The fishing village of Khlong khon
Looking for a fun close to Bangkok? There is a small fishing village only 75 km away from the capital city and takes only an hour to travel to there. It is Khlong khon village, located in south-west of Bangkok in Samut songkram province.
The activities for visitors relate with the villagers’ lifestyle. They are fun, recreational and at the same time is also the very good learning opportunity about the rural Thai culture. The unique thing about this place is that the people here use what they have in their community to offer to visitors, or adapt some activities so that they will be fun more fun to do or participate.
It could be a little bit tricky to go there if you do not speak Thai or have Thai friends so using tour operators or contact directly with the villagers who run the tours or have homestays might be the good options.
Once arrive there, activities could be organized through one of the local operators without any booking in advance (or it would be good also to book the tour in advance as well, just in case). The package usually includes long tail boat with life jackets, lunch + snacks, local guide (limited English and could be the boat man too) and different activities. The prices vary, depending on the number of people joining the tour. However, prices are very reasonable and fair for customers. The boat leaves the pier and goes along the canal where people make their simple houses with tall poles because of the tides, and it goes through the mangrove forest where the monkeys live. It is fun to observe the behaviors of those monkeys and is also possible to feed them from the distant too. They are not aggressive; however visitors should not tease them and should behave in the more respectful ways too. The tour continues to the muddy mangrove where visitors can help planting the trees. After that, the boat will go out to the ocean where the villagers have their scallop and clam farms. Huge very tasty seafood lunch with different dishes can be served at one of the floating huts. With cool breeze and delicious food one can imagine it as a paradise. The food can be a bit spicy though. After lunch, either take a rest/ nap or continue to do the 2 other activities which are the fun water ski and mud boarding to find snail shells hiding/ living in the mud.
For those who still have a lot of energy left, other activities can be kayaking, fishing or swimming. Some homestays do have the small water parks open to visitors as well. For those who have more times, it is also nice to relax and stay overnight there too.