Boat ride combines clean air with lotus, fruit and orchid farms along Khlong Mahasawat in Nakhon Pathom
STORY BY KARNJANA KANRJANATWE, PHOTOS BY SUPAWADEE CHAROENPIPATPIMPA
If you fancy riding boats and fresh air, look no further than Khlong Mahasawat, a canal in Nakhon Pathom Province.
Here, you can pluck lotus flowers from a pond, learn to make rice crackers, taste fresh fruit in an orchard before ending your trip at an orchid farm.
This agro-tourism package was created through cooperation between the local community, the Department of Agricultural Extension and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) in 2000. Its aim was to develop a new tourism service that also benefited the locals. Several families that live along Mahasawat Canal were invited to participate in the venture that received a nationwide recognition after it won top honours at the Thailand Tourism Awards 2007 in the community tourism category.
One of the participants is Prapai Sawatdito who, along with her two sisters, owns a 40-rai lotus pond. The sisters have been farming lotus for 27 years.
 |
| Farmer Moo is all smiles harvesting Magnolia lotus. |
 |
| A scarecrow stands guard over golden fields of organically cultivated paddy. |
 |
| Tourists feed fish at a pier next to Wat Suwannaram. |
 |
| Sattabongkot or pink lotus and sattabut or white lotus samples. |
"We have two 20-rai ponds, one for growing white lotus and the other for the pink variety," she said. The white variety is Album plenum, or Magnolia lotus called "sattabut" in Thai, while the pink variety is Roseum Plenum, or Double Red lotus that is locally known as sattabongkot. Magnolia lotus has a smell similar to eucalyptus and used mostly for religious rites.
At Prapai's farm, lotus is harvested every other day. She and her sisters start by collecting lotus buds early in the morning during which they wear long-sleeved shirts, long pants that they tuck into their socks, rubber shoes, a pair of gloves, straw hats with large brims and wrap their faces and necks with a piece of cloth to protect them from the sun and little thorns. In the ponds they also raise fish such as the Nile tilapia and cyprinids or carps. The harvest is done wading through waist-deep water after which the lotus stalks, each measuring an arm's length, are collected in neat piles, put in plastic baskets and delivered to the market by boat. A day's harvest is worth 5,000-7,000 flowers. Here, a lotus bud only costs one baht.
"Visitors are welcome to try their hands plucking lotus buds from the ponds," said Moo, Prapai's sister, invitingly. "But they need not wade in water like us. They can take a rubber boat and paddle around the pond." She doesn't charge visitors for the boat.
Next you can proceeded to a food processing centre operated by a group of housewives that specialises in khao tang, rice crackers with sweet toppings, and were shown how it is made.
"We use only khao klong (unmilled rice) because we want this snack to be an alternative for health conscious consumers," said Urai Sawatdaeng, whose mother chairs the group.
The group was formed in 2000 to optimise value of rice cultivated in the province. Before that the crackers were made from polished rice, but the product didn't quite take off as it was fairly similar to what was available in other provinces. However, when it switched to unmilled rice, in keeping with the royal initiative to promote its consumption nationwide, the move paid off as crackers made from unpolished were an instant hit.
"When we started the group it had 10 members. Now we have 32," said Urai. Rice crackers have helped supplement their monthly income by another 8,000-10,000 baht.
The rice crackers smell good and crisp. Visitors have a choice of two toppings - a mix of white and black sesame or moo yong shredded dried pork - both are excellent and you are welcome to eat as much as you can.
If you want to buy it home, they will pack it for you in elegant plastic bags. You can also buy them at the Sukhothai Palace in Bangkok and Donwai market and Pathom Asoke community in Nakhon Pathom.
"In future we plan to make rice crackers from unmilled rice grown organically," Urai said.
Next stop was an orchard that specialises in mango, pomelo, jack fruit, banana, marian plum and santol grown organically.
"We stopped using chemicals eight years ago when we joined this agro-tourism project," said its owner Ubol. Although there is a ready market for products she grows, she did admit that the presence of visitors had helped add to her income.
Ubol had laid out a large rectangular wooden table for visitors laden with sweet and sour mango, pickled mango, sweet and sour pomelo, jack fruit and Thai desserts such as khanom phing (a sweet baked flour mixed with coconut milk) and khao tu (gummy dessert made with roasted rice) - all there for them to sample free of charge.
 |
 |
 |
| Residents along Khlong Mahasawat haven't totally given up boats as a mode of transportation. |
Locals demonstrates visitors how khao tang crackers are made from unmilled rice. They are sold in packets costing 25 baht. |
She doesn't allow visitors to pluck fruit straight from the trees for the simple reason that they wouldn't know which fruit is ripe for picking, something that becomes all the more difficult to the untrained eye if the fruit has thick skin, like pomelo. That is why she lays them out on the table.
Visitors however can tour the orchard in her e-tan farm truck which is a very unique experience because even though the ride is bumpy and noisy, it rewards them with 360-degree view and clean air.
Last stop on the tour was an orchid farm by the name of Tassanee whose owner, Jook, has been cultivating various types of dendrobium for export for the past 18 years.
"I have created my own specimen at the farm. I named it Tassanee after my daughter," she said. "It has purplish-pink petals growing in clusters with white edge. It is easy to grow and very popular in Japan."
Jook likes talking to tourists and share her experience with them. "When I first joined the agro-tourism venture, I did not know what to say to them. All I did was answer questions. But today I really look forward to them. Their company makes me happy," she noted.
You can buy orchids at her farm at reasonable prices, and if you persist she will even tell you what it takes to keep the flowers blooming all year round.
Khlong Mahasawat is only an hour's drive from downtown Bangkok and a tour there can be completed in half a day on the outside, depending on how you wish to manage your time. The boat you hire at the start stays with you till the very end of the trip.
MORE INFO
 |
 |
| A worker rids orchid nursery of dead leaves. |
Orchids at Tassanee farm. |
Cruises along Khlong Mahasawat canal are available every day from the pier in front of Wat Suwannaram starting 8am until 5pm. A round-trip costs 350 baht; adult visitors pay an extra 70 baht for access to the farms and food processing centre; kids pay 40 baht. One boat can take six passengers.
Hiring the e-tan farm truck costs 50 baht. It can carry 10 persons.
Getting there:
Self-drive: Take Phutthamonthon Sai 4 Road to Mahidol University (Salaya campus), turn left on Salaya-Nakhon Chaisi Road and drive on to Wat Suwannaram, which is on your right.
By bus: Plying the Salaya route are ordinary busses No. 124 and 125 and air-conditioned bus No. 515. At Salaya grab a motorcycle taxi to the temple.
By rail: There is a free train service from Thonburi railway station to the temple until the end of this year.
If you need more information, call 081-743-5850 and 034-297-152.
Prev
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Next
