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We decided to return Bangkok via Nakhon Pathom and that was a good idea. We'd seen the 127m tower of the Wat Phra Pathom Chedi from the train and then read up on it. It was convenient to get to since the bus from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok passed right outside of it. We checked out of our hotel and took a taxi to the bus station. Going to Nakhon Pathom it seemed like we were passing through one continuous strip city but in fact there were a few discontinuous parts where some countryside was visible.

Two hours after leaving Kanchanaburi we were in front of the Wat. We got off the bus and went in where we found a booth used by the people who collect parking fees; the woman there kindly agreed to let us store our bags there and we set off very relaxed about our things to see the Wat. It truly is a tall, tall, stupa or chedi (Thai for stupa.) We walked competely around it, stopping at each of the four temples that we encounted.

After seeing the Wat we went to the Nakhon Pathom National Museum, on the same grounds. The museum covered the history and prehistory of Nakhon Pathom from thousands of years ago to today. They have some especially good Buddhist artefacts from 2-300 years ago. We were surprised to learn that when it was first founded it was a sea port; at that time Bangkok's site was completely underwater. From about 600 a.d. on the silting around Nakhon Pathom began to be so severe that it began to lose its economic role and it declined. By about 1600-1700 it was far from the sea and Bangkok had emerged from it.

This story made us think back to Ephesus and Miletus, the ancient Greek cities that we had so recently visited in Turkey. They too were once sea ports and at just about the same time, 700 a.d. silting began to deprive them of their sea access. At Miletus the silting was as severe as at Nakhon Pathom: the sea receded about 30-40 km.

After our visits to the Wat and museum we retrieved our bags and returned to the very spot where we got off the bus. We weren't certain that there was another bus or that it would stop for us, but there was and it did. We assumed we were headed for the Southern Bus Terminal (Sai Tai Mai) and that proved to be the case. Our knowledge was so limited however, that we didn't realize that the bus went by the terminal and took us closer to the center of Bangkok than the terminal. While others were getting off, to connect to other transportation, we were wondering what was going on. When we got back to the terminal we realized our missed opportunity. Eventually, after some hesitation and an impending rainstorm we took a taxi directly to the First Hotel, where we'd reserved a room.