Chanthaburi Hotels

Chanthaburi is a province (changwat) of Thailand. It is located in the east of Thailand, at the border to Battambang and Pailin of Cambodia and the shore to the Gulf of Thailand. The neighboring provinces are Trat in the east and Rayong, Chonburi, Chachoengsao and Sa Kaeo. The word Chantha originates from the Sanskrit word Chandra meaning moon, and the word buri from Sanskrit Puri meaning town or city. Hence the province name literally means City of Moon. After the Paknam crisis in 1893 the French colonist troops occupied Chanthaburi, returning it in 1905 when Thailand gave up ownership of the western part of Cambodia. A significant minority of Chanthaburi citizens are native Vietnamese, who came there in three waves - first in the 19th century during an anti-Catholic persecution in Cochin China, a second wave came in the 1920s to 1940s fleeing from French Indochina, and a third one after the communist victory in Vietnam in 1975. Thus the town of Chanthaburi is the seat of a Bishop of Chanthaburi since 1944.