Factory Tours

Hi!

On Saturday we went on tours of several different factories in Chiang Mai.  A huge tourist bus picked us up from Uniserv (where we are staying) and drove us out to each of the factories.   

The first one we visited was a pottery factory and it was my favorite.  We got to see people actually doing each of the different steps to make a piece of pottery.  Afterward we went into the pottery store and I bought a few things from there.  

The next place we went to was a gemstone factory where we watched a video about how they harvested the gems from Chanthaburi in southeastern Thailand and then shipped them all over Thailand and the world to be sold.  We got to see a room where some people were working on refining the stones and carving them into different shapes to make figurines and jewelry, but there was only one person doing each job so I figured the real factory part where they mass produced them was some where else.  Then we went into a show room floor where they had cases and cases of all kinds of jewelry.  Unfortunately they were all high end and regular priced, one girl on our trip tried on a ring that she later found out cost $25,000!  There were a lot of signs saying that we couldn't take pictures so that's why I don't have any from this factory.

Afterward we went to a gold-leafing factory where we got to see the process of plating different items in gold.  There was also a shop where they sold some of the things they made but everything was expensive there too so I didn't buy anything there either.  The ladies who worked there were fascinated by us for some reason and asked if they could take pictures of us with our CMU (Chiang Mai University) bags so that was pretty funny.  

Then we went to a silver factory, but to me it didn't really seem like a silver factory because we didn't get to see any of the production part of it.  A lady just talked to us about what they do and then we were just led into another expensive show room.  There were a lot of pretty pieces in there though and I got to take pictures of them. 

 

The last factory we visited was a silk factory and I liked this one a lot too.  We got see all the stages of making a silk item, all the way from raising the silk worms to spinning the silk to weaving the fabric.  Then we walked around the silk store that had a lot of beautiful things but also very expensive.  I want to get some silk items but I will probably get them from one of the night markets instead.  

I was glad that these factory tours were planned into the study abroad trip because I don't think we would have thought to see all of these places on our own.  Okay I have to go get ready for my Thai language class so that's all for now.  Talk to you later!

Michelle <3