A thai island's potted charm

By DAVID MAY

A golden dawn paints the churning Chao Phraya River as I follow my guide Nantana - "Call me Nancy" - Sormanee off the small ferry.

If you're one of those who think the seething, sweaty, suffocating maelstrom called Bangkok has passed its use-by date, spend a lousy 2 baht (8c) on a ferry ride to a secret little island that the guidebooks and even most Thais have missed.

"Which way," I ask my guide. "I'm not sure," she grins. "I've never been here before."

The little island of Ko Kret nestles in a bend in the Chao Phraya, 35km from central Bangkok and about 3km from Don Muang Airport. What makes Ko Kret so special is its tranquillity, its unusual inhabitants and the refreshing fact that tourists, who rarely come here, are charged the same as locals.

In contrast to the frenetic city next door, there are no cars. Only small motorcycles and bicycles are permitted on the island's single narrow road.

The 400ha and seven small villages of Ko Kret are shared by 3500 people, ethnic Thais and the Mon, descendants of an ancient tribe from southern Burma who settled in Thailand at least 14 centuries ago, bringing with them a distinctive cuisine and the special style of terracotta pottery that has made them famous in Thailand.

Today, we are the only tourists. Nancy decides to turn right onto the paved road that snakes around the island and into the first village. Large, prosperous-looking houses perch on stilts by the riverside, their spacious wooden verandas, tables neatly laid for breakfast, extending over the water.

Wonderful aromas tease the nostrils as Mon villagers prepare roadside morning snacks for the local Buddhist monks, schoolkids and city commuters already on the move. On offer today are barbecued sticky rice, the local specialty fish cake and vegetables cooked in banana leaves, and the wonderful kanom krok.

Bonsi Proyai, aged 70, is a Mon widow with straggly grey hair and a beautiful, ready smile. In the narrow street she hovers over the glow of a charcoal griller, dropping dollops of pancake-like goo on the hotplate. Her beaming old face speckled with rice flour, she offers us samples of her kanom krok - a delicious mix of rice flour, green onion, sugar and coconut milk.

Proyai is retired now after a lifetime teaching Mon children the ancient skills of Mon pottery. She explains how those skills were devised on the run to hold water and food when the tribe was fleeing political repression in Burma around AD 600.

Across Ko Kret today, in doorways, shops and backyards, artisans can be seen shaping the distinctive vases, urns, flowerpots and ornaments. But this is mainly a cottage industry. Many residents hold regular jobs in the city and use their jealously guarded craft to supplement incomes.

In the centre of the village, beautifully decorated pots sell from just $10 to $25. But the highest-quality urns can fetch up to $300.

Ko Kret has seven temples but none as impressive as the 200-year-old Mon-style Buddhist temple, Wat Poramai Yikawat, known simply as Wat Mon.

Another is Wat Pai Lom, with a statue of a meditating monk, To, covered in reams of glistening gold leaf. To was a famous Buddhist monk in Bangkok 80 years ago, and devout Buddhists plaster the gold leaf on his likeness after paying their respects.

Geographically we are still in Bangkok, but who would know? We stroll in the peaceful shade of palm and palmyra trees, past potters' houses and vegetable farms and a thatch-roofed restaurant. There are banana groves, coconut plantations and corn as high as an elephant's eye.

Traditional teak farmhouses on stilts are built on land that passes to the next generation. Wealthy Thais with an eye for a quick profit look elsewhere because residents here are reluctant to sell up their heritage.

Suddenly, a young woman appears from a riverbank clutching a twitching plastic bag and flashing a perfect set of teeth in a look of sheer triumph. From the bag she extracts a huge blue prawn and holds it aloft like the Olympic torch.

"Ahh, river prawns," Nancy coos. "They're very rare these days. She will probably get about 30 baht ($1.27) a gram in the city for those." David May