Handicrafts and an Outdoor Massage

Thursday we decided to slow down a bit after our marathon day with the elephants. We slept in late and then got a taxi to take us to some of the handicraft stores in the area. This area of Thailand is known for various handicrafts including silk fabrics, silverware and teak wood furniture among other things. Our private cab driver, Tong, took us to various factories and stores to observe how the handicrafts were made. Our first stop was to a silk factory where we got to see the silkworms (Emmy’s favorite part)

and the ladies spinning the silk from the cocoons

and the ladies weaving fabric from the silk.

Do you know it takes a full day for one lady to weave enough fabric for a blouse? I have a new appreciation of silk clothes. The store attached to the factory was a bit high pressure – you couldn’t move anywhere without a saleslady following you – but they did have some beautiful fabrics and products made of the silk. The boys’ (big and small) favorite part was that they brought out cake and drinks for them while they waited for us!

The second stop was to a teak furniture store which was huge – a warehouse full of tables, chairs, bars, outdoor furniture, stools, dressers, etc. Stevie fell in love with a two foot tall carved elephant made out of a single piece of teak, but the price of $2,000 was a little over the top!

In the very back of the warehouse was the factory where the workers were sitting on the floor hand carving the detailing you see on the furniture. They do these fabulous, detailed scenes carved into a piece of teak wood that can take up to 6 months just to carve one 3 foot by 2 foot carving. At another area we saw the ladies hand cutting the mother of pearl to make the inlay you see on other pieces of teak furniture. Talk about back-breaking, monotonous work!

Our final handicraft store stop was to a silver shop where we were witness again to another sweat-shop type set up. All I can say is that there are people with a whole lot more patience than I have.

After returning from our shopping, Stevie took the kids to the pool while Mom and I headed out to some shops near the hotel. These were lots of lovely little artsy stores most of which had an environmentally conscious theme. There was an amazing shop selling hand carved teak wood elephants which Stevie had scoped out the day before, so I bought a lovely gentle elephant as a memento of our trip.

That night, Stevie and I convinced Grammie to watch the kids while we went out for a date. We had every intention of going to a romantic little restaurant down on the river with a stop at the night market first for a giraffe and squirrel made out of coconut fiber rope (a long story which started with Cannon buying one the first time we went to the night market). Well, we found the giraffe and the squirrel, and a rope dragon, a knock off Mont Blanc pen and Oakley sunglasses, a photo album and some other trinkets. By 9:45 we gave up on going to the restaurant and ended up getting an hour long foot massage while watching the night life. Thai massage is hugely popular and direly cheap – like less than $5.00 (yes, really, $5!) for an hour massage! Every other store is a massage salon (of the upstanding kind, I can’t attest to the other!) hawking their foot massages, how could we not partake? It made for a relaxing end to the day and was much better for the waistline than a big dinner!