Village Life

Local Weaving Exhibition and Demonstration Centre (Phaichit Weaving Group) is located behind Wat Ban Rai, next to Ban Na Fai Bueng Ta Pho School. Turn into the alley beside the school and go on for 700 metres. It is a group of people weaving cotton cloth with dyes from nature. They also teach others who are interested in weaving passing on the ancient patterns such as Lai Kho Luang, and Lai Kho Kham Duean. There are shops to sell Pha Sin, bedspread, tablecloth, cloth for tailoring and Mon Khit pillow. In this area, there is also a museum of ancient cloth which is more than a hundred years old

Ban I Mat – I Sai Hill Tribe Cultural Centre is located at Mu 4, Tambon Kaen Makrut, under the responsibility of the Hill Tribe Development and Contribution Centre, Uthai Thani, existing in a part of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. Most hill tribes are Karen, living peacefully and simply while they still practice their old traditions strictly. The examples of major interesting events are the festival to pay respect to the pagoda where there is a show of sword dancing, and the ceremony to pay respect to the Pho tree.

When the festivals are held, all relatives will return home. Those two events will be held every year in April. The date of the ceremony depends on the readiness of the people in the community; for example, when they finish harvesting. The most important thing is that this village does strictly not allow people to get involved in gambling or drinking alcohol.

Visitors can stay overnight at the Karen village, Chao Wat Yang Daeng Village, or shelters in the cultural centre which houses the Hill Tribe Museum. Please call Tel. 0 5651 2026 from 8.30 a.m. – 4.30 p.m. It also sells hand-made products, local woven cloth in natural color, bamboo basketry, and seasonal agricultural goods, such as dried chili.

To get there, from Amphoe Ban Rai, drive along Highway 3011, Ban Rai – Phu Bon route for about 20 km. to the end of the asphalted road. Take a laterite road for another 1 km.

Tham Kret Dao is 1 km. far from Ban I Mat – I Sai Hill Tribe Cultural Centre. It is possible to see the walking route leading to this cave. From its entrance, there is a bamboo ladder leading downward to the cave. It is a massive cave with large stones which can glitter when the light shines on them. The ceiling is full of bats. Villagers bring those bats droppings to make a fertilizer for plants in their fields. It is necessary to bring a torch.

Namtok Tat Dao is a little further from the entrance of Tham Kret Dao. The 9-tiered waterfall flows over rocks and is surrounded by fertile forest.

Botanical Garden is about 5 km. from the cultural centre. It has a natural fresh and comfortable atmosphere. It takes about an hour to walk around. In the garden, there are useful local plants and various species of plants; such as Sadao Pa whose fruits and leaves can be made into an organic repellent, Ton Sabu whose fruits can be used in bathing, washing hair and clothes, Rang Chuet which has a medical property to sober up. Some plants are poisonous such as hair of Chang Rong which can make peopleûs skin painfully itch when touching. Ya Nong – upas trees – has a poisonous sap which hunters in the past applied to the end of their darts that used for hunting.

tourismthailand.org/fileadmin/upload_img/Multimedia/Ebrochure/368/uthaithani.pdf

I have turned sixteen and need to apply for a new ID.

One look at the car park at Erawan, told me all I needed to know. So we headed for Huay Mae Khamin in the Khuean Srinagarindra National Park.

Despite being popular with locals it is relatively quiet during the week. Weekends and holidays are busy and best avoided. There is plenty of accommodation ranging from camping, to houses which cater for groups as well as chalets.

The chalets are comfortable and well appointed

Offering brilliant views of the Srinagarindra dam lake.

Another of those special places to visit in Thailand

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Requires a fair amount of organisation.

After three years I decided we should venture out and see what camping in the UK is all about.

The history of Brownsea island, in Poole harbour, can be traced back over the centuries but the Partnership’s involvement with the Castle dates to 1962, when the island was offered for sale to the National Trust.

In the earlier years of the 20th century the Van Raalte family had lived at the Castle and one of the family had been employed by the Partnership. Through this link, the Chairman, Bernard Miller, agreed to ask the Central Council to consider assisting the Trust with the purchase of the island in return for a lease on the Castle which could be renovated and used as a hotel for partners.

Three years later it opened and has been one of the most popular amenities available to Partners ever since.

Within the Partnership Archive lies a sale catalogue for Brownsea Island from the 1920s. Inside is a remarkable insight into the economy of the island almost 100 years ago.

 

Daffodils at Brownsea

 

“As the visitor strolls Eastwards from Maryland back towards the Castle, he finds himself following a path through deep woods and shoulder high bracken, past fields which at Eastertide are bright with daffodil and narcissus, here grown commercially with considerable success.” The industry began in 1908 when the decision to operate a commercial flower growing business was taken by the island’s owner Charles van Raalte.

 

12 acres of the island were cultivated with daffodils and narcissi the main crop. Many different varieties including Grand Monarch, Scilly Whites and Glory of Seyden were grown and as well as selling the blooms there was a steady trade in the bulbs too. About 20 tons of bulbs were sold each year reaching up to £90 per ton.

 

The mild climate suited the early flowers which were harvested and taken to Poole by boat and then on to London by rail. A former resident of Brownsea, Jack Batterick recalls the days when days were spent picking the daffodils and transporting them to Covent Garden for sale to the London market.

 

“We worked until it was too dark to see, continuously picking the succulent stems. On average 750 bunches were tied each night by every family on the island. For this we received ten pence for each hundred bunches and, by the end of the season, all of us, but especially the women, were exhausted.”

 

The trade continued until 1927 when the island was purchased by Mrs Bonham Christie who refused to allow anyone on to the island. The industry closed and the local people gradually left for a life on the mainland. Within a year the population was reduced from 270 to four.

 

So, idyllic as it may have seemed, life on the island was hard with little reward for a hard day’s labour. Thankfully now most people who visit the island do so for rest and relaxation. They may walk around the island wondering about the ridges in the soil never realising the significance of the furrows in Brownsea’s long history.

In a business the size of the Partnership there are bound to be stories about the supernatural.

Brownsea Castle

 

Brownsea Castle has had its share of things that go bump in the night – and spirits that play tricks in daylight.

 

It was purportedly just such a cheeky ghost that terrified Brownsea Castle Head Chef Steve Lorch at 7am on a summer morning in 1976. Mr Lorch told local newspaper the Poole and Dorset Herald that ‘some supernatural agency began to agitate the sheets and blankets on his bed, and move his pillows from side to side, as he sat up listening to mysterious knockings in the ancient castle walls’. The terrified chef rushed out of the room and was given three days’ leave in which to recover by the then Brownsea Castle secretary, John Lukens.

 

Mr Lukens was sympathetic but not entirely convinced. ‘There are bound to be ghost stories, but all I know is that my wife and I have not seen anything. We hear all sorts of things that go bump in the night – probably the central heating or the water pipes – but if there is anything it certainly doesn’t seem menacing or nasty’.

 

A week before the incident affecting Mr Lorch, Porter Alan Foggin saw a reel of cotton from his bedroom fly through the air and roll past his feet as he made his way to the kitchen.

Odney

 

Odney apparitions have included a headless lady reportedly sighted in Lodene Greys, walking along a balcony with her head tucked under her arm. Then there were the two ghosts, of a woman in a long robe and a little girl, who appeared in 1969 in the area between Strande Park and Strande Water in nearby Cookham Rise.

 

These were seen by several people while Maidenhead Archaeological Society was excavating the area. Claims had already been made in the 19th century by William Grazebrooke, who built Strande Castle, that Strande Water was haunted by a woman in white.

 

Partners travelling through Cookham Dean to the Odney Club or to Winter Hill Golf Club might find themselves at a notorious spot.

 

The junction where Choke Lane joins Winter Hill Road was once considered the most dangerous part of the road from London to Bath after Hounslow Heath. Highwaymen lurked there in the 18th century, and over the years people have seen a ghostly horse and rider jump out at them as they leave the footpath from the common.

 

Staying with ghost riders, Cookham’s most famous spirit is Herne the Hunter, an antlered figure said by some to lead the Wild Hunt of spectral huntsmen. One legend describes these apparitions as the souls of unbaptised corpses, forever condemned to chase the phantom hart across the night sky, and in the 1970s a couple driving a car in the Whyteladyes Lane area saw the ghostly shape of a white stag leaping past their vehicle.

 

Although not unknown Koh Kood is more difficult to get to, which explains its reputation as one of Thailand’s last unspoiled island getaways.