Mudslides and More! Montreux Farm

Life in the city can be difficult for children and just as much so for parents, especially when you grew up in the countryside and are now surrounded by concrete, fumes and vehicles. When any opportunity arises for me to take my son out of the chaos and into the calmness of the countryside, I jump at the opportunity.

On a Sunday morning my wife suggested going to Montreux Farm, which is 50 km north of Bangkok in an area called Rangsit. The farm had a cafe and a range of activities for the children to experience more of 'the country life'. The farm has a great marketing strategy as the activities only require a minimal donation to cover the costs of the materials used and they conveniently have a cafe, which was bursting at the seems with people for the duration of our visit!

The first activity my son took part in was to create his own pot for a plant, the pot that was used was a clear cup, which was recycled from the farm's cafe. My son had to make some holes in the bottom for water to drain out. He was given a nail and a hammer to do this.

The trick was to just hit the nail through the cup, so it was easy to get out. Most of the children enjoyed the hammering too much and hammered it almost all the way through! You can't beat a bit of hammering!

Once the hammering was over a kind man threaded some string through the top of the cup/pot so it could be hung up when we were at home.

Next my son filled his pot with some soil, then he potted a bird's eye chilli plant in the pot. I wasn't sure my son would be tasting his work in the future as those type of chilli are pretty spicy and he doesn't eat spicy food! His grandma was more than happy to take it off his hands, although I would've liked to keep it on our balcony to add a zing to our evening meals!

The next activity was to make a 'salted egg'. Salted eggs are often added to many Thai dishes in small pieces and are especially delicious when added to a spicy papaya salad! For this activity the children had to mix salt, water and some type of powder together. once the mixture was complete, they packed it all over the egg carefully, making sure they didn't crack the egg! Once they had finished the eggs were put into recycled cups to take home. The lady that was running the activity said that the egg should be left in the compacted mixture for 10 days and then it would be ready to cook!

One of the main features of the farm was that it was surrounded by a huge rice paddy. This meant it was time to get messy! But before I show you us at work, below are a few shots of the paddy, which for some reason I find quite relaxing.

When planting the rice plants the idea is that you plant one at the edge then plant them in a line going backwards, until you reach the other side. There wasn't enough to do that, so we planted one or two each. The mud under the water was really, thick and sticky and I sank quite deep into it. Getting the mud off your toes was a nightmare, the mud got itself right under all my toe nails! My son Junior Explorer was enjoying the mud and stayed in for a little longer than I did, as he was enjoying life as a rice farmer. I must admit planting the plants and squelching in the mud was quite satisfying, it was just the cleaning process which was a chore!

Once we had cleaned ourselves up, Junior Explorer and I went for a quick paddle in a boat, the pond to navigate around was quite small, so it took some careful navigation to get around without colliding into anything.

Then to finish our day off it was time to go to play on the mudslide and make some mud pies! Unfortunately I didn't have any spare clothes to take part in this activity, although I have made up for it on a recent school trip at another farm! The mudslide had to different channels to slide down. On the way up a lot of the children brought up buckets of water to make the slides more slippery. It looked like great fun and was great to see so many city children getting really muddy!(I am sure you are wondering how I knew they were city folk? In the car park all the cars had Bangkok number plates.) Anyhow time to enjoy the madness in the mud!

This was a great trip, providing children with a taste of the countryside, educating them with a few of the wonders available outside the concrete walls of the city. If you live in Bangkok or fancy taking your children to do something a little different, Montreux Farm is a great place to visit!

Thank you for checking out my blog, if you are interested in Thailand or education and enjoyed this, feel free to swing by sometime to see what my next adventure will entail!

Peace Out fellow Steemians.