Bang Sai Royal Folk Arts and Crafts Centre

The centre was founded in 1976 as part of the SUPPORT foundation, Queen Sirikit's programme to revive Thai handicrafts and give rural families income outside the rice-growing season - the reasoning was practical rather than sentimental, since traditional skills were being lost as they stopped paying. It occupies a large riverside site in Bang Sai where students from farming families across the country come for residential training in weaving, basketry, wickerwork, silk, wood carving, doll making, artificial flowers, metalwork and other crafts, and visitors can watch training workshops in progress and buy the output. There is also a freshwater aquarium, a bird park and a small museum on the site, which broadens it into a family destination. Weekends are busier and more workshops are staffed then. It sits on the river between Bangkok and Ayutthaya and can be reached by boat as well as road.

What you actually see

• The training workshops - students working weaving, basketry, carving and metalwork.
• The SUPPORT programme - the 1976 scheme behind the centre.
• The craft shop - trainee and graduate output sold on site.
• The riverside grounds - aquarium, bird park and museum on the same site.

When to go

November to February. Weekdays during term have the workshops working; weekends are busier but training is reduced. Half a day covers it.

Honest expectations

Workshops are not all staffed on any given day and training follows a term schedule. Ticketed, with separate charges for some attractions on site. It is spread out and involves walking in the heat.

Nearby

Ayutthaya is north; Bang Pa-In palace is between them on the river.