After 11 long years of attempting to bring traditional Thai culture and arts back to Phuket, Pranee Prayotamorakul is unfortunately giving up, at least for now?

The Post met with Khun Pranee at the site of her traditional Thai ?knock-down? house in 2010 and spoke with her of her plans to bring something ?new and old? to the island.

K. Pranee was planning on renovating her ?knockdown? house and grounds to open a traditional Thai dancing show and cooking class. She also planned to cultivate a herb garden, where she would teach tourists about the different herbs and spices of Thailand. The vision was clear; the only problem was finding people who shared it. Another problem was money.

She had said, ?It?s a shame that the Thai government won?t support projects that show our history in a positive light, yet they are more than happy to support the opening of more massage parlors and go-go bars.?

When she had said this she was still hoping that an investor or bank would approach her to help realise her dream.

Sitting with K. Pranee in the gardens of her house in Kata, labourers and builders are working around us, shouting instructions and tearing down her house.

With every partition of teak wood taken down, there was an almost visible wince on her tired face that seemed to represent the dismantling of her dream.

?It?s quite sad,? she said, ?We couldn?t do it. When I tried to get money, nobody wanted to give me any. Even the banks.?

K. Pranee admitted that this was partly because, what with it being a knock down house that can be moved within a few weeks, banks are hesitant to invest, in case the owner does just that.

?So they?ll probably build another hotel here. Or massage parlours, or commercial shops.?

Whatever they do build, K. Pranee believes it will be doubt follow the teachings bestowed through the 3 Pat Bible.

?Patpong, Pattaya and Patong. Everybody knows about these places. The world knows about these places and what they contribute to Thailand. This is ?Lowgee Patana? or rather the development of the low/sex industry. While other countries concentrate on I.T development, Thai government focuses on ?Thai massage?. They are wrong for doing that.?

Almost on cue, a familiar call of ?Massage? sounds from across the street.

?My surroundings are bad? all I hear all day is ?Massage? 200 baht only. Massage.? It affected my business and what I wanted to do,? K. Pranee said with a disappointed smile.

?Everybody made fun of me because I wanted to try to do something different and find an alternative way of making money here.?

Unfortunately, at least for K. Pranee, this is not what appears to be the quickest and soundest way of making money in Thailand.

?Bars and girls. This is what tourists want. Or this is what Phuket wants to give to tourists because they know they can make quick money. They want everywhere to be the same; this is the major problem with Thailand. This is very bad for Thailand.?

So the most obvious question is, what now? Where now? I returned to the site, which - for now - stands empty, on the final day of moving and asked K. Pranee.

She seemed upbeat and determined, and said, ?It is a pity but if I am lucky, I can find some land to put my house on and continue my dream.

?I am looking at a few places, a place near Mai Khao on the North of Phuket. It?s not so busy there or very touristy.?

K. Pranee is toying with the idea of giving up on bringing Thai culture and arts to Phuket all together. ?But I may even go to Hua Hin to make a retirement home for the old people in Thailand to take care of them, get a herb garden. That might be nice.?

The success of this will also be unfortunately determined on whether banks or local investors deem there to be money to be made from the elderly in Thailand?