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Agrotourism
It is often said that nobody who’s willing
to work will ever starve in  Thailand.
A 13th century king’s praise for his homeland,
inscribed in stone and memorized by schoolchildren,
proclaims that “there is rice in the fields,
and fish in the waters.” Even in hard times
like today, the country’s natural wealth
continues to provide hopes and a livelihood for
its sons and daughters.
 Fruit
and salt farming flourish in the provinces on
both coasts of the Gulf of Thailand. The Eastern
provinces receive the southwest monsoon that makes
them greener and wetter than the rest of the country.
They produce quality rambutan, mangosteen and
some of the best durians for local and overseas
markets. Provinces southwest of Bangkok are also
fruit growers, though the list varies from one
to the next, and cottage industries long ago sprung
up to absorb oversupplies. A visit to these quaint
little factories offers an opportunity to sample
their products and take home some of the best.
Buddhist Meditation
 Any
of us have at one time or another found the toll
of living in the modern world hard to bear. Stress,
depression and disillusionment are some of the
diseases of modern times that leave us yearning
for a solution, a cure, so to speak. More and
more people are turning to meditation as they
fail to find the answer through worldly paths.
Meditation is found in some form or other in all
major religious traditions. Even those who are
not religious use it to focus the mind, to hone
it, so that it works better. In Buddhism, meditation
is the integral to the eight-fold path to enlightenment.
One trains one’s mind so that it can see
the four-point Supreme Truth that forms the core
of Buddha’s teachings: suffering, what causes
it, the end of suffering, and the path to that
end. Even if you are not interested in Buddhism,
meditation is a valuable training that can be
applied to daily life, for it helps with concentration
and when done correctly can lead to a state of
peace and calmness that’s beyond worldly
joys.
Thai Cooking
 Thai
cooking as now enjoyed all over the world is a
blend of Asian and European influences adopted
through centuries of trade and diplomatic exchanges.
Thais have traditionally lived close to the land
and the waters, and original Thai cooking reflected
that. Main ingredients were rice, fish, vegetable
and herbs. Very little meat was used, and traditionally
beef or buffalo meat was eschewed since the animals
were the mainstays of farm life.
Thais grilled, baked and stewed their food, until
the Chinese introduced the techniques of cooking
with hot oil. European merchants, diplomats and
missionaries also contributed a lot to the cuisine,
starting right after their arrivals in the 16th
Century. And we all have the Portuguese to thank
for introducing chilies to Thai kitchens. Curries
and spices, on the other hand, were brought here
by the Indians. Over the years Thai cooks have
added their own ingenuity, substituting hard-to-find
ingredients with what’s available locally
and adapting the recipes to suit Thai palates.
Muay Thai
The history of Muay Thai is interwoven with the
history of the Thai  people.
A gentle, peace-loving people, for centuries Thais
had to defend themselves and their land from aggressive
powers. They developed a form of close, hand-to-hand
combat best suited for the kind of rough-terrain
battle they were fighting. Over time it became
a rite of passage for Thai men to take up training
in this martial art. King Naresuan the Great (1555-1605),
one of the country’s most celebrated warrior-heroes,
is believed to have been an excellent boxer himself,
and it was he who made Muay Thai a required part
of military training. Another milestone in the
history of Muay Thai was the triumph of Nai Khanom
Tom over 10 Burmese boxers in 1774. Taken captive
after the Thai capital fell in 1767, Nai Khanom
Tom was picked to fight before the Burmese king.
After defeating ten of them in a row, he was freed
and returned home a hero. |
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