Bang Saen

Bang Saen is always overcrowded at weekends when people from nearby Bangkok come in their thousands to relax on the sandy but desperately overcrowded beaches (and all the accommodation is taken up). "Ocean World", an American-style leisure park complete with swimming pools, opened on the promenade a few years ago.

The ship-like Luk Sam Po Chinese temple (north of the town, best reached by the coast road) was built as a memorial to the victims of a disaster which took place when a ship carrying Chinese immigrants sank off the Thai coast in a heavy storm. The sole survivor not only built the temple but also founded a religious order with very strict rules - which probably accounts for its failure for a number of years now to attract novice monks.Grouped around the central pagoda are some "ship's cabins", little houses which continue to be occupied by one or two monks and nuns. Note also the monks' quarters outside the temple complex itself, built in the form of small fishing boats.The monastery possesses two small-scale reproductions of the chedi at Nakhon Pathom, the most revered chedi in Thailand. Buddhists come from all over the world to visit Luk Sam Po, but ordinary visitors are made welcome too.

Bangkok Education College's interesting Scientific Marine Center (in the inner courtyard of the College) exhibits numerous species of fish found in the Gulf of Thailand.

Very pleasantly situated on a rocky hill, Bang Saen's modern 18-hole golf course is considered one of Thailand's most beautiful.

Among places of interest further afield are a freshwater lake (dam) and a small temple with a square, tiled tower.