Page 63 - OST April 2020

Story and photos by Somsak Lumpongpan
Pak Nam Prasae is one of the tourism communities of Amphoe Klaeng, Rayong where the local people’s way of life has made a living from fishery for a long time. The community’s story has been connected to the livelihood along the culture, bonding with the rivers, sea, and mangrove forest surrounding their own area.
Today, the community has retained its identity that possesses the way of life, a cluster of houses including old wooden houses, of which each of them is still a residence, shop, and restaurant. The market fair is held in the middle of the community and some parts of the houses have been adapted to be accommodation in the form of a homestay by presenting the people’s way of life, nostalgic atmosphere of the houses, shops, market and fishery activities as tourism selling points.
Connectivity among the attractions in the area has also been utilized; for example, rafting on the Prasae River, watching Brahminy kites, or exploring the Thung Prong Thong nature trail. This is a popular route that connects to the HTMS Prasae Memorial.
The community offers a wide range of tourism activities. Prasae Sin Bridge is a bridge crossing over the Prasae River and part of the Eastern tourism route along the coastline named “Chaloem Burapha Chonlathit” Road, which is also ideal for a cycling route to see the Prasae Sin Bridge, Ban Kao Community, Prince of Chumphon Shrine or Hat Laem Son, Wat Sommuttithep Thapanaram built under the command of King Rama V the Great, and Wat Takhian Ngam, a temple featuring Hopea odorata or a Takhian tree, an approximately 500-year-old tree that is considered to be a national heritage.
Pak Nam Prasae Community has created the tourism dynamic, which has been developed in patterns. It is a form of lively community-based tourism. Despite having been replaced by the growth of the city that has made the original way of the community’s life become faded away, we have a hope that the breath of the community will last for a long time.
Pak Nam
Prasae Community and the breath of the way of life