After spending a couple of late morning hours exploring Photharam on my foldable e-bicycle, I found myself on an islet on the Mae Klong River that runs past the west side of the business district of this old town in Ratchaburi province. The seafood phad kaphrao and rice I had bought for breakfast but didn't have time to eat still looked tempting. With the cool tree shade, the refreshing river breeze and the tranquil natural surrounding, it was a splendid lunch.
Despite three major fires and all the changes that time has brought over the past decades, the charms of Photharam remain pretty much intact. Exploring the lively small town on foot is doable but with a bicycle, it’s more fun and facile. (Right photo by Tinakorn Pitak)
Despite having spent more time travelling than an average person over the past 31 years being a journalist, there are still so many places in Thailand that I never got the chance to visit. Photharam was one of them.
"Khon suai Photharam" is the first, and most remembered, phrase of Ratchaburi's extremely long motto. Obviously, it shows how much the province is proud of the beauty of Photharam's women. However, you never experience the true charms of this small town until you actually make a visit.
Photharam is roughly divided into three parts from north to south, namely Talat Bon (Upper Market), Talat Klang (Central Market) and Talat Lang (Lower Market). On the east side of the middle section, which seems to be the busiest, lies the town's namesake railway station. Most of the surviving wooden shophouses, however, can be found in Talat Bon and Talat Lang.
After the delightful lunch break, I set off again, this time with a better picture of the town. I dropped by houses and shops I had my eye on in the morning to have a chat with the people residing there. One of them was grandma Phayom who lives in a crumbling wooden shophouse in Talat Bon. What interested me was the writings that filled much of the front wall of her humble abode. This 91-year-old lady has been living by herself since 1979. Her hearing, understandably, was not so acute. But her friendliness and good temper were astonishing. She told me the messages she chalked on the walls were different kinds of thoughts that pop up in her head and she wished to share them with passersby. I don't know about you but I think grandma Phayom has her own form of social media that transcends the internet.
The more people I met in Photharam, the more I feel at home in this small town that throughout my three-decade-long career had never been included in my travel itinerary. Who knows, next time I visit I might run into somebody who's happy to sell a small piece of land that makes me another Photharam resident.
Since her early 20s, Sudajan Laohakit has been running her father’s Sathian Photo Studio, one of the oldest in Photharam. Five decades have passed and she still actively follows the profession she loves. Much of the shop remains in its original form although the vintage film camera is no longer in use. Like most photographers, Sudajan has long embraced digital technology.
Stroll through the old town of Photharam you’ll find not just century- and decades-old homes and shops but also the friendly locals and the slow-paced lifestyles that are no longer common in big cities. Usually, a smile is enough for you to instantly make new friends here and learn more about their hometown.
Photharam sits on the east bank of the Mae Klong River. Every morning and evening, the long waterside promenade is a popular recreational space for the townspeople who come to work out or chill out. On Saturday and Sunday evenings, this riverside area is full of people who gather to enjoy live performances by local musicians and other forms of entertainment, including all-you-can-eat, self-service, free coconut ice cream. Near the downstream end of the promenade, there is a small island in the river. You can get there via a metal bridge, which uses old speedboats as pontoons. The islet is a nice place to take refuge from the Sun’s heat.
Travelling to Photharam by train may not be as fast as by car. It takes from two to almost three hours, depending on which type of train you choose. Still, that’s not too long and the ride is far from boring. Along the way, you can enjoy the scenery of farmland in Bangkok’s western outskirts and Nakhon Pathom.
Next to the promenade is the town’s clock tower surrounded by food stalls where all sorts of goodies are available every day in the morning and again from late afternoon until after nightfall. Many visitors come here especially for thap tim krop (water chestnut with ice and coconut milk) sold at a stall on the north end of the area. However, my favourite was the bua loi kai khem (rice balls in warm coconut milk with salty egg yolk) on offer at the opposite end of the market.
Located 2.7km north of the town centre, Wat Khongkharam is one of the must-see temples in Photharam, apart from Wat Khanon, which is famous for shadow puppet conservation and Wat Sai (currently under restoration). The ubosot or ordination hall which is surrounded by Mon-style pagodas houses murals that date back to the early Rattanakosin period. The paintings depict not just the story of the Buddha but also people’s way of life over 250 years ago as well as the amazingly creative imagination of the artists. The temple also boasts a folk museum that I didn’t have time to check out because I had to rush back to the railway station to take pictures of an arriving train. If you wish to include Wat Khongkharam in your holiday plan, note that the ubosot and the museum are open only on Saturday, Sunday and other public holidays.
Drive-through never caught on in Bangkok but in Photharam, it has long been a common practice. A lot of the townspeople casually shop in markets without even bothering to leave the seat of their motorcycles. Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans. I also did it on my bicycle and felt kind of like a local.
Among the products that Photharam is long known for are kapok mattresses and taohu dam (black tofu). The first used to be common in Thai households and Photharam was one of the country’s top kapok mattress producers. These days there are still a few workshops left. The picture shown here was taken at Aree shop, one of the town’s most famous mattress makers quite a while ago. These days, the owner has sold all her stock of mattresses and is planning to quit. The taohu dam, on the other hand, is still a popular souvenir among visitors to Photharam. The shops are located on Ratsadon Uthit Road. If you can’t wait until you get home to try the tofu, maybe you can do like I did. Just bring it to one of the cooked-to-order food stalls around the clock tower nearby and ask the chef to turn it into phad kaphrao or anything you wish. (Right photo courtesy of Onjira Amornrittikun)
Like the Chao Phraya, Mae Klong flows into the northern part of the Thai gulf. But here the water is much cleaner. In Photharam, you can find a number of resorts lining both sides of the serene waterway, some also offer facilities for swimmers.
TRAVEL INFO
Photharam is about 80km west of Bangkok and 22km north of downtown Ratchaburi. Public transportation from Bangkok includes Ratchaburi buses from the Southern Bus Terminal, public vans from Pin Klao or trains from either Bangkok or Thon Buri stations.
