Even though Phuket is well known for clear water and sandy beaches, the island also has alternatives for those who want to know more about local communities.
Visitors jump for joy on the sand bar during low tide.
To promote local experiences, the Phuket Provincial Office of Tourism and Sports Ministry selected Ban Bang Rong and Ban Khanaen in Thalang district as the role models of community-based tourism this year. Both villages have a variety of activities to encourage visitors to learn about their way of life. They expect that visitors will see another side of Phuket or extend their holiday on the resort island to visit their communities.
Stay close to nature
Located in the northeastern part of the island, Ban Bang Rong is an old community with a history that dates back more than two centuries.
According to Prasert Ritraksa, president of Ban Bang Rong Community Based Tourism Club, the community was a transportation and trading hub where people from other countries loaded their goods to be transported from Thalang to elsewhere.
"Our Bang Rong pier was a large busy port. Although it is no longer a transportation hub, the pier is still in use until today, particularly as a shelter for boats during storms," he said.
The pier is located on a mouth of Bang Rong River, which also has a large mangrove forest. The pier is well known for transporting visitors via speedboat from mainland Phuket to Ko Yao Noi or Ko Yao Yai. Often, Ban Bang Rong is overlooked by tourists.
"Our community is the rural area of Phuket," he said, adding: "We do not have beaches, but we have the last mangrove forest on the island."
Most of the people living in the community are Muslim fishermen and farmers.
The idea of introducing tourism came after the community faced a critical situation more than 20 years ago. The area's fish population disappeared along with the mangrove forest, which was devastated by the now-defunct government policy that offered concessions for people to cut mangrove trees to produce charcoal.
"It was a great sorrow to me to see the deforestation," recalled Prasert. He realised that he had to help try to bring back the marine habitat, which he and other fishermen regard as their "natural supermarket".
Lanthom Kaewkaemsri prepares ingredients for som tam at the Thalang Cultural Village of Ban Khanaen. She doesn't use fish sauce or preserved fish, using shrimp paste instead. In addition to chilli, som tam Thalang must also have black peppers, which Lanthom said helps ease flatulence caused by raw papaya. She also adds small dried fish that are softened after being soaked in water for a while. She also pounds the fish in the mortar before adding sliced papaya. Once completed, she sprinkles deep fried small fish on top of the som tam and serves it with home-grown raw vegetables such as young leaves of cassava plants, star gooseberries and betel leaves.
In 1996, he initiated a reforestation project to bring back the mangrove forest. To his surprise, he didn't have much support at the start. This was because not all fishermen understood the benefits the mangrove forest offered the marine ecosystem.
With determination, he planted mangrove trees with the support of a small group of people. A few years later, more people noticed the benefits of the forest and joined the group. Prasert had more followers when people realised that they were able to catch more fish.
"Today we have 3,000 rai of healthy mangrove forest. We have plenty of fish, crab and shrimp. We no longer to ride our boats far from our homes to find food, as we did in the past," he said.
After the reforestation project became a success, the community had visitors who came to learn from the community's experience. In response, Prasert set up the tourism club more than a decade ago to manage tourism activities.
Today they offer kayaking tours for visitors to paddle along the coast of mangrove forests and also offer farm tours where visitors can try to retrieve latex from rubber trees, feed goats and taste durians, pineapples, mangosteens and longans from the local orchards.
The club also offers boat rides to bring visitors to fish pens and to Koh Phae to see the so-called "thale waek", a sandbar that comes into view at low tide.
The tourism club also joined hands with the Khao Phra Thaeo Wildlife Development and Conservation Promotion Station to guide visitors to Bang Pae and Ton Sai waterfalls as well as to visit the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project, which was established in 1992 by Noppadol Preuksawan, the chief of the Forest Department in Phuket, and the Asian Wildlife Fund. Today the project is operated under the Wild Animal Rescue Foundation of Thailand.
The aim is to rescue captive gibbons and release them back to their habitat after they regain their survival instinct, and to educate the public to have a better understanding of the plight of gibbons in captivity.
"Visitors to Ban Bang Rong will experience the way of life of fishermen, and will also have fresh seafood and an opportunity to stay close to nature," Prasert said.
Gastronomic tourism
Located about 20 minute drive from Ban Bang Rong, Ban Khanaen is another old community and was established in the Ayutthaya period, said Tribunyat Jariyalerpong, 59, president of the Thalang Cultural Village of Ban Khanaen.
From Ban Bang Rong, you can take a 20-minute boat ride to see Thalae Waek at Koh Phae.
"We have old temples like Wat Phra Nang Sang. Its old prayer hall used to be a military command centre for Thalang troops during the Burmese-Siamese War more than 200 years ago. We also have Wat Khanaen, which was built 180 years ago," he said.
The idea to introduce tourism occurred accidentally. It started when Tribunyat quit his political life and returned to his home in Thalang in the early 90s. He later found that Wat Khanaen was abandoned. In 1994, he started to renovate the temple with the support of villagers. They spent about seven years on the renovations.
"During the period, we loosely formed a club that had many activities we hosted on the temple grounds such as traditional dances and drum performances. We sometimes had student visitors who want to know about our food," he said.
Chaiya Anafarang represents the second generation of his family that runs the goat farm in Ban Bang Rong. He has about 40 goats that he raises for meat and milk. He also opens his farm to visitors who feed the young goats and offers pasteurised goat milk for sale.
When the temple was completed in 2001, locals still wanted to have a centre for them to meet and to hold activities. Tribunyat offered his 6 rai plot of land, which was a rubber plantation, to be the centre.
They built an open-air meeting hall with a kitchen at the back, a traditional house and pavilions for hosting activities in a rustic garden. The centre is named Thalang Cultural Village of Ban Khanaen.
"We didn't have the intention of opening our centre for tourists, but our food drew the attention of others. By the power of word of mouth, tourists came to our village," he said.
Opened for 17 years, the centre today offers a series of cooking activities.
Visitors to Ban Khanaen are welcomed by a warm-up aerobic session. They call it "norabic" in which they combine the movement of nora dance (a traditional dance from the South) with aerobics. Everyone is encouraged to join the exercise to break the ice.
Then comes the highlights. Temporary cooking stations are set up at different corners of the meeting hall. Most of the visitors usually gather around the som tam Thalang station in order to taste the hot and spicy dish with black pepper and shrimp paste.
Other local dishes include tomsom som phrom (the sour and spicy soup with local vegetables), kleu koei (spicy and salty dip made of shrimp paste for eating with sour fruits) and namchub khayam (chilli dip) for eating with rice. Visitors can try cooking those dishes for their lunch.
"We gather in the meeting hall only when we have visitors or special events. For other normal days, we have our own jobs to do," said Lanthom Kaewkaemsri, who is in charge of the food preparation.
"I like being here because it is fun to teach visitors how to make our food and see how much they like the hot and spicy som tam Thalang," she said.
Both communities are friendly while their activities are also enjoyable. They offer an alternative for visitors who want to have more memorable experiences while visiting Phuket.
At Ban Khanaen, you can try cooking Thalang-style dishes and making snacks such as khanom khrok (soft pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk without additional sugar) and khanom khu or a glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with palm sugar and coated with fresh coconut shreds.
At Ban Khanaen, you can try cooking Thalang-style dishes and making snacks such as khanom khrok (soft pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk without additional sugar) and khanom khu or a glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with palm sugar and coated with fresh coconut shreds.
Located not far from Ban Bang Rong, Khao Phra Thaeo is the source of water for the Thalang people. It covers an area of 22.28m² and is home to the Bang Pae Waterfall. Some rare species were discovered in this rainforest including palm chao muang Thalang (white elephant palm) and ngu khieo hang mai Phuket (Phuket pit viper).
Chaiya Anafarang represents the second generation of his family that runs the goat farm in Ban Bang Rong. He has about 40 goats that he raises for meat and milk. He also opens his farm to visitors who feed the young goats and offers pasteurised goat milk for sale.
While walking on a wooden walkway to the restaurant operated by Ban Bang Rong Community Based Tourism Club, you may see macaques. Keep your bottles of water or snacks in your bag otherwise a macaque will try to steal it.
A model of the traditional wooden home in Thalang. Under the raised floor house there is a station for visitors to weave coconut leaves into animals like fish, grasshoppers and birds.
Tom som som phrom is the name of a sour and clear soup. It is made of local vegetables like morning glory, banana trunks, pineapple, sun-dried fish and shrimp paste. The soup is sour because of slices of dried fruit of som khwai or Garcinia and leaves of som poi or shikakai (Acacia concinna). The dish is served at the Thalang Cultural Village of Ban Khanaen.
Wat Phra Nang Sang is an old temple in Thalang. Its prayer hall houses seated Buddha images from the Ayutthaya period and also has a secret space under the raised platform for preserving community treasures. The access to the space is now closed.
Travel Info
At Ban Khanaen, you can try cooking Thalang-style dishes and making snacks such as khanom khrok (soft pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk without additional sugar) and khanom khu or a glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with palm sugar and coated with fresh coconut shreds.
At Ban Khanaen, you can try cooking Thalang-style dishes and making snacks such as khanom khrok (soft pancakes made with rice flour and coconut milk without additional sugar) and khanom khu or a glutinous rice dumplings stuffed with palm sugar and coated with fresh coconut shreds.
Located not far from Ban Bang Rong, Khao Phra Thaeo is the source of water for the Thalang people. It covers an area of 22.28m² and is home to the Bang Pae Waterfall. Some rare species were discovered in this rainforest including palm chao muang Thalang (white elephant palm) and ngu khieo hang mai Phuket (Phuket pit viper).
Chaiya Anafarang represents the second generation of his family that runs the goat farm in Ban Bang Rong. He has about 40 goats that he raises for meat and milk. He also opens his farm to visitors who feed the young goats and offers pasteurised goat milk for sale.
While walking on a wooden walkway to the restaurant operated by Ban Bang Rong Community Based Tourism Club, you may see macaques. Keep your bottles of water or snacks in your bag otherwise a macaque will try to steal it.
A model of the traditional wooden home in Thalang. Under the raised floor house there is a station for visitors to weave coconut leaves into animals like fish, grasshoppers and birds.
Tom som som phrom is the name of a sour and clear soup. It is made of local vegetables like morning glory, banana trunks, pineapple, sun-dried fish and shrimp paste. The soup is sour because of slices of dried fruit of som khwai or Garcinia and leaves of som poi or shikakai (Acacia concinna). The dish is served at the Thalang Cultural Village of Ban Khanaen.
Wat Phra Nang Sang is an old temple in Thalang. Its prayer hall houses seated Buddha images from the Ayutthaya period and also has a secret space under the raised platform for preserving community treasures. The access to the space is now closed.
Ban Bang Rong is about 20 minutes drive from Phuket International Airport. You can take a taxi to the village (about 700 baht for a one-way trip).The community offers one-day to three-day trips with homestay service. Bang Rong Community Based Tourism Club also works with local resorts to offer more comfortable accommodation.Call Prasert Ritraksa on 084-309-9131 or visit its Facebook page at goo.gl/4F4sgJ.
Thalang Cultural Village of Ban Khanaen can be visited anytime, but visitors need to make advance booking by calling Thanyarak Jariyalerpong at 081-895-6864.Visit its Facebook page at goo.gl/kepCaq.
For more information, visit the website of Phuket Provincial Office of Tourism and Sports Ministry at phuket.mots.go.th and amazingthailand.go.th or call 076-217-054.
