A surprise in Sukhothai

We read about the Sukhothai Organic Agricultural Project and wanted to see it. It was started by a 75 year-old woman named Vanli Prasarttong-osoth who has a food nutrition degree from a U.S. university and started out as an elementary school teacher. Her husband owns the Bangkok airways so when they bought the land for the airport in Sukhothai, they developed an agricultural experiment in the rice fields adjacent to the small airport. They developed three kinds of rice, all organic, but each designed for nutritional content-- brown, black and red.

We stopped by the Sukhothai Heritage Resort to taste the rice and then headed to the agricultural station, shown in the pictures.

The trip back on Bangkok Airways was as opposite of our trip to Sukhothai as you can get (see Getting There and Around). The attendents place a orchid corsage on every passenger. The small check-in takes so little time, that you can avail yourself of one of the complimentary bicycles to ride around the grounds and see the weaving and cermics demonstrations or just settle in the outdoor waiting area and partake of the complimentary fruits, drinks and snacks while reading one of the numerous free magazines or newspapers.

As we rode in an open-air van to the plane, a staff of several attendents stood and bowed bon voyage. The whole runway is landscaped in flowers and the flight was the smoothest ever, of course, with complimentary lunch and drinks.

If you are ever in the area--be sure to check it out--and while you are there you can see the Sukhothai historical park ( the capital before Bangkok) and the Sri Satchanalai Heritage site (ancient ruins of an early Thai city)--two of the most historical sites in Thailand. Here is an old wat at the Sri Satchanalai site. We rode our bikes there through a nice village with antiques and other various crafts and offerings.