Beyond the Smiles: Community-based Tourism in Thailand
The clanging of metal on metal echoes through the narrow alleyways of Rattanakosin, Bangkok city’s old quarter. The gritty lanes of the temple-supply neighbourhood are known as ‘Ban Bat’ or ‘Village of Bowls’.
‘Uncle’ Auan and ‘Aunty’ Toom go about their work seated over sturdy metal poles, topped with a softball-sized metal ball, and all cemented into the laneway pavement. Metal hammer in hand, they shape pieces of steel into alms bowls for Buddhist monks.
The crafting of monks’ alms bowls has happened continuously in Ban Bat since the 1700s and is the only remaining community in Thailand continuing this ancient tradition. As necessary to a Buddhist monk as their saffron robes, an alms bowl is an essential object in their daily life. Primarily practical, it is used as a bowl to collect alms (typically food and such offerings) from lay supporters during early morning alms walks. There is also a cultural significance with rules on the bowls, the materials used, and size, which date back to Lord Buddha’s time.
It takes a week to beat and bend together the eight pieces of steel to create the finished bowl, typically between 17 and 28 centimetres in diameter. The eight sections of metal represent Buddha’s Eightfold Path and these handcrafted bowls are known to last a hundred years and make a sound as bright as a ringing bell when struck.
Uncle Auan, 58, does not know how long he can keep going and laments that this craft will die with him and the remaining Ban Bat alms bowl makers. Fifty years back, over one hundred Ban Bat families laboriously fashioned these traditional bowls, now there are just five families. As is the way with many artisanal crafts, modern factories started producing suitable bowls for much less, which for many Thai people meant the giving of a gift of an alms bowl to their local temple became more affordable.
There is support from public organisations and government to help promote and preserve this craft. Thanks to this external backing and the drive of the Ban Bat community, bowls will continue to be made for as long as they can find people interested in doing the work. But in limited numbers and for sale to collectors, tourists and affluent Thai who can afford them.
Ban Bat can be visited on a full-day tour operated by Thai social-enterprise organisation Local Alike. It starts at the always bustling, visually vibrant and truly fragrant 24-hour-a-day Bangkok wholesale flower market. Pak Khlong Talat as it’s known in Thai, is just a few blocks closer to the river than Ban Bat.
Leaving Ban Bat, tour participants travel by tuk tuk to Thonburi on the west banks of the Chao Phraya River, and specifically to the multi-cultural community of Kudeejeen (also spelt Kudichin).
The Santa Cruz Catholic Church, with its dominant crimson dome, sits riverside on land bestowed to the Portuguese community by King Taksin in 1769. Also found within this community are the Ton Son Mosque, the Chinese Guan Yu Shrine and two Thai temples, Wat Prayoon and Wat Kalayanamit which features Bangkok’s largest sitting Buddha at approximately 16 metres high and 11 metres wide.
Most visitors to the Thonburi side of the river focus on Wat Arun (Temple of the Dawn), the stark, white Wichai Prasit Fort, and The Artist’s House, otherwise known as Baan Silapin. Nowadays, Kudeejeen is being ‘discovered’ by a new wave of explorers thanks to the effort of community-based tourism groups like Local Alike.
Participants in this Local Alike tour enjoy lunch in Baan Sakul Thong – an old small traditional teak house and the home of Khun Kanittha Sakulthong. Her front room is the dining area and seats no more than 20 people, operating with advanced bookings only. Khun Kanittha now combines Royal Thai cuisine with recipes from her husband’s third-generation Portuguese grandmother. This is fusion food with a historical twist and absolutely delicious.
The tour also visits another charming old house just up the lane from Ban Sakul Thong with a café on the ground floor while the next two levels are dedicated to Ban Kudi Chin Museum. Navinee Pongthai, a fifth-generation Eurasian of the Kudeejeen neighbourhood, converted her aunt’s house into the café and museum. It features displays and info boards in excellent English, including maps detailing how the Portuguese first made it to Siam, and the layout of Thonburi when it served as the capital of Siam from 1768 to 1782. Entry to the museum is free, so be sure to stay for a coffee or a sweet treat.
And on the food front, visitors can also check out one of the four bakeries within the lanes of Kudeejeen village serving Portuguese influenced baked snacks including the Khanom farang, or ‘foreigner cake’, one of Kudeejeen’s best-known sweet treats.
‘Let’s Find Lost Treasures’ is the name of this Local Alike tour and it certainly delivered on its title.
Benefiting the community
Local Alike is just one of a number of community-based tourism operators in Thailand. They promise travellers that as well as taking part in off-the-beaten-path experiences, they will contribute to the preservation of the local environment, culture, and ways of life. Their stated mission is to “provide local communities with improved income distribution and livelihoods through community-based tourism while offering travellers authentic local experiences”.
In its seven years of operation, Local Alike has now assisted 100 local communities in 46 provinces across the Thai Kingdom to develop their particular community-based tourism offering. Having now completed three of their tours, I can attest to their diversity and truly authentic ‘grass-roots’ feel.
For example, for the day-long Local Alike tour to the Nong Rong village in Kanchanaburi, visitors learn about the community restored 100-acre forest. A place where native trees, vines and supporting understory are preserved, including the ancient medicinal elements derived from the woods. Visitors use forest vines to create local jewellery and weave bamboo to create traditional hammocks.
Local farmers explain, how having adopted the ‘sufficiency economy’ philosophy of King Rama IX to diversify their crops, their farming income has stabilised across the year, regardless of the climatic conditions. The tour is also a food tasting treat, including the absolutely delicious, and all-natural, rainbow rice crackers, plus unusual fruits and vegetables.
In the coastal district of Sam Roi Yod in the Prachuab Kirikhan province, the Nong Khao Niew community derives their income from an equal mix of farming and fishing. With the help of Local Alike, the village has now transitioned to more organic production of the fruits and vegetables that are part of Thai daily life. Visitors on this day-long tour harvest produce from the farm, then cook a selection of Thai dishes under the guidance of local women, before sitting down to a hearty lunch.
The afternoon is spent with the fisherman visiting their ‘crab bank’ where they now harvest and cultivate blue swimmer crab eggs before releasing hatchlings back to the waterways. This is another initiative Local Alike has helped the community with in solving an overfishing issue. Visitors also take to the sea on the traditional blue and red painted fishing boats to see first-hand the setting of the fishermen’s nets.
Need for community-driven initiatives
Although tourism is a key driver of Thai economic growth, with the sector contributing US$110 billion, or over a fifth of the country’s total annual economy, there is enormous potential for it to be harnessed for poverty reduction and development.
To highlight the issue of income inequality more clearly, the 2018 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report of 40 countries noted that the wealthiest 1% of Thais own over 66% of the nation’s wealth. At the other end of the scale, in 2017, Thailand’s average monthly household income was around THB 26,950 (US$ 827), while the poorest regions had a monthly income of THB 19,050 (US$ 585).
Local Alike’s financial model sees communities receive 70% of the tour purchase price. Local Alike retain 30% for their services (initial set-up, local training and support, web promotion, handling of bookings and payments, and the like). Of the 70% the local community receives, 5% must be invested into an agreed community development fund. This is then matched by a further 5% contribution from Local Alike. Though guided by Local Alike, the community is in the driving seat for this community-based tourism model.
Another component of this complicated situation is over-tourism -- an issue already experienced in several highly popular destinations across Thailand. To alleviate some of these issues and to help spread the tourism dollar, the Tourism Authority of Thailand launched an ‘Open to the New Shades’ campaign in 2019 to promote secondary and emerging destinations.
Moreover, with tourists increasingly searching for a deeper connection with the destinations they visit and the local people they meet, this trend presents a growing opportunity for community-based tourism. Enabling companies, like Local Alike, can assist and empower local communities to improve their quality of life through the development and marketing of community-based tourism initiatives. They can also help to leverage the tourism markets growing demand for unique local experiences.
Though not the only community-based tourism operator in this space, Local Alike has a substantial footprint in Thailand. As their website shows, they have also partnered with like-minded organisations in other Southeast Asian countries.
So, if you are looking to discover unique experiences while getting off-the-beaten-path, connecting with real communities, and perhaps feeling that you’re genuinely contributing in a socially responsible way, then check out what’s on offer when next visiting Thailand.
Header image: © Michael Cullen
DISCLOSURE: Michael Cullen was hosted by Local Alike on several of these tours. However the views and observations expressed in this article are entirely his own.
