Heard of a place call Suan Phueng?

Ratchaburi springs another surprise to me recently. I came to know of a large orchid farm, claimed to be the largest in Thailand in a place called Suan Phueng, part of Ratchaburi Province to the west bordering Myanmar. So I took a drive there to check it out.

After the visit, I realized this area was featured in BangkokPost travel article early this year. It is accessible only in recent years.













It wasn't difficult to find Suang Phueng Orchid Farm.





















I wasn't disappointed upon arrival, these orchids at the entrance are simply gorgeous!
































It occupies 6 rai (1 rai = 40 x 40 m) of land and was delightful to walk around with its cool climate here.
































Khun Lek, the owner, told me his story of giving up his career in Bangkok and took over the family biz. He established the farm here 6 six years ago with his brother. I also learn from him this place has the elevation similar to Chiang Mai. During the cooler months, night temperatures can drop to 7 to 8 deg C.





















I noticed numerous new resorts are opening up here. This one I favor is Mediterranean styled.




























































I would definitely come back this way again.

Harvest time at a shrimp farm

One evening I had a call from P'Jiap, "I am harvesting shrimps tomorrow morning, would you like to come and see how we do it?"

"Sure, of course!" As I am not a early riser, it was past 10.30 am arriving his farm. A refrigerated truck parked by a sorting shed.
















Many busy hands were sorting out the shrimps harvested, picking the smaller ones into separate bins. Larger ones are about 33 to a kilo, being raised just over 5 months.





















Water were drained before being weighed.
















Shrimps were chilled in ice cold water. "Is it to sedate them so they won't jump while sorting?" I asked.
"It firms up their meat too." P'Jiap answered.





















After weighing, ice chips are added to chill the shrimps during transport. These large ice blocks on ground are for later use.
















Next we drove to the pond to watch the harvesting process. Workers were dragging a net across the pond from one end to the other.

This part of work is outsourced to a specialized contractor. The operator has more than a hundred teams, each with about a dozen workers! So one can imagine the vibrancy of harvesting biz in this region! But according to another friend, the scale of farming output here is small compared to southern Thailand!





















This is the third & last round. About 90% will be harvested by now. After that water will be drained completely to harvest the remainder.
















The enclosed area get smaller and tighter as the net was roped in.





















Concentration of shrimps forced many to leap continually in attempt to escape, demonstrating a strong natural survival instinct.
















The net kept tightening in with each step they made.
































Till small enough to scoop them up by buckets.















































It's time to haul them up finally.
















A human chain was formed to haul in the catch into a waiting truck for transport to the sorting shed.
















Later in the day, P'Jiap brought me a box full of shrimp (>10Kg must be) as he always does after a harvest. I made prawn noodles for diner.

Next day I called him to say I found the prawn shells very thin.
"Yes, the shrimps are shedding old shell around this time and that's why I choose to harvest now" he said.

Life is good here isn't it?