Becoming Rice Farmers at Ginger Farm

After arriving in Chiang Mai, we made our first stop at the Ginger Farm - and it ended up being one of the coolest, most hands-on experiences of the trip. From the moment we got there, they had us fully immersed…starting with changing into traditional Thai farm clothes and learning how to build a fire.

Once the fire was going, they taught us how to make little boats out of banana leaves to cook our food in. We fed the chickens, collected fresh eggs, and made scrambled eggs to cook while we were out working in the field. 

They also taught us about rice farming and completely blew our minds when they told us white and brown rice come from the same seeds - just different stages of the milling cycle. 🤯

Then it was out into the fields where we got in the mud to learn how to transplant seedlings. After working for a bit, they let us play in the mud and take turns going down the mud slides - which the kids (and honestly all of us 😂) loved.

The farm was so beautiful it had us tempted to abandon life in the U.S. and become full-time farmers.

 

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Meeting the Monkeys in Lopburi

On the second day, we took a 2-hour train to Lopburi for the day. The train didn’t have AC, so the open windows were the only source of cooling. It was packed, hot, and a little sweaty… which somehow made it even more memorable. 😂

Locals would walk through the train cars selling different goods, and it was fun to see what they’d bring through next. We ended up buying some fruit and coconut ice cream along the way.

Everything we had read about Lopburi said it was a town full of thousands of free-range monkeys. When we got there, we were so surprised to see… none. Apparently things got a little out of hand during COVID, so most of the monkeys were moved to a facility outside the city, leaving just a few around town.

It was HOT, so we let the kids make their first “fun drinks” at 7-Eleven. We wandered around for a bit until we finally found a small area with about 20 monkeys. The kids had fun taking pictures of them - one eventually stole Maeli’s 7-Eleven drink.

Our train back to Bangkok didn’t leave for a couple hours, so we wandered the town in the heat, checked out one more temple, and then waited it out at the train station.

Overall, Lopburi was probably the biggest bust of the trip - but the hot, crowded train ride and the lack of monkeys somehow turned into one of those adventures we’ll be laughing about for years.

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