Thursday, January 13, 2022
Mae Wang and the Flower Gardens

After coming down the mountain from Wat Luang Khun Win, we drove for another 30-40 minutes farther up into the mountains to Khun Wang at 1400 meters elevation and the Agriculture Research Center. As we approached, we were again in the mountains, and I got this fairly hazy-looking photo of the mountains in the distance:

Khun Wang

The Chiang Mai Royal Agricultural Research Centre known as Khun Wang, is one of many agricultural projects started by the former King of Thailand, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (also known as King Rama IX) to improve agriculture in Thailand. Khun Wang is fairly large, about 200 acres (500 rai, a “rai” is 1600 square meters, or 0.4 acres), but most of the agricultural research areas are not public; only a smaller flower garden area with the cherry trees is public. The agricultural center is made up of two units, one is Khun Wang, and the other is Mae Chon Luang Highland Agricultural Research Center which covers 500 acres (1,250 rai) in Mae Chaem district, about 7 kilometers from Khun Wang.

Note: King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away in 2016 at the age of 89 having been on the throne for 70 years.

This place is a very popular with Thais who come to see appreciate the beauty of phya sua khrong (wild Himalayan cherry) trees in full bloom in January. January is winter and the dry season, so I thought it too early for cherry blossoms, but they were out and visible along with many other gardens.

One of the agricultural projects was to teach and help the people in northern Thailand to grow coffee and tea replacing their dependence on growing poppies for the opium/heroin trade. That project has had great success. The coffee growers of northern Thailand are more prosperous than when they were growing poppies. The Thai coffee is very good. I am not a coffee aficionado, but I do know the coffee here tastes better than what I get in the U.S. Unfortunately, as the coffee growers have blossomed in northern Thailand, a coffee-culture has emerge in Thailand, so almost all of the coffee produced is consumed in Thailand, and very little is available for export. There are many, many coffee shops in Thailand now, so it is easy to get Thai coffee to drink here.

Here are a few photos of the flowers at Khun Wang:

And a view of some of the cherry trees filled with blossoms:

Here is Nam by the sign (in Thai, obviously) for Khun Wang:

The last two letters almost look like “16” but they are not numbers. I did find a large sign in English in front of a few cherry trees:

One thing to remember: in the Thai language, spaces delimit sentences or phrases – there are no spaces in a sentence or a phrase. So when translating, their instinct is to leave out the spaces. On a drive some years ago from Chiang Rai back to Chiang Mai, I saw the highway sign showing the distance to Chiang Mai as “Chiang Mai 50 km” then about 4 or 5 kilometers later, a similar highway sign “Chiangmai 45 km” and both had been installed by the same highway department.

After some time looking at the flowers, we got back in the car and headed back to the Mae Wang area. They wanted to take me back to Chiang Mai, and along the way we stopped for dinner at a place in which I was the only foreigner. And it was a wonderful family-style meal with many dishes to share and enjoy. The Thais like to take their time with meals. After the dinner, we continued on to Chiang Mai. I think both the children had fallen asleep. I was dropped off at See You Soon at about 9:30 PM.

This was one of the best days ever in Thailand. I was with a very close family all day, sharing their mini-vacation to the mountain temple and the flower gardens. They speak very little English and I speak very little Thai, which did not matter. I enjoyed their company, and as the day progressed, even the children became more comfortable with the presence of this foreigner. A truly great day in Thiland!

Next: More Khao Soi