#8: [25-Apr-16]

#7: [04-Dec-13]

#5: [09-Jan-07]

#4: [25-May-06]

#3: [15-Oct-05]

#2: [01-Oct-04]

#1: [29-May-01]

27-Aug-2010 --

Oh, this place has changed a lot, and not to the better, speaking as a Confluence Hunter!

This point had long been on my list, though rather low in priority, as the previous 5 visits had told the story of its transformation from wasteland with some ponds into a pineapple plantation and then into a small factory yard. So with the CP lying inside the walls of a private property now, and almost no chance to get closer than about 30 m at best, it had largely lost its appeal.

Nonetheless, I had to go there in order to complete the series of 4 CP visits around Bangkok: my first one had been 14N 101E in Nakhon Nayok (NE), followed by 14N 100E in Nakhon Pathom (NW) and 13N 100E in Phetchaburi (SW) - leaving only this one in Chonburi, in the southeast. And I would be the first person to collect all four confluences surrounding the Thai capital! One advantage of 13N 101E is that it is very easy to reach from the big city: a smooth 120 km drive on the Bangkok-Chonburi-Pattaya motorway (highway #7) brings you directly 800 m west of the confluence. (Yes, it costs you 60 Baht in tolls, but I had opted for this route to save time.) One left turn onto a country road leading east, two sharp curves, and you are there.

Judging from the latest cloudfree satellite image available on Google Earth (go to Toolbar > View > Historical Imagery), it had seemed that if it wasn't possible to enter the company compound, there should at least be the option to walk along the eastern wall and get within 30 m of the confluence, as someone else had done four years ago. But that image is from December 2006, and when I arrived, I found that many details on the ground have changed..... :-(

In the yard itself, there is no more open-air storage of steel parts (i.e. the dark brown shapes in the satellite image), but instead the eastern protective roof has been expanded and an entire new building added in the western half. On the other hand, the two smaller sheds visible immediately to the northwest of the CP are gone. I peered through the main gate which, at 12.99937° 101°E, is exactly 70 m south of the confluence. This puts the location of the point close to the excavator that is just visible under/behind the white roof part. The adjacent land plot to the east was still bareland in 2006, but is now overgrown with dense, man-high vegetation and in addition to that, divided by a sheet metal fence running through it in east-western direction. So there was no way to follow the wall on the outside to get closer to the point. I then scouted the dirt track branching off from the road near the group of buildings 100 m further east, hoping to be able to get around the vegetation there and then heading back west to the wall. But this also turned out to be unfeasible, as that path now is a swampy dead end, sealed off by another metal fence.

So I had to settle with the coordinates obtained at the main gate and took my 4 directional photos in the middle of the road in front of it. (To the south is another factory surrounded by a high wall, making for a boring picture.) The gate was actually open, and initially there was nobody to be seen in the compound, but when I approached, two barking dogs appeared, and a while later a guard returned (apparently from his lunch break somewhere under the big roof on the right side) and took up position in the guardhouse, reading a newspaper. I thought it wasn't really worth trying to talk to him and ask for permission to enter, as I figured he would be rather suspicious why I wanted to inspect the premises.

All in all, an unspectacular visit. The weather was nice, good reception, EPE = 3 m. Four hours after leaving, I was back at home in Bangkok.