Wednesday, October 13, 2010

From IST to TST...Thailand-ing Day 1

I went on a 4 day trip to Thailand it was a "official" trip meaning an all expenses paid trip to visit places which is relevant to my work and missing out on all the fun places that most tourist visit. This trip came as a surprise to me, I had no idea that this trip was getting finalised I had made my own holiday plans to Bhutan during the Durga Puja Break...but for a wanderlust like me any kind of plan for travelling to a new country is always welcome.

The best part about the trip was our visit to the not so much tourist places like the OTOP craft villages and Craft Centers at Chiang Mai Province at North Thailand, I was amazed the see the kind of craftsman ship the craftsperson have at the centers and was mighty impressed. The craft villages were well maintained and the designs were just amazing, I ended up buying quite many items from the craft centers. In Thailand they have this project which was launched to support the crafts and artisans in various villages, its called "OTOP" centers, thats One Tambon One Product concept, in other words One Village One Product. It was a govt. backed programme with strong marketing networks. The finishing and craftsmanship was too good and I think artisans are given orientations in such a way that the products that they make must be world class and export quality goods. We visited OTOP centers at Saraphi District and a huge crafts village called "Ban Thawai", it was abt 50 times the size of Dilli Haat but with much better products and much, much cleaner. I was so damn impressed with the Thai people, we really can learn a great deal from them. Day 1 was spend on travelling at the OTP centers and some bit of shopping at the Anusarn Night Market, I couldn't resist buying so many items but what was really great abt Day 1 was the food we had at the Anusarn Market, it was just too good. It was a day well spent with some amazing food to end with.

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