I was about 26 years old and didn’t know any better. Bored with my job at the time on the staff of Peace Corps in Bangkok, I hatched the idea of growing western vegetables in a fertile valley on the banks of the famous River Kwai. My Peace Corps colleagues pitched in with capital. We bought 25 acres of land, and I hired Khun Damrongsak, a Thai Luther Burbanks whom I stole from the Siam Intercontinental Hotel, to run the farm. We were off and running. Or more accurately, off and losing our money. Damrongsak was no ifs ands or buts a great scientist. He later earned a meaningful award for developing very appetizing hybrid guavas.

THAILAND 2011

Thailand has become well known worldwide for its many attractions. Many attractions can all over the country, offering visitors interesting knowledge of Thai culture to be found uniquely.



For instance, there are numerous Buddhist temples that the tourist can visit to learn about the national religion co Thailand. In Bangkok, the capital city of the country, there are many important temples. One of the most important temples is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, where a Buddhist image made from a large Emerald is kept. The Temple of Dawn is also in Bangkok on the bank of the chao Phraya River. These are only two of the many important Buddhist Temples in the Bangkok area. There are many more throughout the country.

But like a lot of smart scientists, his skills did not consist of profit-making or management.

Thai Krabi

If you want to be a gentleman farmer in the humid tropics, be prepared to lose at least 3,000 Thai baht a month for every acre of vegetables that you plan to grow. That was 1972, so in today’s money be prepared to lose about 0 to 0 per acre which is a lot of money. Why do you think only gentleman go into farming? Unless the government’s paying, who else can no ifs ands or buts afford it?

But for all the money I lost for myself and my partners, I earned a lot of firsts. I was the very first person to grow broccoli in the Thai central plain. Oddly enough, of the 12 varieties I tested from seed clubs colse to the world, the ones that worked best in the hot tropics were Sakata seeds from cold Japan. My broccoli proved very popular with the Chinese cafeteria in town, and the owners became close friends, even contribution me a bed when I was stuck in town.

Damrongsak and I also grew baby corn, snow peas and asparagus, and for a time I was also the “Mushroom King of Thailand.” These were the relative successes. Lettuce also grew very well, though not in the hot season; it has a resin which discouraged bugs without any need for pesticides. (Yes, this was the 1970′s and most of us were still merrily ingesting chemicals. )

I lived in a 4 meter by 4 meter thatch and bamboo raft that sat right in the river with windows that opened all around. Every morning I dove into the Kwai and swam across the river and back. This was truly the luxury of nature, and when my friends found out they all wanted to come too. Especially intrepid Marcia, my economist buddy who was an intern at Thailand’s central bank. She organized the first overnight raft trip down the Kwai in a tiny bamboo raft with a canvas tent in case it rained. Somebody ultimately recommend we offer all this to paying tourists.

Hence the other first for the farm was eco-tourism. The word wouldn’t be invented for other 10 or o years, but we were doing it. We took our guests to meet the local villagers, who picked fresh coconuts for them and showed them how to harvest sugar cane. At our evening campfires, we invited a few talkative villagers to retort questions from the foreign tourists and vice versa, with me as interpreter. The cafeteria food all came from our own and local farms. And the activities were all about nature. Thus we became an early example of an eco-resort well before it became a much coveted and abused term in the tourism industry.

It’s now years later, and I have tried to apply all I learned to a tree house resort in a gorgeous private rainforest adjacent to Khao Sok National Park, Surat Thani, in south Thailand. Here’s what I learned, and it seems to be working both for a sustainable business and sustainable environment.

Lessons learned. There are always lessons to be learned.

1. It’s hard to be the first. Now the banks of the River Kwai are lined with floating and grounded resorts. Then none. If you’re the first, every person else learns from your mistakes and successes and has an easier time of it. great to be the second.

2. How to deal with the locals. It is now taught in Ph.D policy on eco-tourism that to corollary you involve and advantage the local people. We hired them and some of them walked off every night with our fuel and food. When we fired one, the whole hamlet rallied to the cause of their hamlet neighbor. Don’t believe the Ph.Ds. It’s hazardous to hire locals. Instead let them supply transport, tours, or other needed services, and they will be your nice bridge to the surrounding community.

3. Don’t mix. No racial slurs intended, but it’s hard to mix Asian and Western tourists. Most Asian tourists today still love to be in big groups and use nature as a setting for what they might do in the city. Westerners on the other hand want to enjoy the attractiveness of nature in semi-solitude. The two don’t mix.

I Had A Farm on the River Kwai in Thailand