Adventures of a Farang: Jim Thompson

So after those two long three day weekends where as usual the sun was out and about, I was glad it was finally getting cool enough to the point where I could go out in jeans. I loved every minute of it. I sooo miss wearing jeans…. Great break.

Anyway, I hoped to just relax with my friends in the next town over - Suphanburi after a long week of testing with more to come. However, I found out via my friends and "adopted" local coordinator, Wattana, that we were invited to visit Jim Thompson's organic farm that Sunday, Dec 19th. Ehhh not what I had in mind, but why not. So that weekend, Liz, Ciana, and the new teacher, Ryan, and I with Wattana and her family went.

I found out it is open only three weeks out of the year from Saturday 18 December 2010 through Sunday 9 January 2011. It's located in the Pak Thong Chai district of Nakhon Ratchasima province. Kind of far away, but we thought'd why not..adventure time! And adventure it was…..

So Sunday morning we were picked up at 5am and started on the "3 hour" van ride to the farm Thai style. This means we pretty much stopped every half an hour to get food or walk around or get gas. Sleeping was hardly a concern. And just when we can taste the organic goodness I hoped to purchase from the farm….the van breaks down. So this van is the one my girls use to get to school. They tell me the driver is sweet - and he is; and that the bus was unreliable…didn't quite believe them until now. I mean most vans in general are unreliable but this was really bad. There were weird sounds coming from somewhere (need to definitely brush up on my car-tomy skills when I go home), and so we end up pulling over and up to a roadside mechanic. They jack up the van (with 9 of us in it) and proceeded to work on it for an hour. So we're all stuck in a stuffy van for an hour while they figure out whats wrong. Atleast we were able to get some Sopalot (pineapple) from a vendor walking bye. hahaha.

They then fix the problem and on our way we go. 30 minutes later… we got to the farm, and we were sorely mistaken. This wasn't an organic farm like back home, but an amusement park for tourists. Patches of flowers and pumpkins. Example homes and reenactments of Isan culture. Local artwork.

Regardless, we decided to embrace this touristy farm and take some random funny photos.