ACE, ACE, Baby!:P: August 2013

Day 2 of our trip.. woke up refreshed and awake!:) Read for a full day of exploration!

We noticed hor, on the river, there are alot of floating plants and they seem to be moving towards us. So strange.. evening hor.. never move one.. only morning will move. I think it might be because of the tides or wat. I am so curious what these floating plants are and where they will move to and where they go...

Then it was time to go for breakfast! Check out the heart shaped cherry tomato I found!! SO cute!

Silly Ace go and take big bowl of cereal only to realize that there are lots of other stuff to eat!

Wah.. this is simply heaven for me. All the fruits I want that I wouldnt buy or eat in Dubai because they are so ex... rambutans, longans... papaya... guava... SHIOK MAN!

View from our table..

Found out that Sampran Riverside used to be some sort of golf course and eventually they develop into some sort of eco community resort... THey actually work with the people around here to create sustainable way to run this resort. Which probably explains why most of their staff either speak very broken english or like dun really understand english...

Our free stay was supposed to come with free tickets to the cultural village.. so we head off to the cultural village after breakfast..

Guess what this is?

Hehehe.. it is a bicycle attached to some paddles so that visitors can help to introduce oxygen into the river water.. that is Ace doing his part:)

Farmers selling produce. Too bad we are not heading home direct cos if not I sure will buy.. they look so good and fresh!

Ace is excited when he saw packets of fish food for sale!

Saw and elephant as we approached the cultural village....

Walked past a rose garden and finally can see FRESH ROSE that we ate last night in its unfried form..

So pretty..

The village is like a hands on approach.. when we went in.. they were demonstrating the bamboo dance. They asked me and Ace to try but I was happy just to take photos lah :) Hahaha.. I have done the bamboo dance before though when I was in kindergarten and did my school performance. But strangely, I was always under the impression the the bamboo thingy is like indonesian or filipino.. never thought of it as being Thai...

Various types of Thai costumes on display...

I am so curious why there are half naked costumes for women inside... I didnt think of the thai people as being that open.. I did a google search and found out that apparently over the course of thai history, there were some cultural mandates that were being decided by the Thai government. The people in Thai long ago do only wear bottoms with no tops and after 1941, there was a mandate that this sort of uniform was no longer considered appropriate..

I guess later, they also started being in favour of more "modern" dress... SO i guess that is how these came about..

If you are a hands on person.. the cultural village is quite fun.. can learn to fight...

Watch how they make thai silk from silk worms...

Watch people weaving scarfs and what nots..

Silk Cocoons galore..

Learn how to draw on umbrellas. Pity though that they just paste paper and pretend to draw...

Learn how to play traditional thai musical instruments...

Ace having fun ;)

Wat about learning some thai dance steps?:)

THen Ace learnt to make art work using leaves...

Made a Sampran Riverside logo... goldfish!:) so cute!

Next we went to the "kitchen" and learnt how to make a traditional thai dish...

Rice flour, bananas, coconut milk and a dash of salt... mix well... And then you wrap the mixture in a banana leaf...

And you pengang for like 20 min...

Ace learning how to do it..

Taste pretty yummy actually :)

Then Ace learn to grate coconuts..

The lady say they take 3 min to grate ONE coconut. I want ot die already.. after thirty seconds I only had a teaspoon worth of coconut gratings! HOw they do for 3 minutes!

Then there is a veggie decoration counter. This one only can see.. cannot try..

How many veggies can you see? These are made from tomato skin, beetroot, carrots, cucumber...

THe mango flowers were amazing as well!:)

Next, we learnt how to make flower garlands...

My completed simple flower garland..

The one in her basket is considered DIFFICULT design.. I guess I will never have the patience to do that :)

Ace finally completes his as well :)

Then we went to the farm area... and Ace got to unhusk some rice.. somehow, you suppose to push to make the machine turn and the husk will be seperated from the rice..

Then you sieve it and the husk will fly away and only leave the white rice..

Ace was impressed and amazed at the same time... I think now he realize how much work goes to creating one grain of rice...

Another alternative to dehusk the rice..

There is even a mini padi field there... on the left are 3 mth old plants... on the right are 6 months old I think...

The nice farmer uncle pull out one rice plant and show us the roots and pointed to it and told us.. "RICE!" First time I see rice attached to the plant too! I was quite excited!

Uncle Farmer also brought us to see his cow.. Mr Saswadi.. and he actually can nod his head to greet us! So clever!

Ace feeding Mr Saswadi..

That is a calf...

Ace is happy to feed the calf :)

He was curious about all the gadgets in the farmer's hut.. so he tried them all...

THen we went back to the kungfu place and he learnt to fight with the sword..

The shifu even asked me to try.. no thanks man.. I happy just to take photos!:)

Left right left, KICK!

Our CHAMPION!:)

These are photos taking here many moons ago..

So interesting:)

Saw some elephants getting ready to welcome some visitors..

Max say how come we din get a welcome. I reminded him tat our tickets were FREE!:) wahahahha

As it is weekend, there is a Farmer's Market nearby and so we decided to take a look...

What a creative way to display pandan leaves:)

Saw this fruit.. but dunno wat is it.. Apparently after a google search, this is not even common in THailand as it is seasonal..dan should have bought one to try!:) haha

Saw all the food and was happy.. went closer and then unhappy liao.. cos all the signboards are in thai.. we cannot tell what is vegeterian and wat is not.. and they dun understand english.. so cannot take the chance and cannot eat there.. so decided to go back...