We were transported throughout the day in a 9 passenger air-conditioned van and we started off with a scenic drive to a rural area about 40 km from Bangkok. Along the way, Nimit explained how the many kinds of plants and trees we saw were grown, harvested and used - rice, bananas, coconuts, melons, basil, peppers, morning glory and lotus plants, to name a few.
Our first stop was at a small "factory" ( a family owned coconut grove) to see how they process coconut sap into palm suger. Next, we rode in a sampan along the river to a 170 year old Chinese settlement where we took a short walk through the village and market.
Then back in the van for the drive to the highlight of the tour- cooking Thai food and eating lunch at the garden house. The owner (and chef) of the garden house has prepared all of the ingredients for a number of dishes and he explained about the ingredients and how they would be used to cook the various dishes.
I got to "cook," under the chef's supervision, which basically consisted of adding ingredients to the pan and then stirfrying each different dish.
Shari, Nimit and I then sat in a lovely dining room to eat our magnificent lunch. Pad Thai, hot and sour soup, green curry with white rice and some kind of chicken dish the chef had cooked. For dessert, we had sticky rice sweetened with coconut milk and fresh mango slices. Everything was delicious.
After lunch it was back in the van for2 more stops - a visit to a wickerwork village and a visit to an orchid farm to learn how they grow orchids. We were ahead of schedule so we could have also visited a gemstone factory, but we said we would rather just go back to the hotel. It was nice to get back early (about 2:15 PM) because we have alot to do before we leave tomorrow and I wanted to go to the post office before it closed
It was pretty low-key for the rest of the day - wrote notes, used the internet, tried to make afew phone calls with no success (my Ekit phone card doesn't seem to work here) and took some pictures of Khao San Road and street vendors near our hotel.
We will leave tomorrow morning about 7 AM for the airport. I'm looking forward to Nepal but I will miss Thailand. I would like to come back to Thailand someday and maybe also visit other Asian countries, especially Vietnam. I've met a few people who have traveled to Vietnam and they said it was a very beautiful country.
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