The tall tower in Chalermphatara Rachinee Park

Suphanburi is one of those places which is a bit off the beaten path. It doesn’t receive many foreign tourists and if you do see a foreigner there, then it is probably either our “steve suphan” or someone else working at a local school. It is about equal distance from Kanchanaburi and Bangkok. I have never stopped in the town before though I did visit Don Chedi a few years back to the see the famous monument for King Naresuan. I went there again last weekend at the invitation of Steve to visit his local town and also to attend the nearby annual Don Chedi Fair. From Bangkok, it takes about two hours to drive there along the outer ringroad (highway 9) and then on highway 340.

One of Thailand's greatest heroes was King Naresuan, the warrior king. When he was only nine years old, he was handed over to the Burmese as a kind of hostage when his father lost a battle. It was traditional in those days to do this in order to keep the defeated subdued. Young Naresuan spent most of his informative years in Burma where his likeable personality and excellent fighting skills made him a favourite of the Burmese king. However, Naresuan never forgot his Thai roots. When an opportunity arose, he returned to Thailand where he declared independence from the Burmese. After a series of battles the final showdown came in Suphan Buri on January 25th, 1592. King Naresuan, who was sitting atop a war elephant, spotted the Crown Prince of Burma. They had been childhood friends. Both elephants charged towards each other. After several minutes of hand-to-hand combat, the Crown Prince was fatally stabbed with a lance. With their leader dead, the Burmese troops retreated and didn't return to Thailand for a very long time.

Today saw the start of the Chinese New Year. It is on days like these that you clearly see how many Thai people have Chinese ancestors. A lot. Just walk around the market area of Paknam and you will see many of the smaller shops closed for the holiday. It is fair to say Chinese people are very hard workers and this is the only time you will see the shutters of these shops closed during the day. For many people in Thailand, this weekend was dominated with the sound of firecrackers. These are extremely loud and are supposed to scare off evil spirits. I would think they did a  pretty good job.

Just go to any old forum or website about travelling and you’ll come across a plentitude of questions, stories and reports concerning ‘getting off the beaten track’. But, at the end of the day however, most tourists/travellers do nothing of the sort. They are instead, found eating a banana pancake and watching a guesthouse DVD/Movie or walking around some backpacker ghetto studying their Lonely Planet like a missionary. While nearly every single backpacker 'claims' to be ‘getting off the beaten track’ the closest they get to such a thing are the same old haunts of Khao Sarn Road, Koh Samui and Krabi. A few of the so-called adventurous even make it up to the country’s north-east (Isarn), the least visited region of Thailand, but contrary to rumour you will still come across whole platoons of foreigners - mostly living there.

Our webmaster here, Mr Richard, has written loadsa blogs on his adopted province of Samut Prakarn, but as for me however, my almost one year of Thai blogs has seen me fail to write a single story about the place I live at, Suphanburi. Even Richard’s province of Samut Prakarn, though it is kinda off the beaten track it still attracts a lotta foreign tourists to the likes of The Ancient City and Crocodile Farm etc… As for Suphanburi, 99% of the tourists here are Thai and I can count on my fingers the number of backpackers I have spotted during my couple of years here. So, if you are really thinking about ‘getting off the beaten track’, then coming to a place like Suphanburi is doing just that. So, let me take the opportunity this week to give you a bitta insight into..... the province of.... Suphanburi.