Thailand homestay & tours in Koh Pet

Our homestay is situated in Koh Pet, a rice village in the heart of rural Isaan. You will instantly be welcomed and invited to participate in, or simply enjoy watching every-day life going on around you.

The house is surrounded by beautiful gardens growing bananas, papaya, mango and custard apple. There is a cool, shady barbecue and eating area in the garden and a splashpool nearby to rest tired feet.

As we accommodate a maximum of six people, you are always assured of the best attention and privacy.

Koh Pet Village is a genuine, totally original, unspoilt environment where you can experience a wonderfully relaxed Thai lifestyle. For many of our guests, what makes this visit uniquely rewarding is the opportunity to participate in, and be a part of, Isan life, from shopping in the local market for the day's meals or joining the family for lunch in the rice fields, to simply sitting in the garden watching a neighbour herd their cows to the nearby field and exchanging "hellos" with the village children as they file past on their way to school.

Alternatively, you can just take a few days' break and sit on the verandah watching the sun set over the lake. The big plus is that your accommodation is kept well within Western standards of cleanliness and hygiene. The tours we are offering give visitors the opportunity to explore some of the many attractions in the surrounding area and to experience rural village life. The beautifully restored Khmer temple complex at Phimai; the excavations at Ban Prasat, revealing a 3000 year old agricultural/ceramic culture; the silk weaving and pottery villages, are just some of the highlights. In doing so, they help the villagers supplement their income by demonstrating and teaching traditional crafts: basket-weaving, mat-making, silk-making etc.

The following tours and activity packages are offered as standard but guests are invited to choose individual elements of each tour to make a tailor-made package of their choice. 

Bamboo and reeds into baskets and mats
From £100 per person (3 days), ex flights
This 3 day package starts by collecting the rushes from the lakeside, drying them and making a loom to make the mat of your choice in size and colour. You will also collect bamboo, learn how to split it, shape it and weave it into a basket of any size or shape to take home. 

Silk-making
From £100 per person (3 days), ex flights
You can see silk being made in many places in Thailand but this is an opportunity to have hands-on experience of all the stages of silk-making from cultivating the silk worms to finishing off a scarf or table centre to take home. The village in which the demonstrations take place has regularly won the Queen’s Award for Excellence in silk production and the villagers are very proud of their skills and versatility. You can try your hand at dying, spinning and weaving. If the time is right, you can even start by picking the silk moths off the mulberry leaves in the homestay garden!

Food-foraging
From £100 per person (3 days), ex flights
This 3-day experience covers most of the villagers’ food-foraging techniques from dawn to dusk. During the day, you will accompany some of the village elders to the rice fields to collect an array of edible insects, scorpions, water beetles etc. You can also wander around Lamai’s family’s organic garden on the edge of the rice fields where you can pick vegetables for dinner.

At dusk you will don a “miner’s helmet” to search for fresh water crabs and edible frogs. In between the trips, you can learn how to make a variety of basket traps for eels and fish and, if you wish, you can help Lamai with cooking the catch of the day.

Isaan Cultural Tour
From £149 per person (5 days), ex flights
This tour includes: the Khmer temple at Phimai, the highlights of Khorat City including Wat Sala Loi and the potteries at Dan Kwian, as well as the fantastic temples at Phanom Rung and Muang Tam.

Village Life Experience
From £61 per person (3 days), ex flights
A snapshot of rural life in an Isaan rice village. Combine a visit to the family, the school and the rice fields with a day in the local silk village and the market.

A Taste of Tradition
From £73 per person (4 days), ex flights
A two-day experience of traditional life, including visiting the silk village and the market, accompanying the family on a food-foraging trip and a visit to the bamboo craftsman with an opportunity to try your hand at basket-making.

Rural Life Tour
From £85 per person (4 days), ex flights
A combination of village activities as in the Village Life Experience plus a day in the Phimai Historical Park, the banyan grove at Sai Ngam and the 3000 year old archaeological site at Ban Prasat.

Khmer Highlights
From £99 per person (2 days), ex flights
For visitors on a tight time schedule, this is an opportunity to visit Ban Prasat and Phimai on one day, - Phanom Rung, Muang Tham and Dan Kwian on the following day with a night in between spent at the homestay. Pick up from and return to Khorat.

Please note: All the above prices are based on 2-4 persons. Children under 4 are FREE, children between 4 and 12 yrs old pay 70% of the adult price.

In our large, airy house there are three bedrooms - two with air-con and one with fan. There is also a stone-built twin-bedded annexe and a traditional one-room dwelling made from mud and rice-husk blocks. Both are fan-cooled. There is a western style toilet and shower in the main house and a second shower room.

You may choose Western or Thai (Isaan) meals and any specific dietary requirements can be catered for provided advance notification is given. If you're interested, you can accompany Lamai to the local market and watch her prepare the simple dishes.

Meals are served on the verandah or on one of the picnic tables in the garden (depending on the weather).

Family friendly: Lamai and Jimmy have an eight year old daughter of their own, and on many occasions, there are several village children playing in the large garden. There is a lovely cool splashpool  where children can bathe and several of the activities, e.g. the food-foraging, basket-making and mat-making are enjoyed by children from all over the world. Food can also be modified to children's tastes.
Wherever you're travelling up North, we are centrally located and will meet you at your drop off point (airport, bus/train station) by private car, day or night. We are 90 mins from Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima) airport, 20 mins from Bua Yai rail station (Bangkok-Khon Kaen line). By bus you must travel from Bangkok on Highway 2 northeast to Nong Khai on the Laos border. The bus stops at Sidar, half way between Khorat and Khon Kaen.

As the village is off the beaten track, if you are driving, we will arrange to meet you either in Sidar or Bua Yai and you can follow us home (10 minutes).