Ban Laem Community, Suphanburi, Thailand

Hello and welcome to the riverside community of Ban Laem, Suphanburi Province about two hours north of Bangkok in central Thailand.

Won’t you come for a wander with me as I introduce you to a local community who are striving to promote themselves in the fast-developing area of community tourism?

I’m excited to stay with a local family and see how they live and join them for some amazing home-cooked food. I’m meeting their friends, neighbours and Local Masters of culture and local wisdom. We will visit a sufficiency economy farm and collect eggs and veggies for our meals. We will learn new skills and try our hand at some of the local crafts. None of it is as easy as it looks!

COMMUNITY TOURISM EXPERIENCE

The Ban Laem Community are one of twenty-two villages chosen to participate in the Thailand Village Academy (TVA).

This project has been developed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to promote community tourism for off the beaten track, authentic experiences.

In future posts, we shall visit two further TVA communities in Phetchaburi and Ayutthaya provinces.

SOLO TRAVEL EXPERIENCE

Following my posts for Me, Myself & Thailand, a travel guide produced for solo female travellers I was really keen for my own solo travel experience and this trip provided just the opportunity that I was seeking.

Don’t get me wrong I love the big FAM Trips where we travel and connect with other bloggers and travel professionals but this weekend was so special because it was just me.

I never saw another foreigner the whole time was there. In fact, someone joked that I was the first foreigner in Ban Laem ever!

Ban Laem was my opportunity for ME time and travel.

HOMESTAY EXPERIENCE

Ban Laem also gave me my first experience in a Thai homestay since I stayed with a hill tribe family, trekking in Chiang Mai in 1985. Yes, I know, it was well overdue!

Come on let’s go!

BAN LAEM COMMUNITY EXPERIENCE

Looking back on my notes from my trip I excitedly wrote at the time:

‘the Ban Laem Community are the real deal!’

I was happy to be meeting the Ban Laem residents relatively early in their community tourism initiative. I could see why they were worthy of selection for Thailand Village Academy and felt the warmth of their interest in sharing their worlds with me.

ARRIVING AT BAN LAEM

It was one of those trips that I had no real idea of what to expect. My husband was overseas, I texted a friend saying if I don’t come back, this is where I’m heading. Then clutching my “healthy, wealthy documentation” I kid you not, that is the name of the medical insurance policy here in Thailand for foreigners, I set off with a quick spray of mossie repellant to ward off the bugs.

I’m not a natural adventurer. Can you tell?

I was relieved when the car pulled into the Tambon Ban Laem Community Centre to be greeted by my host family for the weekend and our guide Mon.

They present me with a local farmer’s hat which sits awkwardly on my large head. It’s a clever design as it has an inner frame to keep you cool and give maximum shade.

My family of Peaw, Lek and their daughter Bai-fern showed me around their community with such pride and zest for life over the next two days that it was infectious.

Relief, smiles and hugs all round and plenty of photos making the love heart sign, and even more of the arms above the head, or over the heart, to mirror the symbol of Ban Laem the building roofs.

Before I know it, I’m sat on the back of a red motorbike doing what I tell my kids to never ever do, riding off into the fields without a helmet on, without a seat belt on…

Living a little.

… well, quite a bit.

Actually, that’s a bit of a fib, as I am a passenger in this sidecar and this is rural Thailand, there isn’t much traffic… and this is THE perfect way to head offroad across the fields to find the organic duck farm.

The sufficiency economy Farm

‘I hope you like dogs?’ they laugh, as four excitable dogs race out to greet us, we’re in the middle of a tail-wagging mass love-in. It’s not for the first time this weekend that I get the impression, that this is not a well-trodden path for tourists.

The dogs quickly relax back to the good life of hanging out around the pond and I can see the most extraordinarily beautiful setting. Lotus flowers blooming gracefully on the pond, ducks quaking and swimming up in-formation up to see what all the fuss is about.

Shang the farmer greets us with a solemn wai. I wonder what he makes of the random 50 something-year-old woman turning up to interrupt his Saturday? He has been up early and has already been fishing on the pond, the duck eggs are already collected for Paew’s Thai salted eggs “Ban Khai Ta Phut”.

His is a simple self-sufficiency life that follows the late King Rama IX’s Sufficiency Economy philosophy. He leads us around, knowing exactly where we can find all the ‘just ready to be picked’ fruit, vegetables and spices.

Before I know it I’ve got a massive cleaver in my hand cutting a lotus shoot!

With every plant, Shang and Mon, translated by the young Bai-fern share the health benefits, ‘this is good for nourishing the heart’, “this has pollen to help blood and eyes’  I munch my way around the pond, my mouth full of new and somewhat nutty flavours.

And wait there’s more! It was so simple really but oh so memorable.

I’m being rowed out into the middle of the pond like a princess, in a wooden boat heading out to pick a flower.

I think I chose well what do you think?

We can’t stay long as we have a full day of activities. Our next stop was

water hyacinth basket weaving

The water hyacinth look pretty floating on the waterways, but they are also a problem clogging up the rivers. Certainly, for the basket weavers of Ban Laem, they are in plentiful supply and no one minds them pulling as many water hyacinths as they can to dry for weaving.

As I sat next to Mrs Luan Klong, local master for Puang Mahot (paper art crafts) and she taught me, I was amazed at her nimble fingers deftly weaving the strands of soft plants without even looking.  I wished my clumsy hands (and feet!) would do as she instructed but I was eventually chuffed with my wobbly basket!

Next, we tackle a smaller project a carp fish. That seemed even more complex. With two strands of water hyacinth and a left over right, right over left manoeuvre, Luan created an attractive fish. Mine was less successful. We laughed. We could not speak except through smiles.

I will never ever forget this moment!

PANDAN TEA CEREMONY

That afternoon we hop in the family jeep and do our rounds visiting the local community. It is a thoughtful program for me. We meet Amphon and she makes me pandan tea and offers fruits from her garden.

The locally grown pandan leaf has many health benefits, it is calming and they say good for chest pains, cramps, spasms, headaches or even to lower blood pressure. I buy some of the beautifully scented tea to bring home!

We have another attempt at making a woven fish from the fresh pandan leaves. You’d have thought I was well versed in this by now.

It’s only two strands of pandan leaves for goodness sake. Not to me, it’s like some advanced Alzheimers test and I’ve just failed the left over right. right over left memory test!

The good news is I’ll soon have enough fish for an aquarium…

COOKING WITH THE BAN LAEM

Ban Laem is known for its foods and we have a laugh as I attempt to make Thong Muan rolls from a batter mix of eggs, sugar, potato powder, coconut milk and sesame seeds. We join Rattina at her home for Thung Pup.

It’s hot work and Rattina makes it look easy, I’m given a long metal tube, some heat protection gloves and a large knife to handle and only a few seconds when the batter is perfectly cooked on the hot plate to wrap it around the tube. Needless to say, I failed my Masterchef audition and even ended up dropping mine on the floor – whoopsie.

These Thai snacks are churned out in their hundreds for sale, but my awkward attempts I’m sure will not make the cut for the Ban Laem ‘best in show‘ awards.

MAKING HERBAL INCENSE STICKS

I did enjoy the incense making for its sheer colourful appeal. In Thailand, each day of the week has a colour and the incense sticks are coloured for this. I was born on a Friday, my birth colour is light blue.

We play a game of massive drop-down sticks, think pick-up sticks but the aim is to drop them into a beautiful circular pattern. Of course, mine end up like a hedgehog – echidna – porcupine on a bad hair day.

We laugh. We are always laughing in Ban Laem!

Herbal Incense stick production

Out the front, I am interested in the batch incense making process. Whilst it appears they are not working on a Saturday. They gladly open a bag of the dusty mixture and show their incense making process. It is heavy, dusty, dirty work and they can churn out hundreds of incense sticks for sale at the local temples. I have a go at making my own rose flower incense stick.

Miss Prapassara Sridee Local Master for herbal incense sticks

The THai Home visit

On the second morning, we visited the Wongwijarn home to view their handmade woven bags and baskets. They show me photos of the VIP guests who they call ‘Superstars’ who have stopped by to buy their clutch bags and invite me into their home.

To walk barefoot around their home being shown items from their family history I felt was such an honour. I do not get invited to many homes in Thailand. Certainly, not those of on the spur of the moment, come on in.

They insisted to take this photo of me, and at this one moment was when I moved from hanging out in Thailand to feeling like I’m really living here. I’m not just getting to meet local people, I’m getting to know them.

Being invited in was not pre-arranged part of a tour, it felt spontaneous and welcomed.

Riverside community

On my last day, I’m all but off and leaving when I am introduced to Jittra and her son Jack who invite me to join them on their boat for a riverside view of the Ban Laem community.

Wow! How did that just happen? This community are so spontaneous and welcoming. Their riverboat offers me a unique view of Ban Laem, I loved it!

Thanks to Jittra for the wonderful boat trip

Jittra and Jack speak English and I enjoyed chatting with them. We see the riverside houses, fish farming, a rice mill, and locals paddle up and downstream making and selling food on the river.

There are also many old historic temples along the Tha Chin River. This was an ancient travel route of King Rama V and it connects all the way to Bangkok as a distributary of the Chao Phraya river.

Jack also points out to me the little bird’s nests, some are double story nests. ‘We call that bird condominium’ he says.

A simple riverside life

THE HOMESTAY

My riverside room for the night was a delightful surprise. The two-story house is larger than I expected and extremely well set up to offer a more than comfortable Homestay. The guest room walls are covered in softly woven bamboo panels and lace curtains frame the windows, my room is spotlessly clean. Next door is a bathroom with a shower and a western toilet.

They advise always to keep the mosquito screens closed to prevent any pesky visitors.

The room has two big mattresses on the floor and they ask am I happy with this or would I like a raised bed.

Happy? I’m ecstatic as I have found my room has two extra things that make me yelp with excitement; an air conditioning unit AND a Kangaroo tissue box.

At PHIMPHICHA HOMESTAY

What are the chances of this? This is an Australian tissue box bought just down the road from my Melbourne home at Queen Vic Market when my host Paew was on exchange in Australia. Twenty years on and this Aussie chick comes to stay?

We eat all our meals in the garden overlooking the river. Every meal has been prepared to show the specialities of the region, I recognise somethings from our earlier visit to the farm. The food is beautiful, lots of fish dishes and vegetables.

Delicious meals at PHIMPHICHA HOMESTAY

THANK YOU BAN LAEM

I can’t thank the Ban Laem community enough for sharing their lives with me. This trip moved me from being a visitor in Thailand to at long last feeling that I had a way to experience the local culture.

There were a combination of factors that made it special. I enjoyed travelling alone, getting out into rural Thailand, something this country girl at heart misses in her Bangkok city life. Also, the enthusiasm of the Ban Laem people to share their community was infectious.

It had all the elements of solo travel that I love – being out of my comfort zone, experiencing new cultures and learning new skills. I came back to my Bangkok life feeling recharged and relaxed, every time I go away on my own it is a reminder that I should challenge myself more often in this way.

I have many souvenirs from my time with the Ban Laem community!

Additional resources:

• Richard Barrow: Thailand Village Academy Project.
• Thailand Village Academy: Ban Laem Community Suphanburi’

Community’s Contact Information

Community-based Tourism coordinator: Mr Sophon Puntu
Phone: 08-0073-7397
Address: 147/1 Moo 5 Baan Laem subdistrict, Bang Pla Ma district, Supan Buri

Tour Agent Contact Information

Tour operator’s name: Friday Trip Co.ltd.
E-Mail: pam@fridaytrip.com, csrouting@fridaytrip.com
Phone: 02-3738008 / 088-0082906-7
Social media: www.fridaytrip.com, www.facebook.com/fridaytrip.page

I hope you have enjoyed your visit to Ban Laem Supanburi and do visit if you are in the area. Tell them a little bird sent you!

If you are reading from afar, please leave a message of support. This community will be chuffed to know you are thinking about them.

Little Wandering Wren travelled as a guest of Thailand Village Academy and was beyond excited to accept. All the views expressed are my own.