Country living, Thai style

I have a confession to make as the year is off to a new start. To our readers, my wanderlust must seem insatiable, but deep down I’m a country girl whose basic necessities in life are simply family, true friends, good food and fine wine. As a matter of fact, my siblings and I have always wanted to live on a farm, harvest what we plant, milk cows and churn fresh produce into delectable dairy delights.

Once, driving through the vast countryside of Germany and Austria to Bavaria, I admired the farms where milking cows graze and all the good stuff is processed into yogurt, ice cream, candy and flavorful cheese. In these sprawling fields of verdant, grass carpets, thoroughbred horses gracefully darted before me, some at breakneck speed. All I could remember were the John Ford films I often enjoyed watching at film school where cowboys and girls of the Wild West proudly took center stage. I imagined I was some kind of rodeo queen strutting around in jeans, a plaid shirt, and tan leather boots, lassoing the unruly herd.

Dreams turned to reality over the holidays just 159 kilometers from Bangkok, the City of Angels, where my siblings and I, together with all their kids and our adopted and extended family, welcomed the New Year.

Farm Chokchai, located in the northeastern province of Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat), is the largest and most advanced dairy farm and the only one that has opened its doors to the public in Southeast Asia. Its Agro-Tour program began in 2000 and thousands have visited and benefited from the program that received the Thailand Tourism Award for Outstanding Performance in Agro-Tourism by the Tourism Authority of Thailand. The theme of its program is “edutainment” for it educates and entertains.

Chokchai Farm is an educational playground where children come to learn about the environment and sustainable dairy farming. It attracts about 240,000 visitors a year with a particular focus on giving children a chance to gain hands-on experience in rural farm life. For them it’s a chance to see that milk doesn’t come simply from the fridge of the 7-Eleven or that real creatures are as interesting as cyber monsters. There is real fascination as they take the Chokchai tour. And the word is spreading. The focus is also on fun with horse riding, Wild West shows, off-road adventures on ATVs while exploring sunflower fields and dragon fruit plantations.

Farm Chokchai was founded in 1957 by Chokchai Bulakul, a man with a great vision to help Thailand’s agricultural sector. Who would ever think that the sprawling and lush farm used to be infected with malaria? The farm also came about simply because he loved the Wild West and wanted to be a cowboy. “My father was not really that interested in being a big business person,” says Choak Bulakul, CEO of Chokchai Farm Group. “He just genuinely wanted to be a cowboy. And that’s it.”

As Choak’s father realized, to be a genuine cowboy you needed genuine cows. In 1957, he bought 20,000 rai (2,598 hectares) of land in the Pakchong district of Korat province with only 30,000 baht in the pocket of his Levi’s. Initially, he raised only local beef cattle but 12 years later, in 1969, the business was registered as the biggest, most advanced cattle ranch in the country, providing the finest-quality premium steaks.

Farm Chokchai also expanded to dairy farming and even bred the Chokchai Friesian, a dairy cow ideal for the Asian climate. Farm Chokchai crossbred cows from New Zealand with the local variety.

Kasemsak Bhamornsatit (Khun Pong), managing director of Trikaya (a cultural and academic travel services company in Thailand), shared that Farm Chokchai educates urban people about life on a dairy farm through hands-on experience. Rural people learn about how research and technology can enhance the breeding of high milk-yielding cows with superior quality milk.

Guests ride on charming tractor wagons and explore the western-style farm where dairy cows, thoroughbred horses and trained sheep, canines and rabbits are the celebrities. Learning about the environment is a priceless experience especially for children who are caught up in the quagmire of progress and high-tech inventions.

From Chokchai farms, we proceeded to the nearby PB Valley, situated on the edge of the Khao Yai National Park. The valley is 300 to 350 meters above sea level and is home to the PB Valley Khao Yai Winery (established in 1992), named after the initials of its owner, Piya Bhirombhakdi. PB Valley Khao Yai Winery is one of Thailand’s largest vineyards and the very first one to set up in the Khao Yai region, the heartland of the highly acclaimed wine country.

One need not fly to Napa Valley in the United States, Margaret River in Australia, or Cape Winelands in South Africa for fine wines. Right here, in the heart of Asia, a world-class winery with a gourmet restaurant — The Great Hornbill Grill — has found its home. Our group enjoyed a tour of the vineyards and viniculture experience. Very soon, there will be lavish accommodations in cozy tipi tent-style, surrounded by beautiful vineyards and cool mountain air. It is just a stone’s throw away from the Khao Yai National Park, Thailand’s oldest national park and an ASEAN heritage nature reserve that has lush forests, waterfalls, various flora and fauna plus wildlife like elephants, gibbons, tigers, leopards and bears.

The park covers an area of 2,165 square kilometers and is crisscrossed by hiking trails that used to be elephant tracks. At dusk, over a million bats fly out of their daytime caves and birds come into full song with the onset of the mating season. There are various accommodation facilities within the park and a Jack Nicklaus golf course nearby.

“Nothing beats the great outdoors!” exclaimed my nieces Alex and Sam Dayrit. My sisters Jaqui, Michelle and Yvonne enthused, “Can you imagine harvesting grapes and turning it into a midnight picking party with all of us lending a hand in the moonlit field under the stars?”

Delightful cuisine such as stuffed shrimp cakes with sweet and sour grape sauce, duck curry with grapes served with roti Chenai, river prawns in tamarind sauce, beef massaman curry, and fabulous pizza from the brick oven were graciously prepared for us — al fresco in a Martha Stewart-esque ranch setting. Must-tries are their passion fruit and grape juices. With the spiciness of Thai cuisine, full-bodied red wines are said to pair better with many local dishes. Our gregarious clan lounged in the hill-perched open pavilion to enjoy the food and watch the sunset over the vineyards. The open-air Great Hornbill Grill & Restaurant serves mainly Thai cuisine with a few German specialties like pork knuckle and sausages with sauerkraut.

Considered one of the leading vineyards — nationally and in the Southeast Asian region — the facility commands an unparalleled and comprehensive high-tech viniculture operation. German Heribert Gaksch, general manager of PB Partners’ Hospitality Division, explained the grape varieties and viniculture. PB Valley is planted with shiraz and Chenin blanc grapes from French rootstock while the tempranillo grapes are from Spanish extraction.

Italy and Germany have also provided parent grapevines. Here, we attended a wine-making presentation and explored the confines of stainless steel and oak vats while sipping their award-winning wines. An expert and extensive viniculture enterprise, the PB Valley winery boasts professional expertise and equipment to lead the wine-making production in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Sunshine aplenty, cool evenings and misty mornings create a climate suitable for grape cultivation, and the clay and loam soil here makes for good drainage. The best period to tour the area is from October to February when the weather is cooler and the grapes are ripening. Picking for the harvest begins in February, but a visit outside the season is still worthwhile as juicy table grapes are grown all year round.

Truly, it is refreshing to go back to basics, to look into ourselves and appreciate all the bounty nature blesses us with. I have always believed that we are closer to God, who created all these priceless treasures, when we are out there in nature’s embrace — clean air, fresh produce, sparkling springs and running rivers, and lush forests. When we take care of our environment, it reciprocates our loving kindness and we become stewards of creation.

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For more information about cultural and academic travel services in Thailand, contact Kasemsak Bhamornsatit of Trikaya at +6625305383, fax +6625390209, e-mail pong@trikayatours.com, or visit their website at www.trikayatours.com. You may also contact Dave de Jesus of the Tourism Authority of Thailand-Philippine Representative Office at telefax +632-911-1660 or e-mail tat_mnl@pacific.net.ph.