Chiang Rai

Saturday, December 3, 3005
Today our driver picked us up at 7am and we headed out to pick up Moo. We got on the road early and headed north to Chiang Rai. The trip takes about 3 hours though we stopped for refueling along the way. We stopped at one of the few tourist spots, Cabbages and Condoms. This store / restaurant / rest stop is a tribute to the man who brought family planning to the hill tribes in northern Thailand.

We had planned to stop at several sites of the Chiang Rai Forestry Department. At our first stop we picked up Moo’s friend Samart Sumanochitraporn. He is the Director of the Chaing Rai Forestry Training Center, a program that encourages hill tribe families to stop growing opium and cutting the forest. The area around his office is host to many students who are conducting research. There are many signs describing the plants and animals (2510) in the forest and many native plants are potted for display.

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After picking him up, we continued to head north to view the projects that he has worked on – these included a tissue culture laboratory (2557), mountainside garden and arboretum as well as a handicraft outlet which produces fabric, pottery and mulberry paper, and many nurseries and farms. Our first stop was a shade house that contained all of the orchids that have been seized from illegal collection (2531). The other side of the shade house had other plants for sale including many orchids and ferns. My favorite fern so far has been the Grape Leafed Fern (2542) – it has large leaves and black stems like those of a Maidenhair Fern. Our next stop was a tissue culture laboratory. Samart was proud that the new generation of Thais were learning about horticulture and the valuable resource that they have in Orchids. The road was winding and uphill as we climbed the mountain. We continued to drive until we reached the Mae Fah Luang Arboretum. We descended steps to view Dahlias and Vireya Rhododendron (2575) and climbed up steps to view the Stream of Benevolent Compassion (2573). As we continued to climb we had no idea how close we were to Burma. The foreman shows the stake (2597) in the ground that signifies the border between Thailand and Burma. The views of the surrounding areas were unbelievable. The mountains of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are a great contrast to our stops throughout Bangkok.

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The last stop was the Mae Fuh Luang Garden which is a beautiful display garden. It houses an exhibit on tissue culture, changing annual displays (2654, 2625), and lush trails through landscaped grounds. In our stop behind the scenes we saw nursery houses filled with orchids (2642) that have been bred by the garden staff. The central area in the garden featured a small pavilion with a large tree growing over it. The limbs were LOADED with orchids (2635).

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When we arrived at the hotel this evening we were happy to finally meet our Botany in Action friend Arika. She is busily working on her dissertation at Khon Kaen University but was able to take some time off to spend a few days showing us around Thailand. KD