Nowadays, Angsila is most famous for its products made from rock. It is said that rock pestle and mortars produced from this village are very durable, as well as other sculptured products, lamps, furniture, and artistic giant sculptures. Apart from such products, Angsila also has products from the sea including dried shrimps, pickled clam, shrimp paste, sweetened fish, and dry squid. You can buy them at Saphan Pla Ban Angsila, or the fresh seafood market. Here you can also buy fresh mussel and oyster, as there are mussel and oyster farms around here. These products are totally fresh and inexpensive, but you should be at the market before 08.00 am, because after that the seafood might lose its freshness. There are a few stalls that will cook it for you using a small barbeque. My friend had never tried squid before and didn’t even know what it was, he was converted when he tried some.
The market is next to a large car park so no problem if you arrive by car or taxi. The first stalls have the usual things for sale in Thailand but the amount of stoneware here is amazing. I spend many happy hours shopping here each time I visit. I must actually get round to using the pestles and mortars I have purchased here, instead of using them as ornaments in the kitchen. Strolling across to the pier it is full of seafood stalls. The smell of the sea is something else when its fresh. When its not fresh, well I think you get the gist. Leaving this market, if you turn right along this road there are restaurants that are very popular with locals and visitors alike. They all overlook the sea, which is great when it’s fine and sunny.
The views across the bay are a welcome sight when enjoying a meal. I took a friend there on one visit along with another friend from where she previously worked. They ordered in Thai which was my mistake. When all the food arrived, I reminded my friend that her friend only had an hour for lunch. It was ok she said she can take the rest home for her tea later! Caught again! This is a reminder to not let anyone do the ordering in Thai. However the food was good and would have been cheap but for that.
Along that same 3134 road in Angsila is the very beautiful Chinese temple named the Naja Chinese temple, also known as Thepsathit Phra Kiti Chalerm Chinese Shrine. My friend parked his taxi outside the temple, this building stands out with its walls and beautiful structures behind the walls. As you enter the grounds you are met with very ornate temples small and large. You cannot take photos inside the main temple, I tried at the door and security appear from out of the woodwork to remind you! The dragon pillars inside are beautifully adorned with dragons wound round. Along the covered walkways along this part of the temple you will find a large hanging drum that many people seem to find amusing to try hitting it with anything they can lay their hands on.
The steps leading up to this verandah is a sculpture of a dragon crawling down to be met by a pool of Koi fish staring up at it. All of it being beautifully painted in striking colours. The verandah itself ( near the hanging drum ) is also adorned with intricate columns again all strikingly painted in vivid colours. Outside and in what I would call the courtyard, a well laid out garden setting arranged before one of the structures. In the centre is a large fountain that many people use for taking group photos. Various temple shops are scattered around the edges of the Temple courtyard. Most Chinese temples are usually well decorated and lavishly adorned with dragons and other serpents and Buddhas and snakes. This Temple will not disappoint you. However car parking outside the temple is not big and so it’s usually full.
Another temple around here is the Sala Ruesi temple on Khao Sam Muk Hill or the Monkey hill as it is known due to the large number of wandering monkeys here. They would be a little intimidating to a walker as they are all over the roads, footpaths, grass areas, so being in a car was a lot safer. I don’t trust monkeys after seeing them in Gibraltar on the rock. They are mental and being in a group downright dangerous. They all look the same to me, so beware don’t approach them here in Angsila.
Turning down an unmade road to the temple Sal Ruesi temple there is a strange assortment of Buddhas and other statues scattered around the grounds. In one corner is a small grotto and on the other side a large Buddha image. It’s not very large but is worth the journey to see it. Even in the grounds you can see monkeys, not so many as on the road up but still they wander about on their own. On one of the displays inside the temple you can see a model rock face with small monkeys climbing up the rocks. So the monkeys are symbolic even in the temple area. There is no large temple building as such here but a number of smaller ones. Along with various structures that makes you wonder why they have them. I guess there must be some reason behind it all.
How to get to Angsila: From the kilometre marker 102 on the Sukhumvit road, turn right at Angsila Junction, or the highway 3134. Drive further for a kilometre; you will reach Ban Angsila Community. Angsila was the first seaside resort in Thailand. The history of tourism at this place started during King Rama IV period, when there were a small number of foreigners coming to Thailand. Chonburi was very famous then as a major merchant port and, being a seaside town with fresh air, a place good for patient recovery suffering from various illnesses. Later, a member of the royal family had built a recovery building and made Angsila the first resort in Thailand for this use.
