One of my favorite weaving villages is Ban Poen in Kalasin province, home of the unique “praewa” silk It’s a small village of the Phu Thai ethnic people. I remember on my first trip there we drove for a long while on narrow and somewhat winding roads through open hilly country before we descended onto a small village in the middle of nowhere. It certainly was a treasure of a find. These days, the road has much improved as the same route now takes you to the world-famous dinosaur excavation site and museum. Sirindhorn Museum (named after our beloved crowned princess), opened in 2007, has recently become one of Thailand’s top ten destinations, though 95 percent of the visitors remain Thai and only a handful of foreign tourists venture out to this remote area.