Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Lamphun Experience - New pagoda

A few pics of e pagoda :




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Monday, February 19, 2007

Chiangmai experience - You Sabai


Duration: 1 day (29-30jan)
Place: Yousabai (& a short visit to Pun2 & Baanthai)
Location: Northern thailand,~60km fr chiangmai
Activities/Highlights: Chatting with eco-organic folks, Overnite@ little earthern dwelling, Plastering wall, Yummy thai veg. homecooked food.

An interest in eco-community & a slight turn of fate brought me to You Sabai.

Perched on a little hill, it has a main hangout sala /eating area, a decent bathroom-cum-toilet, a few adobe(earthern) huts, & an 'eagles' roost!

There is also a 2nd showerroom in progress - i helped to plaster a small segment of e walls :)

The place is owned & run by a young thai couple, Krite & Dao who used to operate a guesthouse in chiangmai. Both are jovial, welcoming & speak english. They built a lot of the stuff themselves, and planted banana trees & a small veg. patch. The place is set up as an organic-food cooking school, and the 1st batch of students was due to arrive 1st week of Feb.

Advice & support comes from neighbours (1) Punpun, experts in adobe dwelling constructions & natural/organic cultivation (2) Baan Thai (3) Volunteers & visitors


I enjoyed the novelty of staying in an earthern dwelling (yup, all to myself ) & would love to learn to build my own. One of my dreams is to build my own home & Bed !

The food was vegetarian, and fabulously flavoured with spices & Dao's creativity.


I learnt more about organic farming over conversations with Andy & Michel. And had fun chatting with Sharhar, Vishall (i hope e spelling's right) & ...oops (forgot e name), a very nice korean-australian gal who had been at Yousabai since 1-2 weeks earlier. Andy used to farm organic pineapples, ginger & papaya for 30years in hawaii, Michel is the resident expert in composting & manages the Pun2 seedbank.

Some interesting things:

* Andy pointed out a field of corn, & from the color/ type of green, commented that it uses nitrate fertilizers! Golly.
* Cultivating EM bacteria is easy, its just a natural process. Just get some good micro-organisms, grow them at favourable temp/ humidity conditions. And the stuff that is made is also good for intestinal flora(healthy probiotics), samething. Hmm.. ;)
* You Sabai - means to be well, happy, relaxed, comfortable, at-ease

Main takeaways:
* there is an alternative & viable way of life which is responsible & beautiful, an alternative to the urban city way, which tends to be unsustainable & stressful.

(Hmm.. somemore that i heard, & need verification)
* organic farming productivity =/exceeds Conventional Chemical Farming, with know-how and genuine understanding & care for the land.
* Cost of organic food can be equal/less than conventional.
* Pests are attracted to weak plants, & nitrogen overdosed plants. Healthy plants have lower risk of a pest attack. Law of e jungle, e weak is prey'd/ pest'd.

Well, there's much much more to good cultivation, its both a science & an art.

This trip, I got in touch with nature & learnt a little.

Links :
http://tribes.tribe.net/baanthai
www.punpunthailand.org

Extract from a writeup by Baanthai:
".. hopefully it provides a joyful example of another way of living that not only provides all a person needs and more, but in a way that is fun, and aids in the appreciation of life, family, food, and all that is. For the planet? Well, we won't be: watching T.V., shopping at Wal-Mart, eating at McDonalds, or getting road-rage. We will be stewarding our land in a way that leaves it healthier than we found it."

--

posted by cloudz1 @ 9:23 PM 0 comments

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Chiangmai experience - Royal Flower Fest


The rose of e north.. that's chiangmai.

28jan (sun) : Royal flora Fest
The flora fest was open 1nov06-31jan07, located abt 30min from the downtown chiangmai.
This is one amazing showcase, not only of flowers n exotic plants, but of the royal projects which teach & help the masses with their livehood & environment.


Highly interactive, eductional & inspiring - I am very very impressed.

I only had abt 4 hrs at e fest (& visited just 20% of all e exhibits), 1hr was queing for tram-tics.

A few new things that i came across:
* Ventiver grass a.k.a LivingWall (Antidote to soil erosion) - Hardy grass that in 18mths, roots grow to 3m in e soil! i wonder if this grass can grow well on e landslide slopes of spore?


* Mangrove tree
that if you placed your ear on e trunk, you could hear e sound of water absorption in spurts of clicks. wow, got to try it out at e ubin mangroove.


* Jatropha Crucas
An alternative to palm oil. Potential Biodiesel in R&D phase, 2kg can produce 0.5kg oil, 1.5kg residue.
There was a hands-on exhibit (engine model using biodiesel, oil presses, fruit in various stages, jatropha in e gardens) at the toyota booth.

* 1million mangroove project (yes, the local-ppl replanted 1 million!)


* Boddhi Tree - Tiers of leaves on a big metallic boddhi tree. Visitors could make a donation, write a wish upon a copper leaf & attach to e tree.

All these alternative stuff attracted me more that e flowers, i hardly noticed the blooms :)

http://www.royalfloraexpo.com/
http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/jan07/jan07_royal_flora_ratchaphruek.htm

more abt e You-Sabai organic experience, mudhouse stayover in e next post..
~~

posted by cloudz1 @ 1:04 AM 0 comments