Nov. 16 - Coming to Sangkhlaburi, I had read about an elderly lady by the name of Daisy Dwe in the Let’s Go Travel Guide to Thailand. She migrated some 20 years ago with her husband and two of her children from the very repressive regime in Myanmar to Kanchanaburi province in Western Thailand to start a new life. Her husband was a doctor, and two of them established a health care center in their adopted home for Burmese refugees. Unfortunately, the husband died of malaria shortly thereafter, apparently contracting the disease from one of his patients.

Eventually she relocated to the quiet mountain resort of Sangkhlaburi. Ms. Daisy set up a small weaving factory behind her house, where she employed and trained some of the lady refugees from Myanmar in the fine art of weaving. She also actively helps and provides assistance to displaced members of the Myanmar community in Sangkhlaburi. She calls her business ‘Weaving for Woman” and she currently employs four weavers and three setters, and her youngest daughter maintains a very colorful handicraft store on the main road which displays some of the fine clothing, colorful scarves and handbags that Daisy’s weaving factory produces. It’s a thriving little business, as Daisy and her daughter have some accounts with some retail stores in Bangkok and throughout Thailand.

One of Daisy’s daughters remains behind in Rangoon, Myanmar; unfortunately, Daisy has lost contact with her as she is apprehensive about Myanmar’s repressive regime intercepting her e-mails and phone calls and causing harm to the rest of her family and relatives that she left behind.

I found Ms. Daisy Dwe, to be a very delightful and charming ‘young lady”. Daisy, who had studied in the University of Rangoon in Myanmar majoring in geography and history, speaks very good English and also serves as a translator in this small community. She invited me into her house, gave me a tour of her little factory in the backyard, offered me refreshments and even allowed me to use her computer to send some e-mail. On the way back to my guesthouse, I stopped at her retail store and purchased about 900 baht ($25USD) worth of clothes and accessories as gifts for friends.

If you’re in Sangkhlaburi, by all means give Ms. Daisy Dwe a call and ask for a little tour of her weaving factory and remember to stop and browse the fine Burmese handicrafts for sale at her store along the main road. You’ll be glad you did. Phone 034-595418 E-mail daisydwe@hotmail.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006 at 8:32 am and is filed under Commentary, Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.