DAY TEN: FARM TOURS & 1000 STEPS

The day began with breakfast at Suwan Farm and traveling to Pakchong Research Station in Nakhon Ratchasima province.

There we visited the Pakchong research station and received a special lecture from a researcher at the station on tropical fruit collection as well as banana cultication and processing. She also touched on production technology in avocado and sugar apple.

We toured the orchards after that first looking at the mango trees. They have a variety of mango cultivars here, and we were abe to taste test a few. One species was honestly the best mango I've ever had. It was beyond delicious. The researcher also illustrated how they place different colored bags over the fruit while it's still on the tree which results in different colored fruits on the same tree. It also protects the fruit from fruit flies.

Another thing worth mentioning is grafting. Grafting is one of the most mind-blowing, magical things horticulturalists do. I learned about it last semester in a horticulture course. So say you have a baby citrus plant that is very resistant to disease, but the fruit is hard to peel. You cut the stem close to the soil and through away the top. You're left with only the roots and the little stem sticking up. This is referred to as the rootstock. Then you have another baby citrus plant that is very sensitive to disease, but has fruit that is easy to peel. You do the same thing and cut the stem, but instead you throw away the root part and keep the top. This is called a scion. You connect the two with a special clip, and eventually the cells grow together. You're left with a delicious fruit that is disease tolerant. This is done with literally all citrus trees in Louisiana, and they happened to do that with the mango trees here.

After looking at the mangoes we saw sugar apple trees as well and got to try them. It is a very interesting fruit.

We left the research station and visited two other farms in the area. They had a ton of produce such as dragonfruit, rambutan, mangosteen, etc. The dragonfruit is cactus-like. They grow it by using a cement post with a tire around the top. I thought that was very intereting.

After the farm visits we visited this massive white Buddha that is nestled in the mountains. We could literally see it from the interstate. Upon arriving, we made merit and begin the climb to the Buddha --1200 steps! It was completely worth it. The view was aweinspiring, and the Buddha was a work of art. Randomly, some students that are friends with Agent Jay showed up as well. They were ding something for school. There were dozens of them, and we got a group photo at the top. Thais are so easy going. I took a slow descent chatting with Agent Jay and Mingju.

That night we ate dinner at a restaurant that reminded me strongly of Crackle Barrel -- there were all kinds of American antiques throughout the maze of a restaurant. We sat overlooking the river in a jungle-esque scene. It was beautiful.

I found bento boxes at the restaurant's store. I couldn't be more excited about them! Now everytime we see a bento box, the Thais point it out to me. They thought it was so funny that I was so excited about them.