One Day in Suphanburi : A simple city with long history and interesting local life

Suphanburi is number 22nd of provinces in central of Thailand. And use to be one of very important province for Thailand's history since long time ago. Now this area become farmer area, you can see less building but huge area of rice field,vegetable farm, flower farm and fruit farm. This province is simple and might not well known for tourist but there are many hidden things there waiting for visitors.

After raining for few days we decided that today we should go somewhere not too far from Bangkok and because this is rainy season so Suphanburi should be good option to go for green area and variety of foods.

I checked weather forecast this morning and seem that today is good day for us. We three leaving Bangkok around 9 am.

We heading from Bangkok using the road no. 345 from Don Muang district to connect with road no.340 which is very beautify road. There are lots of trees along the way and the road condition is very easy for driving.

We stoped at a gas station for relax and get some drink. And I can tell you that this gas station is strongly recommend to drop on the way on this road. The parking area are large and there are lots of shops for finger food, fruit, snack, drink etc., and most of all the toilet are very clean. The cleanest toilet which I found from my experience of travel in Thailand. Local people call this gas station "Banhan's gas station"

I like their idea to built 2 zone of toilet. VIP toilet is just a name and you have to pay THB 20/person if you want to use this air-con toilet which a bit expensive. But the money will go to the foundation and donate for school and public benefit. So, I go for that one and paid THB 20 as a donation. However, I also checked the normal toilet with free of charge and I found that they are also very clean.

And in the gas station area, they provided tourist map and information for tourist.

After left the gas station we heading on the road no.340 to Suphanburi.

And along this road you can see many stalls selling same things and this time we saw they selling nut grass and water chestnut.

We took around 1.30hrs to reach to first stop which is a very famous temple name "Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan"

1st Stop - Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan

Wat Pa Lelai Worawihan is one of the most famous temple in this province. There is big Buddha image inside the sanctuary which Thai people come to pray and make a wish.

We were lucky to see some people came to temple with some eggs,flowers and some foods. Some of them said that they made a wish here and their wish come true and beside of the foods we saw there are some Thai girls wearing Thai traditional dress and dancing in front of the sanctuary. They said that is one of activity to show that their wish come true and to thank to the Buddha image which made their wish come true. It is a believe.

2nd Stop - Sam Chuk the 100 years market

After temple then we are heading to the market "Sam Chuk a 100 years market" which located around 20 minutes away from temple on road no.340. You can reach to this market from many road but if you come from Bangkok I suggest you come on the same road with me.

Finally we reached to the market. We parked the car in front of another local market which is free of charge. Some parking charge you around THB 20/car so if you follow on my road it will lead you to this free of charge parking area.

Just few steps to the market we start buying things as there are lots of interesting finger food look yummy. I started with Thai dessert which made from the yellow palm mix with power and then boil it and eat with coconut.

The taste is good, a bit sweet from the palm fruit without additional sugar. I bough 2 boxes for my sister.

Not far from that shop we saw they selling jumbo pork ball and pork ball noodle. We agreed to have lunch here as I love noodle.

The taste of the noodle at Nisa noodle shop is very good. I like their soup and yes their pork ball also yummy so we bought 1 kg after finish noodle.

Walking a few minutes I saw an authentic coffee shop. I'm not a coffee lover (however I love to go to Star Buck for their pomegranate ice tea with pearl) but I love to try coffee from the local shop. The shop owner is so kind, he invited me to stand close to him and asked some staff to take photo of me and him and you can see how it look like. He is so nice guy and his coffee also very good.

We still keep walking into the market and another shop that we stop is a ice flak which showing interesting menu and finally we decided to try.

My menu is orange,kiwi with red syrup and condensed milk on ice flak. So nice!! This shop is located a few steps from the coffee shop which I mentioned above in case that you want to try.

Before we left this shop, i notice some wording on the yellow wall. And you can see it behind of me, that's "Yellow" by Cold Play one of my favorite band.

After ice flak we walked pass a fried pork shop and this is one of my sister's favorite menu. She love to eat it with sticky rice, I bough half kilogram around THB 200. I tried a small piece, the taste is good.

Actually, all of us was not plan to buy lots of thing from this market. But you can see how many bags he carrying and another 2 including me are carry the same.

3rd Stop - Buffalo Village

After left Sam Chuk market we heading down to Buffalo Village. I heard that there are more than 60 buffalo and some of my friend said that buffalo here can smile.

They have schedule of buffalo show.

Normally, the animal show is not my favorite but this time I want to see as I want to know how and what will buffalo show. And if we want to see the show then we can pay later with another THB 30/person.But our time was not match with their show schedule. So, we missed it.

Staff there told us that they have more than 60 buffalo in this place and they take care them closely. I saw almost 10 white buffalo there. And beside of buffalo show, they also have sample of Thai houses, small resort in case that some tourist would like to stay overnight there. After the show and walked around the village then we move to next stop (as today we planed to get 4 stops in this province). We consider between temple and some nice place. We finally decided to go to "Na Hia Chai" the new concept of farm tour.

4th Stop - Na Hai Chai

This place from out side look like just coffee shop and restaurant and some souvenir shops. But after we order drink and sit next to the glass window we saw the huge rice field outside. And after we listen to staff at the coffee shop explain about this project, this is fantastic project of a farmer who want to help and support his community and neighbors with the good quality of seeds and rice sprouts to improve their products.

They said that they also have farm tour activities which tourist can try to join activities such as making Thai dessert, making salted eggs from organic duck farm, plant the rice, having lunch in the rice field. Unfortunately, we do not have enough time to try those activities but I might go again.

We have done 4 stops in Suphanburi today and now heading back to Bangkok. But I think we still have time and start finding some place to drop by on the way home. And I found the nice place name "Rim-Na Cafe" then we will drop one more place.

RIM-NA CAFE

From Suphanburi you can take road no.340 and you can turn right when you saw the sign to Don Chedi district. This cafe located on the right after you turn right and you can notice easily.

Here they have rooms, restaurant and small cafe name "Rim-Na Cafe" We went direct to the cafe as I want to try their signature menu.

While we were waiting for our snacks we were enjoy photo shooting with the green rice field.

Because this is rainy season so every rice field are green. And when you sitting next to the green rice field and enjoy snacks with good drink is very good relax time.

First menu is watermelon on top with dry fish meat mix with deep fried red onion and some brown sugar. The cold and sweet watermelon from refrigerator eat with topping make the high temperature cool down.

And another menu is "Miang" the ingredient are dry roasted slice coconut meat,dry shrimp,roasted bean,ginger,red onion,chili,lemon and on top with sweet nutty sauce wrap with lotus flower.

This is one of my favorite Thai snack. Normally, they use green leaf to wrap all ingredient but I guess that some people do not like smell of that leaf so they change to be lotus flower and actually this flower make this menu more beautiful.

We finished all snacks and then leaving to Bangkok. We completed this one day tour with full of local foods,snacks,drinks and I got lots of souvenir for friend.

Special thanks to this guy who go along with me for this trip and he tried all the foods which I order and moreover he walked more than 10,000 steps today (he is 70 years old). Love him.

You can follow my program or you can add or remove some place. Suphanburi is not too big province so you can reach fro place to place around 30 minutes - 1 hour.

By the way, we already planed for next trip....