Pattaya & the Eastern Seaboard

The eastern coast was a string of fishing villages, pepper gardens and orchards for most of its history, looking to Ayutthaya and later Bangkok by sea. Its great moment came in 1767, when the future King Taksin broke out of besieged Ayutthaya, gathered men and ships at Chanthaburi and Rayong, and sailed back up the Chao Phraya to expel the Burmese within the year.

In the late 19th century the east was a pawn in Siam's struggle with France. After the Paknam crisis of 1893, French troops occupied Chanthaburi for about a decade as a guarantee of Siam's good behaviour, and Trat was later held briefly before being returned in the treaty of 1907, when Siam gave up Battambang, Siem Reap and Sisophon to French Cambodia. Vietnamese Catholics began settling in Chanthaburi in the 19th century, and its cathedral is the largest church in Thailand. In 1941 the Battle of Ko Chang, fought between the Thai and Vichy French navies, took place off the islands of Trat.

The Vietnam War transformed the coast: American forces used U-Tapao air base and Sattahip naval base, and Pattaya grew from a fishing village into a resort for servicemen on leave. From the 1980s the government's Eastern Seaboard programme built the deep-sea port of Laem Chabang and the petrochemical complex of Map Ta Phut, and in the 2010s the Eastern Economic Corridor scheme set out to turn Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao into a high-technology zone. Inland, Sa Kaeo and Prachin Buri took in large numbers of Cambodian refugees after 1979.

The east has no single regional language like Isan or Lanna; people speak central Thai with a local accent, and the old Chong minority of the Chanthaburi hills keeps a language of its own. Chinese-Thai families have long dominated trade in the market towns, and Chanthaburi has an old Vietnamese Catholic community, and a 19th-century gem rush drew immigrants from Burma.

Local festivals reflect farming and the sea. Chon Buri holds buffalo races in October, with the animals dressed and paraded before sprinting down a track; Chanthaburi and Rayong stage fruit fairs when the durian comes in; and the coastal towns celebrate their Chinese shrines and the sea goddess Mazu. Rayong honours Sunthorn Phu, the poet whose epic Phra Aphai Mani is set partly on the islands, with a monument near Klaeng and statues of its characters on Koh Samet.

Pattaya stands apart: a city of Russian, Indian, Chinese and European visitors and long-stay retirees, with signs in several alphabets, a notorious nightlife district and a newer family resort industry. Many of its workers come from Isan, and the city's culture is as much theirs as the coast's.

This is Thailand's most industrial region outside Bangkok. Chon Buri, Rayong and Chachoengsao hold car factories, oil refineries, petrochemical plants and the country's biggest container port at Laem Chabang, which together make the eastern provinces among the richest per head in Thailand. Pattaya has around 120,000 registered residents and many more unregistered workers and foreigners; Chon Buri, Si Racha and Rayong are busy industrial towns.

Further east the economy turns green: Chanthaburi and Rayong grow durian, mangosteen, rambutan and longan, much of it exported to China, and fruit orchard owners are among the wealthiest farmers in the country. Chanthaburi is also a long-established gem town, known for rubies and sapphires, though it is no longer the major source of stones it once was. Trat lives from fishing, rubber and island tourism, and Sa Kaeo from farming and trade across the border at Aranyaprathet.

Current issues include pollution and water shortages around the industrial estates, oil spills off Rayong, traffic and crime in Pattaya, and the effect on border trade of tension with Cambodia.

The eastern coast eats seafood and fruit. Chon Buri's Nong Mon market, near Bang Saen, is known for khao lam, sticky rice with coconut milk cooked in bamboo, and snacks for the road. Si Racha gave its name to sot Si Racha, the tangy chilli-garlic sauce now bottled around the world, first made in the town and still eaten there with fried eggs and seafood. Rayong is known for nam pla, fish sauce, and kapi, fermented shrimp paste.

Chanthaburi has the most distinctive dishes: sen chan, flat rice noodles grown famous as the original noodle for pad thai; and mu chamuang, a slow-braised pork curry flavoured with the sour leaves of the chamuang tree, which grows in the east.

Fruit is the pride of the region: durian from Chanthaburi and Rayong, of the Monthong and other varieties, mangosteen, called the queen of fruits, rambutan, longan and salak. In season, from about April to June, stalls pile them along the Sukhumvit Road, and durian is also made into chips and sweet paste.

Pattaya is the region's biggest draw: the long curve of Pattaya Bay, the view from Phra Tamnak hill, Walking Street's nightlife, the Sanctuary of Truth, a huge wooden structure carved with Hindu and Buddhist figures, and the Nong Nooch tropical garden, with Ko Lan's beaches a short boat ride offshore. Further up the coast are the beach of Bang Saen and the island of Ko Si Chang, where King Chulalongkorn once had a summer palace; south lie Jomtien and the naval town of Sattahip.

From Ban Phe in Rayong, boats cross to Koh Samet, whose bays of fine white sand — Sai Kaew, Ao Wong Duean, Ao Prao — lie inside a marine national park. Chanthaburi's riverside old town has the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the largest church in Thailand, with waterfalls in the Khao Khitchakut and Namtok Phlio parks nearby. Trat is the gateway to Koh Chang's jungle interior, waterfalls and beaches, and to Koh Mak and Koh Kood beyond.

Inland, Chachoengsao has the riverside temple of Wat Sothon on the Bang Pakong river; Prachin Buri reaches into Khao Yai, one of Thailand's great forests, with waterfalls and wild elephants on its southern side; and Sa Kaeo has the Khmer temple of Sdok Kok Thom and the border market at Rong Kluea near Aranyaprathet.