Buddhist Archives - Thinglish Lifestyle

Budthamonthon can be found near Trat ‘Green’ City, a small but busy market town in Trat Province (population 20K) in the South-East of Thailand between the Gulf of Thailand and the Khao Ban That mountains that form a natural border with Cambodia. It is approximately 300km from the capital, Bangkok.

To find your way around Trat, here’s a map courtesy of our friends at The Koh Chang Guide.

The Koh Chang archipelago of 52 islands also lies in Trat province and includes the beautiful islands and national parks of Koh Mak and Koh Kood.

We recently moved from Koh Chang Island to mainland Trat province and have been busy developing our homestead and permaculture food forest.

As regular visitors to Trat we thought we knew it well. How wrong we were!

In the short time we have been living in the area we have found many places of interest in and around the city so we decided to write a series of blog posts here on Thinglish Lifestyle imaginatively titled; ‘Discover Trat’.

Trat is one of the three Thai provinces that have been earmarked for substantial economic investment for tourism as part of the ASEAN development. So if you are looking to discover all about Trat, you are in the right place.

This is the first post in the Discover Trat series, enjoy!

Discover Trat: Budthamonthon Park

To find Budthamonthon, drive about 5km out of Trat City along the Sukhumvit Road (Route 3) towards Chanthaburi – Bangkok. On the right side is a 9.9 meter high golden statue of Buddha standing within a giant lotus flower.

What does it mean? In Buddhism people are compared to the lotus…

Some are very wise, with minimal defilement, ready to attain enlightenment whenever exposes to Dharma, similar to the lotus flowers above the water readily bloom upon exposure to the sunlight.
Some are wise, with little defilement, yet need more training to attain enlightenment, similar to the lotus flowers at the water surface will bloom on the next day.
Some with fair amount of defilement need more instructions and training to become wiser and be ready to attain enlightenment, similar to the lotus flowers under the water, waiting more time to grow above the water level to bloom during the successive days to follow.
Some are full of defilement, with a dull mind, not possible to attain enlightenment, similar to the lotus flowers in the mud under the water, will be eaten by fishes and turtles.

We have drove past this local landmark countless times and recently decided to take a Sunday afternoon stroll around the park.

The entrance draws you in to the Buddha statue that dominates the skyline. The surrounding park is spacious and cool with many mature trees and pagodas to take a rest under or seek cover from the sun or rain. We get plenty of both in this area of Thailand!

The tranquil lakes are a haven for wildlife and local people come to sit quietly in contemplation, feed the fish or twitch (bird watch).

If you are looking for a quite place to retreat for a few hours away from the sprawling metropolis of Trat, pay a visit to Budthamonthon park. We would certainly recommend it.

The King of Thailand

On the back of the wall of bells of Budthamonthon is an art instillation dedicated to the late King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, who passed on 13 October 2016 after reigning 70 years and 126 days. King Rama IX at the time of his death was the world’s longest reigning monarch and we dedicate this blog post to his memory.

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Discover Trat – Budthamonthon

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The Start of Construction – Groundworks

Heading into the rainy season isn’t the best time to start construction in Thailand. Once the heaven’s open up and start to deluge the parched land there is no let up for 3 or 4 months.

Fortunately for us (at the time of writing) we have been very lucky with the rain missing our land during the first stages of building our footings. The groundworks has been prepared and twenty three posts have been built on our plot and in a few weeks, once they are fully set, our 4 shipping containers will be lowered on to them.

At the this stage in the building process, we have also had water and electricity brought on to the land and the septic tank has been buried.

To keep costs down, we decided to use two construction teams. The first is in Bangkok and are cutting, painting and preparing the four shipping containers. The second is a local team from Trat province. The saving we made on the first phase of construction essentially paid for a new kitchen we are having designed and built. The bespoke kitchen is being designed in Chanthaburi, our neighboring province.

It’s a Thai Thing

You may notice a certain gentleman, (no it’s not one of the Bee Gees) on the mudflap of the cement truck. If you have been to Thailand for even a short amount of time, you will have seen this familiar face on many a truck.

Thai’s are a superstitious lot who adorn themselves in amulets, have their cars blessed by monks, have spirit houses outside their houses and a host of other shrines and Buddhist imagery.

Truck drivers in Thailand have adopted the image of the legendary actor Al Pacino from the 1973 film ‘Serpico’ to protect them from corrupt police officers. In the film, Pacino played an undercover police officer fighting corruption in the NYPD, specifically targeting officers ‘on the take‘. Here’s a short clip of Serpico doing what he does best…

Serpico (1973) – Al Pacino Loses His Shit Scene

Thai truckers don’t have Frank Serpico mudflaps for good luck but to discourage the attention of corrupt Thai police officers.

Construction in Thailand – Get Ya Boots On!