Samut Prakan - Greater Bangkok At Its Best
Samut Prakan: Bangkok's Weird Neighbor Who's Actually Cooler Than You Think Let me introduce you to Samut Prakan, Bangkok's neglected neighbor that everyone drives through on the way to somewhere else. It's like that friend-of-a-friend who seems boring until you discover they have a secret life as a competitive fire dancer. Samut Prakan province sits at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, whose name you'll mispronounce no matter how hard you try. The locals call it " Pak Nam ," which literally means "mouth of water," which is both poetically simple and geographically accurate. Unlike most tourist descriptions in Thailand, this one actually makes sense. Paknam: Where the River Meets the Sea (and History Gets Weird) Paknam is the historic heart of Samut Prakan, and it comes with its own bizarre backstory. Back in 1893, France and Siam (old-timey Thailand) had a little disagreement called the " Paknam Incident ." French warships tried sa...