Our first morning in Khon Kaen also happened to be the last day of the annual Khon Kaen Silk Fair so we resisted the urge to laze about a pool and drink beer and hopped in the car to see the fair.
It was a hot day and the Fair was crowded so it took a while to find a parking spot....especially as Thai drivers park anywhere they feel like with not a lot of concern whether they block off other parked cars.
We found a spot eventually and entered the fair. Or so we thought. We walked for maybe a kilometre through a long alley packed with endless stalls...mostly nothing to do with silk. There was clothing, food, fluffy toys, cold drinks and anything you could think of.
Eventually we reached a giant 3 metre high sticky rice basket, again nothing to do with silk but it appeared to promise to be the portal to silk heaven. And so it was.
Oddly the silk pavillion was very small, with maybe 2 dozen silk stores and about 10 people weaving silk using looms. Most of the weavers were actually sitting around a TV set eating, but its the thought that counts.
The local mat mee silk on display was indeed fabulous, mostly sourced from the Chonnabot district about an hour's drive from Khon Kaen....but it is expensive, very expensive. Compared to what you would pay in Europe or the USA for the same product, however, the prices were a bargain.
In the end we left with no silk but some cook red and black toy spiders and a bag of fresh honeycomb complete with dozens of half stoned bees.
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