Trat Province

Trat (Thai: ตราด, pronounced [tràːt]) is the easternmost province (changwat) of Thailand. It has borders with Chanthaburi Province to the northwest, Cambodia to the east, and the Gulf of Thailand to the south. Trat is 315 km from Bangkok.

Trat is most famous for gemstone mining and trading.

History

The history of Trat can be traced back to the early 17th century during the reign of King Prasat Thong of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Formerly known as Mueang Thung Yai, Trat has played an important role in the development of the country’s stability and economy due to its strategic location. The town of Trat later become a community of Chinese merchants.

After the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese in 1767, Trat served as a checkpoint and buffer city and was responsible for providing provisions to King Taksin the Great before he moved his forces from Chanthaburi to Ayutthaya. King Taksin then succeeded in driving out the Burmese invaders and liberated the kingdom from foreign rule.

In the Rattanakosin era, during the Paknam crisis in 1893, French troops landed and occupied the western part of Chantaburi Province. In 1904, Siam was forced to surrender Trat to French Indochina in order to regain Chantaburi. Three years later, however, finding that Trat with its almost entirely Thai population was hard to rule, the French returned Trat to Thailand on March 23, 1907, in exchange for larger areas along the Mekong river, which included Battambang, Siam Nakhon, and Sisophon, which all have a Khmer majority population.

Trat

Trat is a town in Thailand, capital of Trat Province and the Mueang Trat district. The town is in the east of Thailand, at the mouth of the Trat River, near the border with Cambodia.

Climate

Travel and Accommodation

Trat is at the south-east end of Sukhumvit Road, which connects it with Chanthaburi, Rayong, Chonburi, and Bangkok.

Trat Airport serves tourists who travel directly from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Ko Chang without passing through the town.

Trat town is the main centre for road travellers to the eastern islands of Thailand including Ko Chang, Ko Mak, and Ko Kood. There is regular bus service, taking 4–5 hours, to Bangkok Ekkamai for downtown Bangkok and Bangkok Mo Chit for other destinations in Thailand. Many tourists stop over in Trat before going to the islands from Laem Ngop or Leam Sok (15–20 km from Trat. There are ferry and speedboat services to the eastern islands, Ko Chang and Ko Kood.

Trat is also a transit point for people travelling to Cambodia, as it is a 90 kilometer minibus ride to the border at Hat Lek. After crossing the border there is a short journey to Koh Kong and service to Sihanoukville by road or by sea.