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Samut Sakhon
Samut Sakhon is a small but densely populated coastal province at the mouth of the Tha Chin River on the Gulf of Thailand, forming part of the greater Bangkok metropolitan region. Its Mahachai seafood market is one of the largest fresh-fish trading centres in the country.
Samut Sakhon covers only 866 square kilometres — the fourth-smallest province in Thailand — and is bordered by Samut Songkhram and Ratchaburi to the west, Nakhon Pathom to the north, and Bangkok to the east. The Tha Chin River, a distributary of the Chao Phraya, empties into the Gulf of Thailand here, and the coast is lined with salt pans used for sea-salt production. The provincial capital, also called Mahachai or Samut Sakhon city, is a major processing hub for seafood, particularly shrimp and squid, and hosts a large migrant worker population from Myanmar. Talat Mahachai is a lively fresh market straddling the rail line where vendors sell produce directly from baskets. The province had a registered population of around 591,000 in 2024 but the actual figure is significantly higher due to unregistered migrant workers.