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Country's poorest region being transformed by rising incomes, investmentsFive years after waiting on tables and weeding gardens in Japan, Suchita Muengpram returned to her village in north-eastern Thailand to start her own business.mini storage There was just one problem: She did not recognise her neighbourhood."I couldn't find my house," Ms Suchita, 49, recalls of her homecoming six years ago. "All my neighbours had rebuilt their homes and bought cars. There were more dental clinics too."While she was away, the villagers had prospered. There were also more goldsmiths, a sign of rising wealth in what is still the poorest region in Thailand.Isaan, as the north-east is called, has been undergoing a quiet transformation of late, powered by rising incomes and investments as corporations look to the country's most populous region for the next growth market.Last year, the value of private investment there hit 70 billion baht (S$2.8 billion), almost double the average of the previous five years. Monthly household incomes grew 40 per cent between 2007 and 2011, allowing people to buy 35 per cent more cars and pick-ups.Isaan is also home to some of the ruling Puea Thai party's staunchest supporters. Grinding poverty in the mainly agricultural region forced thousands to leave in search of work in previous decades, landing many of its men as labourers in Singapore, and also earning its women an outsized association with Thailand's sex trade and marriages to less-than-attractive Western men. But the nascent boom is chipping away at old stereotypes, giving more reason for its bright young talent to stay or return sooner.While much of the recent spotlight has fallen on Udon Thani, a northern province poised to benefit from greater links with Laos and China, second-tier locations such as Mahasarakham are also feeling the buzz. Unlike Udon Thani, Mahasarakham has no airport or train station, but its expanding university population has spurred the growth of clothes shops, cafes and restaurants.Over coffee in a soft-lit cafe touting "San Francisco style" cream cakes, 38-year-old Pimyupa Praphan marvels at the transformation of her hometown. "Mahasarakham used to be some place you passed by to get to somewhere else. It was really, really baanawk," she says, using the Thai phrase for upcountry. "Wself storageo could imagine it would have a shop just for perfume?"Dr Pimyupa studied at Bangkok's elite Triam Udom Suksa high school and Chulalongkorn University, but turned down a job offer in the capital to teach English at Mahasarakham University. She later won a Fulbright scholarship for further studies in the United States but returned to Mahasarakham partly to expand educational options there. "Why should everything good be in Bangkok?" she reasons.What makes the transition easier is that the trappings of big city life - such as the Pepperidge Farm cookies she acquired a taste for in the US - have turned up in Mahasarakham's new malls. There is decent sushi here too.Fellow returnee Nutcha Siripruchya, 37, is looking forward to the lift that such developments will give to the organic farming network she runs with her mother.The Thai language graduate used to work as a marketing manager for an Internet company in Bangkok, but now hosts farm tours, packs salad boxes for sale and deals directly with the region's growing number of upmarket and image-conscious restaurants.Isaan's largely flat terrain is prone to drought and desperate farmers have been known to douse the land with pesticide to avoid the financial ruin a bad crop would bring."But we used to farm without chemicals years ago," she says. "I want to bring back that local wisdom." She now plans to set up a one-stop shop for organic fruit, vegetables as well as meat.With all the business activity, real estate is booming. Mahasarakham municipality's deputy mayor Wanlop Wannapathao estimates that the price of land in the heart of town has at least doubled in the past 10 years. This outstrips the 53 per cent growth in the Bangkok metropolitan region over the same period, according to research by the Agency for Real Estate Affairs.To be sure, while incomes are rising, so are anxieties. Envy of the neighbours is one - Ms Suchita notes that whenever a family improves its home, others in the street will try to do the same, even if it means taking on debt. The subtle pressure is getting worse, she says.She is not immune to it herself. She spent most of her savings from her Japan stint on a new family home and had little left over to buy a car like the other villagers have. "I feel a little jealous!" she admits.tanhy@sph.com.sg迷你倉