat a few times since, mainly just a fleeting visit to the town’s bus station waiting for transport somewhere else but I suspect that much of Trat to look at hadn’t changed all that much since my first visit years ago; aside from the internet, smart phones, ATMs, and the marijuana cafes, now legalised. It’s that kind of place, and for some people, that’s just fine.

Trat is called "The City of Half-a-Hundred Islands”. It’s the capital of the province of the same name and known for gem mining, fruit growing especially salacca or “snakefruit”, fishing, the Thai Ridgeback dog, and these days tourism. Personally, I think most dogs in Thailand should be avoided as many roam about in packs threatening passers-by and playing chicken with road users - disabled and maimed canines showing the losers of those particular encounters.. Trat is also known for the battle of Ko Chang, a naval engagement between Vichy France and the Thai navy in 1941, in which Thai forces were decisively beaten. The name Trat (also Trad) is believed to be a corruption of "Krat" the Thai name for a deciduous tree often found in dense forests, its reddish-brown wood used for house building and the making of brooms. Trat is one of seven eastern provinces in Thailand, the country’s fifteenth smallest geographically and fourth least populated. Trat province borders the Gulf of Thailand, Cambodia, and Chanthaburi Province. During the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351 to 1767) Trat was a major trading centre and was known as “the far end in the East." The indigenous people of neighbouring Chanthaburi (or Lady Chan), the Chong who have lived in the area since the Ayutthaya Kingdom, are thought to have been originally from Cambodia, and like Trat and the southeastern provinces reflect the mix of ethnicities now found on both sides of modern borders.

It’s often said Thailand was never colonised. That may be technically true but the country has been occupied by foreign forces (Burmese, French, and Japanese) at various times including what became known as the Prakan Crisis (or Incident) of 1893 when parts of Siam were occupied by France, including Trat and the surrounding area, and also in Samut Prakan province, now a part of metropolitan Bangkok, at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River. In what can be best described as European gunboat diplomacy. French warships violated Siam territory sailing up the river in Bangkok attacking fortifications, blockading the city, and then training their guns on the royal palace.

The resulting Franco-Siamese crisis was a conflict sparked by the French furthering their interests in Indochina principally in Laos, but driven by their overarching interests in Tonkin (Vietnam). The crisis had flow-on effects in the Franco-Siamese treaties of 1904 and 1907 which had impacts on Trat, southeastern Thailand, Cambodia, and on wider Indochina. As a result, Siam ceded most of present-day Laos to France, which significantly expanded French colonial territory in Southeast Asia. In addition, the French demanded as guarantees the occupation of Chanthaburi, and the demilitarisation of Battambang (or Batdambang pronounced “Bat-dam-bong”), the land up around Siem Reap (both now in Cambodia), and gained a sizeable strip along the west bank of the Mekong River in present-day Laos thus shaping today’s international borders in the process.

In order to regain Chanthaburi, the Siamese government negotiated with France their treaty of 1904, where it was agreed France would hand back Chanthaburi to Siam in exchange for Siam handing over control of Trat and Koh Kong in present-day Cambodia, to the French. Shortly thereafter, France returned Trat and Klong Yai to Siam in exchange for Cambodia’s northeastern provinces of Siem Reap and Batdambang, which had been under Thai rule since 1795. A portion of what was Patchan Khiri Khet Province is now in Koh Kong Province in Cambodia.

During French colonial control, the appointed French governor's official residence was located in Trat town (though the position’s title was officially the Resident Kampot). Following the Franco-Siamese treaty of 1907, Siam agreed to ceding northeastern Cambodia including the temples of Angkor while France agreed to withdraw from Trat and also Dan Sai district in northeastern Siam near Laos. At a higher level was the rivalry of European powers in the region; The French and British both had strong interests in controlling parts of Indochina, a rivalry that had on several occasions come close to open conflict between the two European powers. In 1896, France signed a treaty with Britain defining the border between Laos and British territory in Upper Burma to ease tensions.

Trat Province itself is divided into seven districts which are in turn divided into sub-districts which are further divided into villages for administrative purposes. Trat town is the capital of Trat province and the largest town in Meaung Trat (district) which has a population of about 90,000 most of whom live in town or nearby. The province is largely rural and its capital quiet and low-key. The economy of Trat province is mainly cantered around agriculture, mining, manufacturing, services, and these days, tourism mainly to the nearby islands though only a handful of these are inhabited. Given the history of the region, it’s fair to assume some activity is illicit including smuggling of banned species, protected hardwoods, and human trafficking and other ventures for which profit can be gained.Gemstones are a case in point.

The history of gem mining in Trat dates back to the 1800s, but references to gem mining go back to the early 1400s. Gems are also found in Chanthaburi Province and across the border in Cambodia’s Pailin province. The Trat-Chanthaburi region is one of the world's main suppliers of rubies and sapphires. By the early 1980s, an estimated 70 percent of the world's high-quality rubies come from Thailand, of which 85-90 percent are from around the Chanthaburi and Trat region. Cross-border smuggling of gem stones has proliferated for years and was at one time the main source of income for the Khmer Rouge.

Trat province is also home to Thailand’s third largest rubber plantation. Rubber trees, though indigenous to South America, were introduced to Southeast Asia in the 19th century. Rubber is harvested in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand as natural rubber, collected from the Para tree in the form of latex. Almost half the rubber produced in the world is natural rubber, almost all of which comes from Asia. Thailand is one of the largest rubber producing countries, with rubber production most prevalent in the southern part of the country. Work on rubber plantation is labour intensive and can be unforgiving though probably less arduous than rice growing. The natural hazard with rice growing are crabs, whereas with rubber it’s the various species of pit viper (so-called for their heat-sensing pits located between the eyes and nostrils to detect prey) , sometimes referred to in Cambodia at least as the biological landmine because should you step on one its bite, coupled with lack of ready access to antivenom, usually results in the loss of the afflicted limb.

Because of its strategic location Trat has played an important part in the development of Siam’s economy and political and military stability from the reign of King Prasat Thong (ruled 1629-1655), the first monarch of the Fourth Dynasty during the Kingdom of Ayutthaya. He executed his predecessor and subjugated Cambodia, but at the cost of Siam’s northern provinces. After the invasion of Siam by the Burmese and the fall of the Kingdon of Ayutthaya in 1767, Trat became a buffer city and focus for rallying Siamese forces to overthrow the Burmese occupation of King Hsinbyushin (the “Lord of the White Elephant”). Burmese forces contained many Thais in their ranks, loyalties being tied to monarchs rather than to ethnicities, and the eventual expulsion of Burmese forces was due much to the threat to Burma from China and withdrawal of their key troops to Burma, as much as Thai military prowess. As a result of its maritime connections and strategic location, Trat township became home to a imx of ethnicities including an important community of Chinese merchants.

On Friday nights Trat holds a street market the length of Reak Maung Alley, which runs through the town from Trat Polytechnic to Sukhumvit Road, the town’s main drag. The street is closed to traffic and lined with stalls selling food mainly, but a bunch of other stuff usually found in street markets. Its very family orientated and as I walked through the crowds, I saw people from my bus at the Cambodia border. It being near to Christmas at the time of my visit there were carol singers and mock trees adorned with all the lights and decorations you’d find in Western countries. Half-way down the street there was a flash contemporary-designed house with a Harley in the garage and a large emblem of Liverpool Football Club affixed to the upper level. HOGs, nativity, and the Premier League all in one.

Trat doesn’t have tuk-tuks. At night the motorcycle taxi riders go home early. They have songthaews, but these do not operate the way they do in other Thai towns. Songthaews are adapted from a pick-up or a larger truck and used as a share taxi or bus. Found across the country these are usually coloured various shades of blue. In Trat these operate more like a taxi than a bus. They park up at strategic points across town and you tell them where you’re going and for a fixed price they will take you straight there. There’s no stopping for other passengers. Trouble is in Trat, these can be hard to find at night too.

Breakfast was at the Orchid Restaurant and Guesthouse on Reak Maung Alley run by a Belgian, a longtime Southeast Asia resident. The guesthouse is small as is the restaurant. His guests and customers were mainly Belgians or at least Dutch-speakers as I made the mistake of saying Flemish speaking, and I was quickly corrected. I mentioned that Belgium once had no government for months and the country continued on seemingly none the worse for wear. “We hold the record”, he said. “Longer even than in Iraq and they had a civil war”. His music of choice was mainly Blues, which got a tick from me. One day after my visit I looked up the Orchid’s reviews and they were divided, the owner seemingly a polarising figure. I thought his company fine and he had a lot of knowledge of the region acquired first hand.

He was obviously dug-in. He took care of making coffee, and his wife did all the cooking. While the espresso machine was whirring, he had his laptop on watching workers at this farm doing renovations. “I’ve got to keep an eye on them otherwise you never know what’s going on”. Like much that happens in Trat events across the border matter. He told me of two Frenchmen arrested in Kampot for murder, of which they were entirely innocent, he pointed out. He said the local cops obtaining their confessions utilising a number of tools from the CIA’s best playlist of interrogation techniques. Job done. Then he said their families in France pressured politicians to intervene and France sent out actual police detectives who proved in short time, that forensically it was impossible for the accused to have been the guilty party, so they were released and then high-tailed it out of the Kingdom of Wonder.

After my stay the first night near the river, I moved to the Artist Place guesthouse in town. They have six rooms on one side of Thana Charoen Road which runs parallel with Reak Maung Alley and a restaurant on the other side. The woman who made coffee and handled reception at 8am was cooking dinner at 8pm that night. “Long hours” I said to her and she rubbed her thumb and fingertips together in the universal hand signal for money. My room was invaded by ants so I had to move next door. The Artist Place has prints on the walls and painting easels inside in keeping with the artistic theme. The restaurant garden was full of old motorbikes, antiques by the looks of them, and much like the town itself, had a very relaxed feel.

Further down Thana Charoen Road towards the main road was another guesthouse, a family-run place as many of them are here. They’d just opened and only had three rooms. If I’d seen them first, I’d have gone there instead. There over a beer one evening I met Steyn, a Norwegian journalist who’d been living in Trat (or had lived there and had come back) for five years. He told me he’d helped the family get online with booking agencies and the like. He said they’d financed the whole venture themselves avoiding a mortgage. Trat is small so I’d seen Steyn (pronounced “Stain”) around town. He wore shorts and a leather hat. He always carried a should bag. Everything he wore was black. He had thick white legs with some wicked looking insect bites. He seemed to have a loose association with time. At one point he asked me what year it was. Not because he was absentminded, but because it didn’t seem to matter than much though as a journalist with deadlines, you’d assume it did sometimes. He asked me about Cambodia as he was heading there soon to meet some people making prosthetic limbs for a fraction of the costs in the West and to the same standard; the country sadly plagued by unexploded ordnance. “America” he said “they don’t pay their bills”. He was talking about the source and manufacture of much of that ordnance and how the USA hadn’t lifted a finger to help clean up the mess. His wife was a surgeon he said and they had almost emigrated to my country once. I asked how many languages he spoke and he replied “Only five” but that Danish was almost like Norwegian anyway, and that once you learn the formula of any language then it’s a matter of filling in the vocabulary. Maybe easier said than done, I’m sure.

On the corner of Rhak Maung Road and Tai Mai Alley is Trat market. Further down the alley is the night market. The first is mainly dry consumer goods like clothes and shoes and the second is a wet market with lots of food but some of the other also. Given I was losing weight I bought a belt in Trat market from a stall operated by a Khmer. The belt was the right size but I doubt it’d had come from a cow, but it did the job and cheap it was. Walking further along the alley I came across the first of the now legal marijuana cafes in Trat. This one though in confusion, was called Heroin. Thai authorities have decided to cash in and regulate the formerly illicit trade and consumption of this class C drug popular with visitors and locals alike.

There’s the local history at the rather marvellous looking Trat City Museum, a few minutes’ walk from Reak Maung Alley. Thailand, I notice doesn’t really “do” history. That is there’s not much of it about that’s obvious. They’ve been so busy modernising they haven’t kept much of anything older than a century and of these there’s temples and some municipal buildings and some of the older houses and here and there, fortifications. The museum is housed in a colonial-style wooden building on stilts with a 'Panya' style roof construction (a traditional architectural style characterized by a hip roof that slopes down on all four sides, with gables on two opposing sides) the building opened in 1921 and was originally designed to act as a town hall. At some point it had suffered a devastating fire but was restored to its original form. To enter you ascend the central staircase after leaving your shoes at the bottom. The main entrance is then down to the left along the veranda adorned with Trat’s flag, a white elephant on a red background. Inside it’s 30 baht (if I recall) to enter for foreigners (it’s free for locals) and is comfortably air-conditioned.

The museum works its way through the physical, anthropological, and cultural history of Trat town. It was interesting to see all the information on the markets of the town emphasizing the maritime and cross-border trading history of Trat. The area has a strong Khmer influence dating back as far as the 600s when Trat was known as Phaniat (sometimes Kawai). Trat (Tilata) was part of the ancient Chenla Empire, a vassal state of the Funan kingdom which preceded the Khmer Empire based at Angkor. Under the Kingdom of Ayutthaya Trat was referred to as Thung Yai, an important seaport in the kingdom, and a gateway of trade with foreign partners especially of China. Included in trade were: horns, hides, honey, eaglewood (also agarwood or the Wood of the Gods), cardamoms, pepper, and various other spices. Aside from its strategic location Trat was noted for its excellent mooring for ships and was a key defensive position for Siam in ongoing disputes with its neighbours.

A major theme of the museum is the commercial history of Trat, which was dominated by water. All the town’s markets were located on waterways: Talat Rim Khlong (Canal-side Market with a lot of Chinese products), Talat Yat (Major Market with spices), Talat Khwang (Cross Market for books, clothes, and gold), and Talat Tha Ruea Chang (Ferry Market). Later with the decline of the maritime transport and the rise in land transport saw the decline of many of these markets though some of the buildings remain.

More recent history highlighted conflicts, and their impacts. From 1975-1990 thousands of Cambodian refugees arrived in Trat Province fleeing civil war, ,genocide, and subsequent fighting between the Vietnamese occupation forces and the remnants of the Khmer Rouge. They lived in in camps administered by the Thai Red Cross mainly in the Meaung Trat district around the town and at the Ratchakarun Centre in Klong Yai district. Following military defeats by the Vietnamese Pol Pot moved to near Trat, where he lived in a compound known as K-18, protected by the Thai army, and where he could get his various medical conditions treated. By this time, he’d stopped wearing his black uniform and was attired in Thai-made green safari suits. Later he moved his headquarters north to the Thai border region with Pailin. Thailand has hosted more than one million refugees from different countries and ethnic groups, many now currently living in camps along the Thailand-Myanmar border.

Trat’s fate seems to be not as a destination but as a jumping off point but I suspect that the local hospitality industry will take what they can get. The tourists here are largely passing through to the islands and back again. Many are families, some are singles, and others couples of varying ages. The Trat Archipelago, is a group of 52 islands in Mu Ko Chang National Park. Most of the islands have no permanent inhabitants. Ko Chang is the third largest island in Thailand after Phuket and Ko Samui, and now a major hub for tourism in the area. It’s busy, most of the beaches and hotels are on the western side with the very southern end being much quieter. There are roads, hotels, convenience stores, wellness retreats, massage parlours, travel agents, souvenir shops, and restaurants. Pretty much everything that accompanies tourism in Thailand. Other islands popular with tourists include Ko Kood (or Ko Kut) one of the islands in dispute with Cambodia. and Ko Mak, named after the betel nut, or the local version of it. Ko Mak was first developed back in the mid-19th century as a coconut plantation. It’s the third largest island in the archipelago after Ko Chang and Ko Kood. There are no bars on the island, so not much nightlife, and the locals are trying to do without plastic as much as possible. They’re into recycling as much as possible, so good for them. The islands were once havens for pirates. Aside from the night market there’s not much night life in Trat but then people that visit aren’t really here for that. Like the half-a-hundred-islands, Trat is a place you pass through or come to relax and not be bothered by people, or things or events. Trat is a place you come to, to get away from it all.