Chonburi

Chonburi (ชลบุรี) is both a city and a province in Eastern Thailand, 83 km or two hours from Bangkok. Chonburi, or "Mueang Chon", has been a popular seaside town of the eastern coast for a long time. It is also an agricultural site of economic plants such as sugar cane, cassava and Para rubber trees, as well as a location of the Eastern Seaboard Development Project and significant industrial factories.

Understand
From historical evidence, Chonburi has been settled since the Ayutthaya period. Originally, it comprised of many small towns such as Mueang Bang Sai, Mueang Bang Pla Soi, and Mueang Bang Phra. Later, King Rama V combined these towns together into Chonburi Province.

By car
There are many routes from Bangkok to Chonburi as follows:
 * 1) Hwy34, Bang Na-Trat to Chonburi.
 * 2) Hwy 304, Bangkok-Minburi, passing Chachoengsao province-Bang Pakong into Chonburi.
 * 3) Take the old route of Sukhumvit Rd, Hwy 3, passing Samut Prakan Province to the intersection of Bang Pakong District. Enter Hwy 34 to Chonburi.
 * 4) Take the motorway, Hwy 7, Bangkok-Chonburi-(Pattaya). Tel. 1193, +66 38 392001.

By train
From Hualamphong Railway Station, there is 1 daily train running to Phlu Ta Luang Railway Station in Chonburi. For further information, Tel. 1690, +66 2 2204444, +66 2 2224334 or Thailand State Railway.

By bus
The best way to get to Chonburi is to get a bus from the bus terminal of the Bangkok Airport Suvarnaphumi. A free shuttle bus orbits around the clock between the arrival terminal of the airport and the bus terminal. From the bus terminal it is 85 km to Chonburi and takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes.

From the Eastern Bus Terminal (Ekamai), there are many air-conditioned buses to Chonburi from 05:00-21:00 every 40 minutes, Tel. +66 2 3919829. Second-class air-conditioned buses leave from 05:30-21:00 every 30 minutes. Tel. +66 2 3912504. Non air-conditioned buses leave Ekamai every 30 minutes from 05:00-21:00. Tel. +66 2 3912504. There are also air-conditioned buses leaving the Bangkok Bus Terminal (Mo Chit 2). Air-conditioned buses take the motorway from 06:30-18:30. Tel. +66 2 9362852-66.

Additionally, there are private buses departing from the Southern Bus Terminal. Air-conditioned buses to Pattaya run daily along the Bang Na Trat route and stop at the Rot Rungrueng Company Ltd's air-conditioned bus terminal on Pattaya Nuea Rd. They leave from 05:30–18:00 every 2 hours. Tel. +66 2 8845582 or Pattaya Branch at Tel. +66 38 429877.

Eat




Food Vendors, Street Food in Thailand

Street vendors offer food that is cooked naturally by residents. Some restaurants tweak their recipe for tourists, but if you want a true taste of Thailand street vendors are recommended. Also very cheap and delicious.

Enterprising food vendors set up clusters of stalls, transforming major street corners, empty lots and alleys into lively food bazaars. Many are mobile, peddling from one area to another on tricycles and motorcycles with fixtures attached, or pushing mini-kitchens around on wooden carts. More modest are hawkers on foot, bearing filled baskets balanced on a wooden yoke upon one shoulder. Along the klong (canals) and waterways, sellers paddle their mini-shops from home to home, offering "boat noodles," curries over rice and an assortment of kanom (sweetmeats and snack foods).

Nibbling on street food is an inexpensive way to dine out in Thailand. You can fill yourself at lunch for 30 baht, and spend not much more for a hearty, well-balanced supper of several courses. A refreshing mid-morning or mid-afternoon snack can cost the same or less. But the low price does not indicate a low quality of food. In fact, a lot of street cuisine is very good and rivals some of the more refined gourmet restaurants, and the variety to choose from is immense, including many wonderful treats rarely seen on restaurant menus. Among these are traditional delicacies that are complicated to make and labour intensive that many street vendors are able to give owing to their specialisation in only one or a few items. They become experts at cooking their specialties, after having done it every day for years, and often become well-known and patronised in their area of the city.

Bangkokians are known to travel great distances in horrible traffic to particular corners of the city, where an "aunt" or "uncle," "grandma", or "grandpa" makes the best of this or that. Some of the city's most affluent citizens can be seen mingling with the crowds or sitting next to labourers in tattered clothes on rickety stools around well-worn tables. The vendors need no advertising other than their products, as news of good food spreads quickly in a culture with a highly cultivated sense of taste.

Consulates

 * 🇷🇴 Romania