Thursday, August 14, 2008

August 9- Bangkok: His Majesty's Project


At Jim and Martina’s house—Wonderful breakfast of fruits
we’ve never seen—mangosteen, water apple, red dragon fruit, white guava . . .

The whole family piles into the van and Jim’s driver takes us to the Central World mall where Martina has heard there is a special exhibit of His Majesty’s project to support organic agriculture. The driver lets us off at the Sky train which we take into central Bangkok. “Mall” doesn’t quite describe the glitzy, multistory, exclusive shopping center with European boutiques.

The king’s exhibits are set up in different places in the mall—one shows how to grow sweet peppers, lettuces, chard, onions in small containers and even in plastic bags for people with small gardens. Another area sells foods researched and developed for Thai soils and climate—like avocadoes, vanilla beans and figs. People line up to buy chips made from shiitake mushrooms and carrots, juices and jams from passion fruit, persimmons, and berries, and all sorts of delectable things. We couldn’t resist the good prices and good products ourselves. Martina bought some things to try at home and Katie got a bag of kaki.

We go back home—first the sky train, then the air-conditioned van with Jim’s driver. It takes a bout 45 minutes to reach Ladawan, in southeast Bangkok where Jim lives. Jet lag has taken over by now and we all take a nap for the afternoon.

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