Trat

This is based on my very brief visit to Trat in May 2024, and I wrote it immediately after. If you want more visuals you can see my wife’s Instagram reel on the town.

I was in Trat for less than 24 hours before going to Ko Chang where the amazing Year of the Durian tour began. Stopping in Trat before going to Ko Chang seems to be the primary reason people go, and I won’t say I have a better reason to go, but it’s a cute little town that I’m glad I got to stop in. I love small towns like this in Thailand that don’t have much going on but have a good dose of old world charm while still being surprisingly modern and comfortable, though the May weather was rough. (A similar class of town in India might have a similar level of charm and possibly more of historical and architectural interest but otherwise would be fairly unpleasant to actually be in). We walked down some cute lanes, ate good food, worked from a very nice cafe, went to a nice museum, saw some fun street art, spent very little money, and had enough air conditioned establishments to evade the heat. What more do you really want out of a place? I don’t feel a need to revisit, but if I had to spend more time here for some reason I certainly wouldn’t mind. 

We stayed at Baan Rim Naam, a nice, well located, and reasonably priced hotel (I paid around $25) with balconies overlooking the canal. 

I actually didn’t see a single other white person in Trat, which is fairly unusual in Thailand. I didn’t even see anyone else who appeared to be a tourist.

I only stayed in the town, but there are nearby villages and foresty areas that seem worth exploring if you have more time and preferably a car. Here’s a short guide on the region by Michelin, and here is one by the Thai tourism board. Both have some good recommendations for things to do around the region. The chicken coop spa sounds awesome, more info here, and I’d love to go to the salak (snake fruit) plantations one day. Those guides should also have better food recommendations than I have for most people (since I’m vegetarian).

Trat is an old trade post with a strong Thai Chinese character, though it’s a fairly diverse region. On the way to Ko Chang we drove by a cute looking Cham Muslim village which would have been fun to stop in if I had more time. There’s also a small Vietnamese community in Trat, as reflected by a well regarded Vietnamese restaurant in the town. 

I admittedly didn’t do much research before coming as I was quite busy, but I’m not sure I missed anything. There’s not a ton to do or see, but it has character and I enjoyed its sleepiness. There are pretty canals with lots of greenery and a few lanes of old wooden houses (walk down Thana Charoen road and Rhak Muang alley on the west side of the bridge, plus some connecting sois and nearby streets, if you wish). I only later saw on the map that the canal has a walkway too. There’s a day market and a night market, both fun as always. The Chinese City Pillar shrine is very cool and worth a visit. I didn’t go to any of the temples as they required more walking out of the way than I wanted to do in the May heat, but Wat Buppharam is very old and looked fun, with a small museum on the premises.

The Trat museum is quite nice (and air conditioned!), a good way to spend half an hour or so to learn a little about the region and its history. I especially enjoyed seeing some of the ceramics found in shipwrecks nearby, and learning about the French occupation of the region for a few years in the early 20th century. It’s in an old (but rebuilt) city hall building which is kind of cool. The former residence of the French governor still stands as well and is cool to see, it’s called Residang Gamport Residence on Google Maps, on a street full of cute old buildings that you’ll probably walk through anyway.

If you are not vegetarian and are into food, you should have many interesting local specials to try, so seek out some recommendations elsewhere. Still, Even as a vegetarian we ate some very good food, and the places we ate should appeal to everyone. 

We walked into Kiew Nong Bua Trat Original Egg Noodle & Wonton on the main road (Sukhumvit! We started our journey to Trat that very morning on that very road…) to see what they had, and sure enough they had a small vegetarian menu with four dishes: a veg version of their signature egg noodles, a smaller egg noodle that they served cold in a Japanese style noodle salad with wasabi and ginger, fried rice, and spring rolls. We went with the two noodles which were both really delicious, and the freshness of the noodles really stood out, with a slight eggy flavor and a nice bite to them. The restaurant is quite nice, too. It’s been around since the 70s, starting as a small cart, and still has its character even as it has scaled up. They claim to be the region’s original egg noodle maker. I liked that the restaurant opens up to the road with no doors, but is still air conditioned on the inside, and they sell some homemade products like sauces and noodles in addition to some other local stuff. Nice bathroom, too.

We had looked at some other cafes to work from for a few hours, but the restaurant also happened to have a cafe on the second floor called Second Cafe which we hadn’t found on the map earlier. We decided to work from there and it was very nice! Spacious and comfortable, good wi-fi, and good quality coffee. I recommend the coffee mixed with fresh squeezed orange juice. Great place to work or just hang out and avoid the sun, and they were open until 8pm which is later than most cafes in town.

I just discovered the noodle shop and the cafe have opened in Bangkok in a very pretty space at Wang Lang. Very cool to hear, I will definitely visit next time!

The only other food we had was at Pad Thai Pra Tu Mhee, which is basically in someone’s house. I rarely eat pad thai since I always search for more interesting dishes, but as a vegetarian it’s a convenient option when there’s little else around. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s the first pad thai I’d had in nine months or so, but I thought it was great! The young guy running the restaurant and cooking the food was nice too. 

One last food stop we had for a late breakfast the next day was a locally famous grilled banana made by an old lady. Located on Google Maps as ร้านกล้วยปิ้งป้านา. Was it all in my head, influenced by charm of the old house and the old lady, or did the bananas have a nicer fragrance, a better combo of crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, and a more perfectly balanced sweet/salty caramelized coconut sauce than any other grilled banana I’ve had? Maybe it was all in my head, I don’t know, but either way, recommended! She sells some other snack stuff as well but I didn’t try anything since the language barrier meant I didn’t know what anything was.

For vegetarians, there was a fairly nice looking J-restaurant on Google Maps called ร้านเจเทียนซิน. I didn’t go though as I got in too late for lunch the first day and left too early for lunch the second day, and I don’t usually eat much at breakfast. 

Since my wife is into coffee, we went to one more coffee place about a ten minute walk from the museum called Sukniyom Brewing Bar. Nice place (though too small to work from), good house roasted coffee, and they sold something that translated to “antique donuts” which were very good, even as somebody who dislikes most sweets. 

If we were there another night we would have checked out a place near the lake called ร้านลุงป้าบ้านล่าง1991 which looked good to work from, and seemed to have good food though we called and they said they don’t have vegetarian food other than dessert. I always like walking around lakes in Thailand too.

Also, we found a local bean to bar chocolate maker called Anarchy Chocolate. My wife reached out on their Instagram asking if they sell their bars anywhere in town. Normally they sell at a restaurant called Joy’s Pizza but they were having some issues with their fridge at the time so the chocolate maker met us to deliver chocolate herself and even gave us some mangosteen from her organic farm. It was nice to meet her and a fun experience! She said next time we come to Trat we should come visit the farm. They grow cacao on their farm, though the chocolates they make are a mix of their own beans and beans they source from other farms because they don’t produce enough cacao at the moment to make into bars around the year. The range of bars that they have is limited, surprisingly only very dark bars and one that would have been too sweet. We got an 85% bar which was surprisingly pleasant and not very bitter, and the 100% was great for making beverages out of. Perhaps they’ll have expanded a bit by the time you read this. Definitely worth checking out for chocolate fans.