It’s only taken 2 years of living about 20 minutes away from the pier that you can catch a barge from, to finally make a trip to Ko Kret. This little island is in the Chao Phraya River not far from our province, Pakkret. A canal was constructed as a shortcut to bypass a bend in the Om Kret branch of the Chao Phraya river. As the canal was widened several times, the section cut off eventually became a separate island. The island continues to serve as a refuge to the Mon tribes who dominated central Thailand between the 6th and 10th centuries and have retained a distinct identity in their flavor of Buddhism and, particularly at Ko Kret, their pottery.
It took a good couple of hours to walk all the way around the island – stopping often to browse at the local wares. We took this video of one the potters making a garden pot. If only my pots turned out like that when I took a pottery night class a couple of years ago!
