On our most resent weekend motorbike ride, my friend Ally and myself were lucky enough to come across the local coffee production in the process.
We were on the back mountain roads going from Doi Saket over to Chae Son National park when we first came across many trays of coffee beans drying in the sun at the roadsides in many of the small villages we passed through.
Then in one of the villages we saw a couple of people blanching and washing more beans for drying.
One guy was doing it by hand whilst his neighbours opposite had mechanical help.
The locals were very friendly and keen to explain the process. Once the beans are harvested they are blanched and washed and roughened before being laid out in the sun for several days prior to roasting.
At the house that was using the machine there was also a lovely little coffee shop where we were able to purchase a cup of their fresh coffee, which was just perfect.
I was so impressed that I bought several bags of their fresh ground coffee to take away.
I found it delightful that rather than one mass producer it seems that there are many small scale coffee farming operations going on throughout these hills.
For more photos please visit our photobucket album here.
Heading over towards San Kam Paeng on the Banthi road, I should have remembered from Saturdays ride out with Ally, the distinct lack of decent eating stops along this road.
On the way back we called up to Wat Pa Tung and I got a photo of one of the possible sites for our Foundation plans.
As apposed to the normal ‘splash about’, I actually did about half an hours serious swimming.
Our other lunchtime companions were the cafe cat, who happily ate our leftovers, and a beautiful yellow and black butterfly, possibly a cousin of that hairy caterpillar.
On the way home we called in at Chompoo where we fed the fish and I bought a new Moneybox.
We also saw these amazing looking toads.
oh, and watching Wispa playing with her latest buddy, Fleabag.
We met up at the Brick Road Cafe for breakfast at 10.30. Dimitri, the new owner, was just about to leave for Kuala Lumphur to secure his visa. The cafe will remain open in his absence. The staff informed me of an unfortunate situation where a neighbouring cafe had dumped a load of rubbish inside the Temple grounds and had managed to include a Brick Road Cafe brochure, consequently the Temple complained to the wrong people. Luckily one of the staff from the offending cafe admitted that it was them and the Temple were made aware.
Taking an easy ride into the Hills near Mae On we chose to follow a sign for Wat Pa Teung. On the way I spotted what looked like the entrance to a hilltop Temple, guarded by two impressive ‘troll’ soldiers. Following the road up we discovered that the Temple itself no longer exists. Continuing on the track, back down the other side of the hill we discovered a huge lake where a large resort sat on the banks opposite. A little bit of paradise.
Apparently this lake is a popular fishing spot, with a big competition scheduled for Tuesday.
Then about five more minutes up and we came to Wat Pa Teung.
We spent around half an hour here before continuing up this road to see where it would take us…..the answer being nowhere.
We visited 3 different lakes along the way, all clearly popular fishing spots.
Looking for somewhere to stop for coffee I pulled over briefly only to have Boon pull over to join me and promptly run over my right foot.
