Chanthaburi

Gem dealers spread sapphires and rubies on folding tables along Si Chan Road, examining stones under loupes in the open air. Across the river, a French-Gothic cathedral rises above a quarter of wooden shophouses. Chanthaburi is a gem-trading frontier town where Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese threads overlap in a single riverside street.

Chanthaburi is Thailand's gem capital, sitting on corundum deposits — the mineral behind sapphires and rubies — that have drawn traders for centuries. The open-air gem market on Si Chan Road has run for generations, dealers weighing stones at roadside tables. The riverside tells the rest of the history: Vietnamese Catholics fleeing persecution built the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in Thailand, and the wooden shophouses of the old Chanthabun waterfront have been restored into galleries and cafés. Beyond town, the province grows more durian than anywhere else in Thailand — orchards open to visitors in the May–June harvest.