Isan accommodation, North East Thailand

We have been careful to limit any impact on the village environment or culture. In fact quite the reverse. Our guest house is built mainly from recycled materials using timber from old houses. The pool water is run off from the roofing and then chlorinated for hygiene. The farm retains 70% of the forest and in fact visitors will see we plant many more trees than we clear.

Meals served include western cuisine but the vegetable and herbs used are mainly from the guest house grounds and our farm. The rice is also from our rice paddies. The gardens are landscaped using plants such as lemon grass, mango, lye chi, basil, chillies and many, many other varieties of fruit and herbs. Our garden and farm are both 100% organic.

Waste is 100% recycled. Our village has its own recycle system. Every week the re-cycle van comes to collect bottles, tin, aluminium etc. We are paid for this collection and the money given to our cleaners to encourage there participation. Any food scraps are taken to our farm to feed many of the different animals, including ducks, chickens, our dogs, peacocks, cows and monkeys. Our bathrooms are all fitted with bidets, and we request that bidets be used rather than waste paper. We use the minimum of power by having power turned off in all our accommodations when guest are not in. We have low amperage power, this means our lighting is not powerful but adequate. Our office is totally paper free, we have no need to buy paper as all information is collected on a computer. We do however use recycled paper for my customer invoices.

We have a shop in the guest house that sells village made handicrafts such as cotton clothing and materials. Most are made in the village. This is giving some income to our villagers. We encourage displays of local culture and in fact one of our most popular activities is a cultural “Phu Thai” dance and show performed by the children of our village. The fee is by donation and all proceeds go to the school for extra food and snacks for the students. Our guests spend on meals in the village as well as the guest house. This extra income to our village is very welcome. If we can increase the number of visitors we shall be in a position to put on more exhibitions of village culture including dancing and music shows. This helps to retain old “Phu Thai” traditions. The teachers here are very supportive of our guest house. We also give cooking lessons and weaving demonstrations, this also helps keep these traditions alive.

Our guests bring income to the village by shopping in our co-op shop, eating in the noodle shop, and donating to our school in payment for the cultural shows the children put on. We also employ villagers in the guest house to clean, cook and care for children etc. We only use village labour to build new accommodation and developments. Selling village made cloths and handicrafts is a very useful income for the villagers.

All produce such as vegetables is from our village; there is a barter culture within the “Phu Thai” and we swap much produce at the guest house, but also allow villagers to help themselves to such things as lemon grass, chillies etc, from our gardens. The guest house was built from materials mainly recycled from old houses here and in nearby villages. The cement and hardware is from our local hardware store. Furniture here is 80% handcrafted by local villages. All beds, and “villa” furniture is 100% made locally (villages within 20 kilometres). There is a thriving handicraft industry in villages close to us and we support this by purchasing as much as we can from locals.