French occupation of Trat and Chanthaburi

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Replicas on Tha Chalaep Rd, Chanthaburi city, of the French occupation buildings at Laem Sing, Khuk Khi Kai prison cell and Tuek Daeng army barracks, the 'red building'.
Why? Well it saves a 25km trip to the coast...




Note: the genuine Tuek Daeng currently undergoing a full restoration at Laem Sing

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Closed to the public, there are occasional public open days here; glimpses over the wall of the Taksin army base in Chanthaburi city, showing some of the old fortress and two (of seven) restored French buildings from their occupation 1893-1906.
As I once discovered, being here without permission creates a whistle-blowing military drama.

September 2022

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Restoration continues on Tuek Daeng, the French army barracks building at port Laem Sing at the mouth of the Chanthaburi river.



Don't know the plan for its use - museum most likely.





Built by the French in 1893 in the year 112 of Rattanakosin Era, Tuek Daeng (7m x 32m) was previously the site of Phikhat Patchamit Fort whose bricks were taken for the construction. It was the French headquarter and living quarters of soldiers based at Laem Sing.

Chanthaburi 1893: In 1893, the city had between six and eight thousand inhabitants. A cosmopolitan population: the Siamese represent only half of them, the other is composed of Chinese, Vietnamese and Burmese.
The presence of the Vietnamese is due to the arrival of several waves of refugees fleeing the persecution of the Chinese invaders of their original Cochinchina. All Catholic, they gathered around their missionary, on the left bank of the river. The importance of this Vietnamese community will be very important and will facilitate the installation and stay of the French Annamite soldiers who make up the bulk of the occupying troops.

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About those foundations . . .

Khuk Khi Kai citadel at Laem Sing, Chanthaburi

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That time of the year again, coast/Laem Sing highway lined with flags of old Siam and Tuesday 13th there's the annual commemoration of the departure of the French occupation troops




2 February 2024: Taksin Maharat bridge across the Chanthaburi River at Laem Sing

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A week before we were in Trat for a running event, they'd had their annual commemoration 23 March for the end of the French military occupation in 1906.

Mural showing the changing of the flags, an interpretation of a painting in a French newspaper of the era


the building in the centre is I think the French governor's residence