Thailand: Buying Authentic Souvenirs

You'll find the same souvenirs in night markets all over Thailand. Vendors in the Northern city of Chiang Mai will claim to have hand-painted the same umbrella and embroidered the same pillowcase you saw in Phuket. 

The only way to ensure you're getting authentic mementos is to go to the small factories where they're being made. You can do this by simply hopping on a motorbike or hiring a tour guide to take you out of the cities and into the countryside. I took a bike tour with a company called SpiceRoads cycling. 

First we stopped at a mango wood factory where we watched artisans cut down mango tree trunks, divide them into three or four large cylindrical pieces, stick them on a fast rotating spit and shave them down piece by piece into perfectly rounded bowls and vases. 


              

We then stopped at a steel factory where we watched craftsmen form steel into various sized containers and impress them with intricate patterns using just a hammer and nail. 

Last, we pulled into a rice factory. We observed how all the rice we'd passed in the glistening green paddies is transformed into the dry grain we cook at home. 

While souvenirs can be valuable memories of a trip regardless of whether they're "authentic," in this day and age where we're often so removed from the processes by which our commodities are produced it's refreshing to see where our purchases come from. In the case of Thailand, it's definitely worth the extra couple baht to support the artisans that are still creating work from scratch.