Thailand hotel travel information and local guide
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 better 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.
Thailand’s agrotourism to a large extent shares a boundary
with eco and cultural tourism, since farm life is inseparable from
local culture and heritage. Agrotourism centers run by the Department
of Agricultural Extension offer tours of local farms with nature
exploration and home stay in the villages. Some agro destinations
can be enjoyable stops on a long trip, offering sightseeing, education
and shopping opportunities in one packages.
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.
There are two main branches in Buddhist meditation: samatha (calmness,
concentration) and vipassana (insight), which stresses mindfulness.
This doesn’t mean that the two are entirely separate, since
you cannot be mindful unless you have at least some level of concentration.
The techniques of samatha meditation are many, some older than Buddhism,
others developed after the time of the Buddha. Among the most commonly
practiced here is anapanasati, or “mindfulness with breathing.”
This technique was advocated by the Venerable Buddhadasa Bhikku
(1903-1993), founder of Suan Mokkh Forest Monastery in Surat Thani.
Meditators at Suan Mokkh (Garden of Liberation), follow the 16 steps
of anapanasati as laid down in Pali texts.
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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