Northeastern Thailand - Thailand - page 905

Around Khon Kaen
Chonnabot
This small town located 55km southwest of Khon Kaen is one of Thailand's most success-
ful silk villages and is famous for producing top-quality mát·mèe . The Sala Mai Thai ( 0
4328 6160; 8am-5pm) is a silk-weaving museum 1km west of town where you can
learn about the entire silk-making process, and even take a turn at a loom. Out back is an
exhibition hall showing the wooden contraptions devised to spin, tie, dye and weave silk
by hand, and a large machine used in factories. A pair of mock-Isan houses hold various
traditional household items, and a room upstairs catalogues traditional mát·mèe patterns.
The museum sells silk too, but most people buy from the myriad shops on Th Sriboon-
ruang, aka Silk Road , some of which also stock attractive cotton fabrics made in the nearby
village of Ban Lawaan. If you get away from the centre of town, particularly to the north
near the temple and school, you'll sometimes see women working looms under their
houses and they rarely mind if you stop by to take a look.
Most people visit as part of a tour so they can be sure to see silk weaving and thread
making, but it's possible to go by public transport. Buses bound for Nakhon Sawan, de-
parting from Khon Kaen's ordinary bus terminal, will drop you in Chonnabot (42B, one
hour, six daily). Or take a bus (35B, one hour, every 30 minutes) or train (9B, 30 minutes,
8am and 8.30am) to Ban Phai, where you can get a bus to Chonnabot (20B, 20 minutes,
hourly).
Prasat Puay Noi
The 12th-century Prasat Puay Noi ( dawn-dusk) is the largest and most interesting Kh-
mer ruin in northern Isan, though it can't compete with even some of the not-so-famous
ruins further south. About the size of Buriram's Prasat Muang Tam, but less grand, the
east-facing monument comprises a large central sandstone sanctuary surmounted by three
partially collapsed prang and surrounded by laterite walls. There are still some excellent
carvings intact, including Shiva riding his bull Nandi, on the pediment on the back of the
'library' and some almost lifelike naga on the corner of the main entrance.
By public transport from Khon Kaen, catch a bus (35B, one hour, every 30 minutes) or
train (9B, 30 minutes, 8am and 8.30am) to Ban Phai, then catch a sŏrng·tăa·ou to Puay