Chaophraya Surasak

Ko Loi, Ko Si Chang or Khao Kheow Open Zoo from Si Racha

One day covers Si Racha in Chaophraya Surasak. Walk the causeway to Ko Loi in the early morning, then either take the roughly 45-minute boat to Ko Si Chang or, with children, a Grab to Khao Kheow Open Zoo. Finish with seafood on the waterfront before moving on to Pattaya or Bangkok.

Get to Ko Loi early, before the heat builds. The causeway walk out to the islet takes only a few minutes, and the Chinese-style temple on its rocks gives a clear view back over the Si Racha seafront and the moored fishing boats. The pier for Ko Si Chang is right there, so this is the moment to decide how to spend the middle of the day.

Crossing to the island fills a morning and early afternoon. Boats take roughly three quarters of an hour, and on the far side samlor drivers wait to run you round the island's viewpoints and quiet coves. Come back on an afternoon boat and stroll the waterfront to a pier restaurant for a late seafood lunch.

With children in tow, leave the island for another trip and take a Grab inland to Khao Kheow Open Zoo instead. Its enclosures are spread over forested hills, so a car or the zoo's own transport is needed between sections, and a visit easily runs to three or four hours.

Evening is the time to move on. Pattaya is a short drive south, Suvarnabhumi Airport about an hour north by motorway and central Bangkok about two hours away, and very few visitors sleep in the municipality itself.

Si Racha's own chilli sauce, pier seafood and Japanese bakeries

Si Racha is the home of the red chilli sauce sold worldwide under its name, and the local version is thinner, sharper and less sweet. Pier restaurants over the water sell crab, prawns, mussels, oysters and steamed sea bass by weight, and the town's large Japanese community supports many Japanese restaurants and bakeries.

The red chilli sauce sold worldwide under the town's name started here, and the local version is thinner, sharper and less sweet than the bottles most people know abroad. Every seafood table on the waterfront has a dish of it, and it goes best with grilled squid or steamed fish.

The restaurants built out over the water on wooden piers are the reason most Thais drive down from Bangkok. Order by weight from the tanks and ice trays: crab, prawns, mussels and fresh oysters are the regulars, along with whole pla kapong (sea bass) steamed with lime and chilli. Hoi tod, a crisp omelette of mussels or oysters fried on a flat griddle, turns up at stalls and simpler places along the seafront.

There is another side to eating here. Thousands of Japanese families live in Si Racha because of the nearby industrial estates, and the town has a dense cluster of Japanese restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets that is unusual for a provincial Thai town. For a change from seafood, a set lunch at one of these is often better value than in Bangkok.

Go at weekday lunchtime if you can. At weekends the pier restaurants fill with day-trippers by noon.