The new premium attraction, which is now open to the public, is on the 74th, 75th and 78th floor of the King Power Mahanakhon Buildin and features one of the world’s largest glass tray floors, Thailand’s highest Rooftop Bar, and Thailand’s fastest video-themed elevators — which allow visitors to ascend to the 74th floor in just 50 seconds.

Located in the heart of Bangkok’s central business district and directly connected to Chong Nonsi BTS station, the attraction is set to become a global landmark destination that transforms Thailand’s tourism scene into a truly international force.

“The launch of Mahanakhon SkyWalk sets a new milestone in King Power’s history. As a Thai company, we are extremely proud to create a new landmark in the heart of Bangkok that enhances Thailand’s tourism image as a world-class travel destination. The new attraction is the first of its kind in Thailand to offer a completely new experience and impressive perspective of Bangkok’s skyline,” says Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, chief executive of King Power Mahanakhon.

Mahanakhon SkyWalk is being promoted to both Thai and foreign visitors in order to stimulate the economy and long-term spending while sustainably enhancing its tourism and retail industries.

Mahanakhon SkyWalk consists of:

First Floor: Lobby, main entrance and ticket counter for Mahanakhon SkyWalk. After purchasing tickets, visitors will proceed to the elevator boarding area via a Bangkok-themed digital corridor where they can experience Thailand’s fastest elevators and reach the 74th floor in 50 seconds.

The 74th Floor: Indoor Observation Deck. Experience 360-degree panoramic views and learn about Bangkok’s key landmark destinations through interactive screens and an Augmented Reality experience. Send postcards to loved ones from Thailand’s highest post-box!

The 75th Floor: Mezzanine, Restroom facilities, and glass elevator boarding area

The 78th Floor: Rooftop area and outdoor observation deck with one of the world’s largest glass tray floors at a height of 310 metres; “The Peak” Bangkok’s highest viewpoint at 314 metres above ground level, and Thailand’s highest rooftop bar with signature drinks and cocktails.

The attraction is open daily from 10am to midnight with the last admission at 11pm.

To celebrate the launch, special promotions include a complimentary upgrade to the rooftop with the purchase of a Mahanakhon SkyWalk ticket at Bt765 (from the normal price of Bt1,050) from today until January 31.

Visitors can enjoy direct BTS Skytrain access to the attraction via Chong Nonsi Station, exit 3.

For the latest updates on promotions and activities, visit http://www.KingPowerMahanakhon.co.th, or Youtube.com/watch?v=aMWQ0X25Zak

Three decades ago, the only people who had heard of Ban Dong were its residents and those who lived in the surrounding villages.

Today, the success of its Weaving Women Group has put the Lua village in the mountains of Mae Hong Son on the map, and it’s all thanks to one of its residents, the energetic Pim Kayanyaiying.

The 42-year-old Lua woman has been leading her fellow female villagers in producing hand-woven fabric for more than 25 years and her enthusiasm for learning new skills, developing new products and continuously improving quality has made the textile known all over Thailand as a One Tambon One Product (Otop) of Mae Hong Son.

Sangla Praimeekha, Ban Pa Pae’s village headman, poses with the country’s first rice bank.

But she still sees room for growth, which is why she is so pleased that her village has been selected as one of target areas in a research project for the Thai farmer-based tourism initiative.

It is said that the Lua people, also known as the Le Wuea and Lawa, lived in Lanna Kingdom before Chiang Mai was founded more than 700 years ago. Although its population is relatively small, with just 50,000 Lua in Thailand, the ethnic group has preserved its unique of way of life.

It is that uniqueness which inspired local researcher Thananchai Mungjit to encourage the highlanders to further explore their values and the meaning of their lives with the aim of establishing a community-based tourism programme.

Thananchai Mungjit

“Our goal [in conducting the research] is to make the Lua communities able to develop their own potential,” says Thananchai, who started the research project last month.

Under the research, the Lua’s way of life will be explored and the data obtained communicated to the world, explains the 44-year-old Mae Hong Son native.

Supported by the Thailand Research Fund [TRF]’s community-based research division, Thananchai selected three remote Lua’s villages – Ban Dong, Ban Laoob and Ban Pa Pae – as the research areas and recruited villagers from each of them to help him in the research project.

Each village has its own unique characteristics that will be highlighted in the research.

Ban Dong is famous for its beautiful terraced rice paddies stretching all along the hillside as well as the top quality local hand-woven fabric while Ban Pa Pae’s first rice bank of Thailand and the community’s sufficiency philosophy has become a model for other villages.

Ban Laoob, meanwhile, produces silver jewellery that’s second to none.

A senior Lua villager dyes colourful thread in Ban Pa Pae.

Located in Mae Hong Son’s Mae La Noi district, Ban Dong’s weaving women’s group turns their textiles into clothing, bags, and home decor items, which are sold at the Mae La Noi Royal Project Development Centre not far from the village.

In the past, the group wove cotton fabric, which is popular across the province.

As the group leader, Pim thought she needed to find something new to differentiate the group’s hand-woven goods from the rest of the market.

So in 1999, when Pim learned that Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn would visit her village, she learnt how to weave wool fabric, the famous fabric produced in Ban Huay Hom neighbourhood, and made a woollen scarf as a gift for the Princess.

Pim then asked the Princess for some sheep so the village could produce its own wool and was granted 20 sheep to raise. Her group has mixed the wool with cotton in its weaves ever since.

A member of Ban Dong Weaving Women Group weaves the local fabric.

“Our hand-woven fabrics are very soft and have a unique structure and extraordinary tribal patterns,” says Pim.

The Lua people’s patterns are inspired by nature and traditional patterns include a reticulated python and peacock’s tail, Pim explains.

Pim, who is also working with the project, hopes the research will help preserve this folk wisdom and bring back the traditional woven cloth for the younger generation and for sale, as well as help in the design of new patterns that represent the uniqueness of her tribe.

A women’s group in Ban Pa Pae makes bead necklaces to earn a living.

A 10-minute ride north of Ban Dong is Ban Laoob, a Lua village in the same district and home to fine silverware and woven cloth. This village was chosen for the research project to gather information on the knowledge and traditions of Lua people’s jewellery.

Silver jewellery has been an integral part of life of the ethnic group for more than 130 years so they usually have their own silversmith under their roof, says Narong Pimjaiprapa, a silversmith at Ban Laoob and a team researcher.

The silver jewellery worn by the Lua people on sale at Ban Laoob

The most common jewellery worn are bracelets, earrings and necklaces made of silver, according to Narong, who has earned a living silversmithing since he was 16 and now earns some Bt100,000 a month from his handicrafts.

In the old days, the number of pieces or size of the jewellery symbolised the social and economic status of the hilltribes, Narong explains, adding that while he was told the history of silverware in his village by his forebears, the research will help him find out more about traditions related to the craft.

Further south in Ban Pa Pae of Mae Sariang district, the Lua are very proud of their country’s first rice bank as well as their sufficiency economy, a philosophy developed by His Majesty the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Traditionally, the villagers here are rice farmers, cultivating one crop per year on terraces.

The beautiful rice terraces are one of the tourist attractions of Ban Dong.

They recall the hard times when drought prevented them from growing enough rice to eat and how King Bhumibol changed their lives completely.

“King Bhumibol visited the village in 1970 with Her Majesty the Queen. The King suggested that we establish a rice bank to guard against food shortages and granted Bt20,000 as startup costs,” recounts Sangla Praimeekha, the village headman.

The villagers spent the money on 20,000kg of rice and shared it among the villagers.

The concept of the rice bank is to lend rice to villagers at 20 per cent interest. In short, anyone who borrows 10kg of rice has to return 12kg of rice another year, explains the village headman.

These days the villagers have enough rice to consume and thus no need to borrow from the bank. However, the bank is still operating and keeps an annual stock of one or two tonnes – just in case.

The villagers farm rice for their own consumption but in years where the yield is high, they will allocate some for sale.

“If we have enough rice to eat, it means we are welloff. We can survive with what we produce because we adhere to the sufficiency economy philosophy,” he says proudly.

Sangla hopes the research will help elevate Ban Pa Pae’s quality of life, while making the village known to the outside world and preserving their traditional rice growing rituals as well as rice species.

None of the residents of the three villagers are strangers to tourism, welcoming visitors every year and providing a homestay service, but they still lack the capacity to manage community-based tourism, Thananchai says.

And tourists visiting the villages do not understand how the paddy field or the hand-loomed fabric are so intricately woven with the Lua way of life, he adds.

“So, we hope the research will pad out an understanding in the tribe’s way of life,” he says.

“And for the villagers, we hope the Thai farmer-based tourism initiative will be a tool to drive the communities to be able to manage tourism by themselves, thus improving their economy and raising their income.”

Once the research results are in, the team is planning to design a route trip connecting the three villages together. In this way, visitors will learn about their unique characters and experience Lua life first hand.

For most of us, especially in Asia, rice is an integral part of our culinary traditions and our diet. It’s a staple too for the Pga K’nyau residents of Ban Pha Mon but to these ethnic Karen people, the grain itself means so much more.

Located in Chiang Mai’s Doi Inthanon National Park, seven kilometres off the main highway, the small rural community of Ban Pha Mon is home to Pga K’nyau Karen who migrated from China and Myanmar and settled down in this village in Chom Thong District more than 130 years ago.

Farmers harvest rice as the sun bathes the fields in gold

A breathtaking sea of terraced rice fields and the mountains in the background have turned Pha Mon into something of a tourist attraction since it became part of a community-based tourism initiative more than 10 years ago.

More recently, the villagers have been conducting further research into ways they can use their strongest point – the stunning rice terraces– to draw more tourists to their home.

“We have a bond with rice. Rice is our life, spirit, and soul. Rice is more valuable than money. If you don’t eat rice you will die,” says Boonta Pharueksachimpli, one of the village leaders.

“Every seed [of rice] has its life. It dies three times a year to feed humans,” he adds.

After harvesting, farmers thrash the rice to separate the paddy from the plant.

According to Pga K’nyau beliefs, the rice dies the first time when it is sown in the field, a second time when it is harvested and a third time when it is cooked, Boonta explains.

Legend has it that a millionaire and a widow argued over whether rice or money was the most important thing in life. The millionaire gave priority to money while the widow believed rice was more important.

One day, the son of the millionaire cried so hard that the father soaked some money in water and had his son drink the water. But still the boy cried. The father later saw rice immersed in water and brought the rice for his son to eat. And the son stopped crying.

Karen women demonstrate how to make “Khao Mud”, a local rice-based dessert.

The Karen have been planting rice ever since and have always given priority to the crop.

With a population of 645, Pha Mon village currently has around 264 rai of rice fields. The community produce some 10,000 tons a year, most of it for local consumption, with the balance sold to the Hmong people, another ethnic group living in north of Thailand.

Boonta Pharueksachimpli, second left, and Pha Mon’s research team.

Here, perhaps more than elsewhere, the farmers pay attention to every step of the crop cycle from the preparation of the earth, to sowing and growth, Boonta says.

Before they even start, the farmers conduct more than 30 elaborate procedures along with spiritual rites, he adds.

For example, they will select one member, who they believe will be able to get a good yield, as the leader to take charge of all the processes that year.

A sign reading “Ban Pha Mon, a model village for farmer-based tourism” at the entrance to the village

Then they must choose the most auspicious day of the week to start planting.

That choice is based on the day that delivered the best-growing rice seedling during the experimental planting they organise ahead of the season.

In Thailand’s central and northeast regions, two to three crops are usually planted during the year but here too the Karen are an exception, planting rice just once in the 12-month cycle.

“Our rice grows for six months. We start to plant from end of May and harvest in October to early November,” says Boonta, who last year led a group of villagers to conduct research into using rice to promote tourism under the farmer-based tourism scheme. Under this initiative, villagers will organise tour programmes that focus on the farmer’s way of life.

A friendly Pga K’nyau grandma in traditional dress laughs as she watches the visitors

The research for the farmer-based tourism project, which was launched last year, is supported by the Thailand Research Fund [TRF]’s community-based research division and is aimed at empowering and strengthening villagers and farmers through research as well as through using tourism to generate extra income to elevate their quality of life.

Ban Pha Mon is one of 10 communities in the pilot project and TRF anticipates that villagers and farmers could earn between Bt500,000 to Bt700,000 per year from tourism, with each household benefiting from no less than Bt35,000 annually.

After a year of studying and collecting information, Boonta and his team could see that their village has the potential for farmer-based tourism.

They can trace back their rice history through eight species, showcase some ancient farming tools as well as the rituals and local wisdom used in the planting of rice terraces and demonstrate the evolution in the way of rice planting.

The researchers are now in the process of finalising the design of route trips and rice walking tours and expect to launch the tour programme for tourists next year before the next planting starts.

The tentative walking route will start from the rice terrace where tourists will learn how the farmers plant and harvest the rice and even have a go at it themselves.

Visitors will also witness the spiritual rites conducted before and during planting, as well as after harvesting to protect the crop from dangers caused by nature and humans.

Along the route, tourists will be able to learn about the ecology as well as about the herbs and plants the villagers use to cure certain ailments.

Demonstrations of how the rice is processed into other products, including desserts, will also be included.

Tourists can choose to stay overnight in a villager’s home to fully immerse themselves in community life. Numbers will however be limited to no more than 20 visitors a day.

“Bue Pha Doh” rice is the most popular rice species among the Karen.

Revenue sharing will use the same model as the community-based tourism scheme, with those earning income for the tourism services allocating some five to 10 per cent to the commune for public interest spending, including scholarships for students, healthcare for the elderly and building firebreaks.

“The Karen have a unique way of planting and thinking about their rice. To them, rice is like God. They believe people eat the ‘virtue’ or ‘value’ of rice,” says Somkid Kaewtip, dean of the School of Administrative Studies at Maejo University and an adviser to the TRF’s research division.

The research findings will also change the way others perceive rice, he adds.

“Their ‘ways of rice’ are closely linked to their way of life. So understanding their way of planting rice will help outsiders enjoy a better understanding of the Karen,” Somkid says.

IF YOU GO

– Ban Pha Mon is located in Chiang Mai’s Doi Intanon National Park, seven kilometres off the main highway and about 90km from downtown Chiang Mai.

– To arrange a visit, call (081) 166 4344 or join the conversation at Facebook/baan.phamon.

Under this package, visitors can learn local wisdom, see how locals lead their lives and participate in centuries-old activities in this under-explored landlocked area of Thailand.

In designing unique experiences for tourists, the locals were able to draw on research into creative tourism and eco-tourism conducted by a group of Thaksin University lecturers. The researchers examined the potential and guidelines for creative tourism, as well as the behaviour of tourists and their preferences, and were able to pinpoint the services that can help attract and meet the needs of new travellers.

Under the Thailand Research Fund, researchers spent time looking for what exactly will help connect tourists and local communities, and used this to help Phatthalung emerge as a tourist destination.

Phatthalung has long been a “stopover” – where people stopped by for lunch or to pick up a souvenir – before moving on to other traditional tourist destinations, Jiraporn Kongrode explained. She also shared her findings into the needs and behaviour of tourists towards creative tourism in the basin of Klong Pa Phayom-Klong Tha Nae.

“But to promote creative tourism, they will have to go further than they usually do – to see, buy, learn and test [by doing activities],” the university lecturer said.

Tourists will spend more time at a destination if locals can give them something to do, such as learning about village life and participating in local activities. This, in turn, will be good for the local economy, Jiraporn said, adding that the villagers were very interested in the studies because they will help boost their income.

Among the advice the researchers shared with the locals was to design one- or two-day packages that highlight the area’s scenery, gives tourists an opportunity to learn about local traditions and lifestyles, as well as offers them a chance to participate in traditional activities.

The trip created by the villagers includes seeing the first light of day at Klong Pak Pra, Thale Noi, in Khuan Khanun district. This area boasts the last large swamp forest in the province.

Starting just before dawn, tourists can see the sun rise over the horizon before taking a boat down the canal to enjoy traditional fishing with the use of “Yor Yak” or giant fishing nets.

Tourists also get to see lumphu or mangrove apple trees, as well as catch sight of water buffaloes as they wade through the wetlands, waterbirds and lotus blooms.

After the trip down the canal, the tourists will then be taken to a sago palm forest, and taught how to extract sago to make a starchy traditional dessert. They will also learn how to use the palm leaves to make a mat or roof.

During lunchtime, tourists will learn how to make local delicacies before sharing a meal with the villagers.

Visitors will also get to learn how farmers plant and harvest rice from Na Le or semi-flooded rice fields on the upper rim of Songkhla Lake. Seeing Na Le is a rare treat in Pak Pra, as it is one of the renowned and iconic tourist attractions of Songkhla Lake.

The group can then end the day by enjoying the sunset at Thung Chai Rong, a 2000-rai paddy field.

The opening ceremony will be held at the Jungceylon mall. Admission is free.

The festival incorporates two design themes – Puppets on the Beach and Puppet Street Shows.

On November 3 and 4, Thalang Road boasts a colourful, eye-catching World Puppet Parade featuring more than 50 puppet troupes from Thailand and abroad.

From 5 to 9pm there’ll be lots to see on stages set up at Chalerm Prakiat 72 Pansa Park, the Hai Leng Dragon Monument and in front of the Thaihua Museum, along with four street-performance zones.

Other highlights include a carnival-style production from Russia, the world’s oldest shadow-puppet performance from India, and workshops and demonstrations of Chinese puppetry from Taiwan, which gave birth to the Hoon Galei marionettes of Phuket.

There’ll also be rarely seen Thai puppetry, such as Hoon Luang (royal puppets), the oldest form of authentic Thai puppetry dating back to The Ayutthaya Period, Nang and Talung shadow puppets from the South and a culinary feast.

Check out http://www.HarmonyPuppetThailand.com.

While the sandy beaches of Phuket are known to travelers across the globe — a major contributor to the local hospitality industry — the island’s inhabitants are struggling with their home’s popularity.

Sustainability has become the key word to their survival in the face of mass tourism for many in the tourist and hospitality industry, including Phuket’s myriad of hotels and resorts. Thus, the Phuket Hotels for Island Sustaining Tourism (PHIST) forum was born.

Held at the JW Marriott Phuket resort on the scenic Mai Khao Beach on Sept. 24, the forum gathered more than 600 delegates from across Southeast Asia to discuss sustainable and environmentally friendly forms of tourism and travel.

The president of Phuket Hotels Association, Anthony Lark, said the forum was the association’s first event on sustainable actions pertaining to the environment.

“I arrived in Phuket 31 years ago in the late 80s. In those days, Phuket was a sleepy, quiet, more serene environment, where places like Surin Beach and Bangtao Beach were deserted, pristine and clear,” Lark said.

Life in plastic: The issue of plastic usage and waste still dominates the PHIST forum. (Courtesy of Delivering Asia Communications/-)

“You would go fishing and you’d see beautiful fish looking out the water, turtles laying eggs on all the beaches, and nobody ever put it in the newspaper; it was just the norm.”

Lark explained that the growth of tourism and the population had transformed Phuket into an urban resort in many places across the island and had brought environmental issues to the surface such as plastic usage.

Plastic usage has been a contentious issue for many environmental groups all over the world, but the effects are felt much more strongly in places where pristine white sands and clear oceans are selling points.

In September, it was reported that 23 sea turtles on Hat Mai Khao in Phuket’s Sirinat National Park and Thaimueang Beach in Lampi-Hat Thaimueang National Park in Phangnga had been found dead or near-death over the course of two months due to being trapped by floating garbage.

At the same time, Maya Bay on Thailand’s Ko Phi Phi Leh Island — made famous by Leonardi DiCaprio’s 2000 movie The Beach — will be closed indefinitely to allow recovery from extensive environmental damage blamed on tourists. With up to 5,000 tourists and 200 boats a day, an estimated 80 percent of coral around Maya Bay has been destroyed by pollution.

The problem of excessive tourism had not been found in Thailand alone, as the holiday island of Boracay in the Philippines was also closed to tourists for six months starting April 26 under the orders of President Rodrigo Duterte, who once described the island as a “cesspool”.

Meanwhile, Indonesia’s government in June even went so far as to cooperate with Muslim clerics from the country’s two largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, to tackle consumer behavior with regard to single-use plastic bags, given that Indonesia was named the second-largest source of marine plastic waste in a 2015 study in the journal Science.

Sunset cocktail: PHIST 2018 was held in the JW Marriott, located on Mai Khao Beach. (Courtesy of Delivering Asia Communications/-)

A 2017 report by The Economist Intelligence Unit on sustainable tourism in 10 countries — France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, India, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Egypt — found that Indonesia ranked number nine with an overall index score of 27.1 out of 100, with an average of 46.3.

Six Senses Hotels Resorts and Spas president Bernhard Bohnenberger said he believed that the key to changing consumer behavior was to make sustainability an aspiration goal, rather than going the way of banning.

“Education is hugely important, but not like ‘you should not do this, you must not do that’. I think we have to make this whole fight for sustainability fun, enjoyable, fashionable, so that people go in with their heart,” Bohnenberger said, providing an example in using cotton tote bags rather than single-use carrier bags.

Thai Hotels Association vice president and environmental chair Marisa Sukosol Nunbhakdi echoed the sentiment, but noted that policymakers should also be educated as well.

“The people who run our governments should be educated. A lot of them, judging from the decisions that have been made, maybe don’t understand what sustainability really is, or the importance of sustainability,” Nunbhakdi said.

While the issue of plastic usage dominated the forum, other topics relating to sustainability were also discussed.

Eric Ricaurte, founder of Singapore-based sustainability firm Greenview, outlined three main issues in mass tourism; displaced tourists, overcrowding and the backlash from the impacts caused by tourists.

On display: As well as discussions, PHIST also showcased products and services from local initiatives. (Courtesy of Delivering Asia Communications/-)

“First is tourists entering neighborhoods where they shouldn’t be, in residential neighborhoods and residential buildings. I’m a resident and we have too many AirBnB places in my building, and that also drives up rent,” Ricaurte said.

“Second, [there are] too many tourists. You see this in Phuket, Japan and Korea. The third is the backlash from the impacts caused. This is what we saw in Boracay, too many tourists in small destinations without the resident’s input.”

According to Ricaurte, the issues can come down to a single problem, in that “destination stakeholders not realizing the broader impacts of the individual activities of the business and private sector and the public sector”.

While PHIST in its first year delivers some interesting insights into sustainability on an industry level, it remains to be seen whether other locations will take up the discussion. However, Lark is confident that the timing is right for the forum to be held.

“The time is now, the time should have been yesterday, and it’s certainly not tomorrow. We truly believe that global science that recognizes the theory that people and animals are in trouble, and that we’ve got to do something.”