Thailand Blues

The train delivers us to Den Chai, a small town in the Phrae District.  We are met by Bua (boo-a) who owns Red Brick Homestay with her Dutch husband Corne ( Corn-ay), and their 7 year old son Tymo (Tee-mo).  We have no idea of the adventures the next 24 hours will hold, thanks to Bua.  We pile in the back of the pick-up taxi and Bua starts our tour.  First stop is a an indigo shop nearby owned by this 75 year old lady and her daughters.

 Indigo is a centuries-old specialty of the Phrae area, having been developed by the peoples who settled here and discovered the abundant indigo plants.  Dark navy blue cotton is favored for clothing no matter whether farmer or businessman in this region.  I will call her Mrs. N because I did not get her name, but Mrs. N is still making indigo the old-fashioned way.  

A university group came a few years ago to study indigo and they supplied her with a big machine to mix the indigo paste, rather than laboriously mixing it by hand.  The machine sits by unused.  She tried it, but was not convinced it was as good as her way.  

Mrs. N show us a white cloth that her daughter Nee has blocked stamped with wax resist by hand.  Nee got an education and worked for a large business in Bangkok.  After several years, she was downsized and returned to her mother's business.  Nee brought with her new ideas.  They had always made plain blue cloth, but Nee began experimenting with wax block printing in her own designs.  They began to sell the new goods.  Soon the neighboring indigo shops were copying them.

The indigo dye paste is mixed with water in huge jugs.

Mrs. N will dye the fabric up to 7 times to achieve the right blue hue.

At first the fabric is greenish,but as the dye oxidizes, it turns blue.

Nee is hand-stamping an order of large scarves.  Through a government iniative, they have gotten an order to supply indigenous products to the Bangkok airport gift shop.  They tell us most places are using machines to dye their products.  They are dedicated to the traditional methods.  They have a very busy enterprise.

We have already shopped in the store front and I bought a tablecloth, Ben bought a shirt, and we got several scarves.

Nee lets us try our hand at printing elephants.

Mrs. N dyes them and we have little souveniers.

We have a lunch break of seafood soup nearby.

Next Bua wants to show us the local "Grand Canyon," that is like a mini version of the landscape we take for granted in the US Southwest.

This area is quite unique to the locals and they are very proud of it.

We arrive at Bua's home, and after showing us around, she hurries off to make us a homemade cold ginger drink.  We have our choice of 4 light filled rooms.  John and Lisa borrow a motor bike to go exploring and Ben walks around the property while I chat with Tymo.

It gets dark and we begin to worry a bit about John and Lisa. They finally arrive to tell us that the map Bua supplied them did not help much after they took a wrong turn.  A succession of small kids tried to help them, but no one understood the map.  The kids led them to a 13 year old boy who was able to point them in the right direction, after escorting them around for 10 minutes and back to the main road.

Bua and her sister Tim (Teem) prepare us a nice dinner to order.  We don't ever see the kitchen in the back of the open-air, thatched roof cafe building, but they produce a great dinner back there.  Corne is leading a Dutch tour group in Cambodia so he has been gone 3 weeks.  They miss him.

Tymo is serious in this photo, but he is a fun loving kid who plays with his Dad's old Legos and wants to show us books and toys.  I teach Tymo to play the card game War and he loves it, especially since he wins most the time.  Later, John takes over and plays several hands with him.

We head off to bed when Bua tells us we must be out of the house by 6:30 AM.  She has much to show us, as we will soon learn.