Mekong Export Festival, Isaan Thailand.

The other day Noot and I ventured to The Mekong Export Festival being held in the grounds of a local techno college.

Entering the huge dome tents which were set up with air conditioning thankfully as it is starting to warm up here in Ubon Ratchathani now. There were aisles of goods to be discovered and the first few aisles were food goods.

We headed away from the food area and into the clothing, jewelry, toys, arts and crafts and so forth area. Noot wandered to look at some very well made bags that were apparently 50% off retail price.

There was also bedding on offer and it was good quality and cheap. A 6ft duvet was only 550 Baht. With sheets and pillow cases it came in at 800 Thai Baht.

There was a heap of jewelry on display, the usual gold and pearls on offer but something different that caught my eye was this black stone set in white gold.

The face in the stone is of King Rama V, or King Chulalongkorn. He is very revered by Thais and his image can be seen in many businesses and houses across the country as Thais believe if you pay respect to him it will bring good luck and prosperity.

King Chulalongkorn ascended the Throne in 1868 at the age of 15. The King wanted people to be less subservient so he proclaimed that prostration in front of the king was to be abolished.

King Rama V became endeared to Thais when in 1905 he abolished slavery. The Slave Act was passed by King Rama V in 1905 to prohibit slave-trade.

There were a lot of stores with kids clothing, Noot seemed to be enjoying herself.

Clothes sales were the order of the day.

This is the closest I have come to seeing a Thai hippie.

Another alternative style stall.

Glove making on display and orders were welcome.

A crowd of shoppers, shoes and bags on sale.

There were stalls with beautiful Thai silk.

Timber products are very common and also cheap. The small chests were 380 Baht.

The solid key holders looked good and were 100-120 Baht each.

This was the only stall of brassware.

And the only stall of cane furniture.

This was the only stall selling these grandfather style clocks.

When you look at the clocks and see the prices that ranged from 500 Baht to 2,500 Baht, very reasonable when you think of the clock designs.

In a small area there were Lao products on offer, the most popular product that I know of is, Dao coffee. Also, anyone who has had the pleasure drinking beer Laos will also agree that this drop of beer is really good and very popular here in Thailand if you can get your hands on it.

So that was the Mekong Export Festival, tonight is the last night and Miss Noot wants to go and look for some last minute bargains. Also there is a concert on I believe but Noot isn’t sure about that. There were some good bargains on offer but most products I had seen before about the place and also the same price or cheaper.

Brunty