Thailand, Farm #2 – Tacomepai, Pai (Part 1)

Where: Pai, a small town in northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son Province, near the Myanmar border, about 3 hours drive from Chiang Mai on the northern route to Mae Hong Son.

Who: Sandot and his family.

What: A traditional organic permaculture farm run by a Thai hill tribe family who strive to maintain a sustainable and environmentally caring way of life. They also offer permaculture courses.

Volunteering hours: Entirely flexible, you can work as many or as little hours as you want.

Fees: 100baht per person per night for 3 nights and above or 150baht per night per person for anything below 3 nights.

Tacomepai was a lucky find for us. We initially planned to volunteer at this other farm in Chiang Mai before heading up to Pai for a few days but the farm in Chiang Mai cancelled on us at the last minute and thankfully we found Tacomepai to fill in the gap.

When we arrived at the farm, Sandot thought we were Thai and when we told him that we were Singaporeans, he was rather amused and asked mockingly, “What are Singaporeans doing here on a farm? Singapore is all business business work work, why farm?” And with that, we decided that we have to prove him wrong! Over the days, we did prove him wrong and eventually came to realise that he’s really wise and humorous albeit sometimes a little crazy, which is why towards the end, we gave him the affectionate nickname of Baa (crazy) ah gong.

This for us was our favourite farm in our 2.5months of farming and i’ll show you why.

Accommodation on the farm is really simple and basic but extremely unique. There’s probably about 17 huts all around the farm and they are all built by Sandot himself. He uses techniques learnt from the hill tribes and builds the houses in the most natural way possible with some built entirely without any nails. We realised later on that his impression of Singaporeans were marred by the fact that there were 2 Singaporeans who wanted to volunteer at Tacompai previously but when they made their way down, they decided to head over to Pai city instead. Sandot suspects they were put off by the accommodation but honestly, what’s not to love about these huts below?

We stayed here for the first 2 nights without any electricity so that meant bathing/peeing/shitting in the dark and no charging of electronics which wasn’t that big of a deal since we usually charged our stuff in the afternoon at the kitchen or classroom.

After some of the volunteers left, we shifted to the Teak Hut overlooking the flower fields, rice fields and neverending mountains. This hut was solar powered so we had light and electrical sockets though we kept the lights switched off most of the time so we could star gaze at night. Here’s a video taking you through the hut: http://instagram.com/p/bX4X3vi3oe/

The Rice Field Hut was also amazing. Just look at the view and imagine waking up to this every morning.

There are mud huts, thai huts but the most unique one has got to be the treehouse hut below.

Like mentioned above, working hours at Tacomepai is entirely voluntary, you can choose to do as little or as much as you want. The only thing that is fixed daily is classes at 1.30pm where Sandot teaches us on anything and everything about farming, while we were there we learnt about biogas, making compost, making charcoal and wood vinegar, making eM (effective microorganisms), plants and more.

The very awesome classroom that Sandot built himself with bamboo and recycled wooden planks.

So everyday Sandot writes the chores required on the whiteboard in the kitchen and it’s entirely up to you to join in or not.

What we did in our 11 days there.

Weaved baskets

Plucked yellow flowers for cooking.

Harvested snails from the pond after getting tricked by Sandot into jumping in the pond who then claimed he has a fear of heights and proceeded to climb down with a ladder.

 

Pounded soy beans for soy milk.

Dug a trench so water from the mountain could flow directly to the rice fields. This area is known as mosquito hell.  It got its name because while we were digging the trench and decided to take a break, upon looking down, there were SO MANY mosquitoes surrounding us even though we were wearing long pants.

Made rope from the bark of the rope tree

Collected cow dung for fertilizer

Climbed trees to pluck mangoes

Swam and skipped rocks in the river while waiting for the person in charge of the Forestry Department to arrive.

Prepared land for planting

Getting there:
Make your way to Chiang Mai, from there you can either catch a flight or a take minivan to Pai City. From Pai City, take either a motorbike taxi or van taxi for 50baht/person or 75baht/person respectively to Tacomepai. Alternatively, you can also try to hitch a ride out to Tacomepai from Pai City.

Useful resources:
Tacomepai’s website
Tacomepai’s Facebook
YouTube video on Sandot and Tacomepai 

In part 2, i’ll show you around the kitchen and the meals we had as well as share more on our Baa ah gong.