Point of view
The Ban Na Ton Chan community in Sukhothai offers a glimpse into the local lifestyle
It was dark outside and the crickets chirped monotonously. The rooster’s crow before dawn could easily wake up an entire household. I glanced at my watch only to realise it was 4am. Soon an e-taen, a modified farm truck, would pick me up to go watch the Sun rise over a sea of fog from Huai Ton Hai viewpoint in Sukhothai’s Ban Na Ton Chan village.
Sangiam Sawaenglap, 64, head of Ban Na Ton Chan Homestay Group, joined me in the truck with a basket loaded with fresh vegetables, fried fish and pork, which she would later use to prepare breakfast in her husband’s orchard.
“You are about to see the most breathtaking view of our village,” she said, as she got into the front of e-taen with the driver, who would also be my guide. I sat on a mat in the back.
The e-taen crawled for about 30 minutes and stopped at the foothill of Huai Ton Hai. The sky was still dark except for bright specks of fireflies. Two stray dogs, who followed the truck, became my companions as I ascended the hill. My guide handed me a torch while he wore a head torch.
“We will trek to the viewpoint before the sunrise. The route is about 800m,” he said.
It started off as an easy slope up to a bamboo forest, from where onwards became steep, endless steps to the top. Fortunately, villagers built a bamboo handrail to facilitate visitors. The handrail was helpful when I had to pull myself up the steep steps. Along the trail, there are about four rest areas.
It was hard to believe that the route, which was less than 1km to the top, took me about 40 minutes. I was tired out and kept dreaming of a foot massage later. It was cool at the top and as I sat on a bamboo platform waiting for the sunrise, my guide boiled water for coffee.
Huai Ton Hai viewpoint was discovered by accident by Sangiam a couple of years ago while she looked for wild mushrooms in the forest. She got lost and while she was resting saw an endless mountain range. She was impressed with the 360-degree scenic view of the green forest. As the one who initiated homestays more than a decade ago, she knew that the hilltop could definitely be the new attraction of her community.
As the sky started to turn gold, a thin layer of fog slowly floated between mountains in front of me. As I soaked in the changing scenery, my guide brought me coffee in a bamboo cup.
Water for the coffee is brought from the village and stored in a hut at the top along with other cooking tools. There are rest rooms and a camping area to facilitate visitors who want to pitch their tents there.
My guide also showed me a bamboo basket, which held seeds of yang na (hairy-leaf apitong tree) and slingshots. He taught me how to use a slingshot to shoot the seeds.
“We call this reforestation,” he said.
It was a small competition between my guide and me to as to who made the furthest shot. The results being obvious — I dropped a seed even before I released the sling.
Around 7am we trekked back down the mountain and rode the e-taen to the orchard of Sangiam’s husband, which also houses a raised-floor structure used for homestays. The house is quite cozy with a large bamboo balcony and is surrounded by tall trees.
Sangiam and her husband have prepared sticky rice with nam phrik num ( a northern-style green chilli dip), pork rinds, deep fried fish, sliced grilled pork and home-grown vegetables.
Sangiam told me that their ancestors were from the Lanna Kingdom. They migrated from their town, which today is Lampang, because of smallpox and cholera outbreaks. Three families settled in the area of Ban Na Ton Chan. Later about 30 families migrated from Utaradit to live in the community.
Today there are about 370 families in the village, most of them rice farmers. Women used to weave cotton clothes for their own use, but today, sell them also.
“Most of us have a wooden loom under our raised platform houses. We spend our free time weaving,” she added.
The handmade f abrics and clothes of Ban Na Ton Chan were like silky hair. The secret to softening the fabric is mud, said Sangiam. It is an old technique which upgrades the quality and makes the textile unique. The fermented-mud fabric is also certified by the government as a One Tambon One Product (Otop) of Sukhothai, Sangiam said. member earns about 4,000-8,000 baht a month from weaving and selling cloth.
At the community shop, Sangiam showed me the process of producing fermented-mud cloth. It starts by soaking cotton fabric in a mud jar for a day. It is then washed free of dirt and dyed using natural colours, such as light green from skins of the maprang (marian plum) fruit, yellow from barks of the jackfruit tree and bright red from barks of the mai pradu (Burma padauk) tree.
“We don’t offer a demonstration, but we dye the cloth daily at the centre. We are happy to share our knowledge and technique if visitors would like to learn the entire process, starting with weaving and ending with a finished piece of fermented-mud cloth,” she said, adding that such visitors would need to stay for a minimum of three days.
I spent the latter half of the day, cycling around the village accompanied by a student guide, who led me along a small dirt road to see a natural stream. The stream is a major water source for the village, vegetable plantations, orchards, rice fields and a small sunflower field in front of Ban Rai Chai Khao Homestay.
Ban Na Ton Chan is like staying in a relative’s home, surrounded by nature and where the food is delicious.