When the weather starts to cool down and the festive bells start ringing it’s time for the Jim Thompson farm to re-open again. Open for just 6 weeks of the year, Bangkok city dwellers flock by the dozens to experience the beautiful natural surroundings and enjoy generally being out of the Bangkok urban landscape.
Jim Thompson Farm Tour is back! After nearly two years of hiatus due to COVID-19, the farm is ready to welcome visitors again this year from 3 December 2022 until 2 January 2023, featuring the “Ma-hom Ma-ton” or Isaan Homecoming Festival theme. The farm invites you to enjoy nature and fresh air at the end of the year when the climate will be calm and refreshing. Come and immerse yourself in the warmth of the northeastern-style family atmosphere. Tickets can be purchased HERE
“Ma-hom Ma-ton” means returning to the Isaan people’s childhood home, where relatives gather to welcome the returnees and help each other cook a big meal while singing, dancing, and playing the Phin (a traditional Isaan lute) together. They may bring their friends from the city or other provinces on this occasion, and family members would have a Baisri ceremony, tying white strings around the returnees’ and their guests’ wrists to wish them good luck. Afterward, everyone sits down together, eats delicious food, and listens to traditional folk tales. An event like this can help strengthen and uplift the spirit of all visitors so they can go back happily and ready to continue with their life in the big city. This delighted year-end event is perfect for the heart.
Like in the years before, the “Jim Thompson Farm Tour” wants visitors to experience the Northeast region (Isaan) way of life. But this year’s farm tour also offers even more fun, lively, vibrant flower fields to compensate for the time we all had to stay home during the pandemic. Strolling through the farm is like visiting a friend’s house, full of warmth and friendliness, where everyone is ready to “hom-ton” or welcome you. Walking along the green rice paddy fields and rejoicing in the lively Isaan-style festival activities and vibrant flower fields, you can capture precious moments with your family and loved ones all day.
You can visit nine fun check-in spots prepared by the farm for unique photographic experiences:
Check-in spot no. 1: Love in Bloom
The colorful flower beds represent the love and warmth of the diversity undivided by class, border, or nationality.
Check-in spot no. 2: Love Sunflower Fields
Lose yourself (and fall in love) in the sunflower fields blooming as far as the eye can see. Then, enjoy taking memorable bird’s eye view photos at a newly built grandstand.
Check-in spot no. 3: Glorious Pumpkin Patch
Experience the expansive pumpkin patch as far as the eye can see. Be dazzled by the cosmos field and a giant glittering pumpkin patch with Khao Phaya Prap, an Isaan-style table mountain, in the backdrop.
Check-in spot no. 4: Sea of Love
Experience the vast pond of Bua Daeng, a red lotus native to the Northeast, joyfully blooming like a sea of love with a wooden bridge spanning through the pond with rowing boats filled with dazzling flowers for you to sit and take photos.
Check-in spot no. 5: Escape the Heat & Take a Nap
Take a seat, relax after a long walk, and enjoy the cooling breeze by the rice fields and a lotus pond. The huts come with cushions for you
to rest with colorful “Thung,” or traditional Isaan ornaments, contrasting with the rice fields’ green.
Check-in spot no. 6: The Sanctuary of Hope
Visit the Sanctuary of Hope, a white sanctuary in the middle of the rice field. On this spot, you can take a good break to draw or write down your wishes for yourself and those around you for only good things to come in the upcoming year.
Check-in spot no. 7: Isaan in Love
Here at this spot, the priced old Isaan houses, the Isaan local food yard, and the Mo Lam stage music will bring you closer to the Isaan people’s lifestyle.
Check-in spot no. 8: Flower Field of Our Dreams
This check-in spot highlights the cosmos flowers blooming in various colors. You can take full panoramic photos on a stage that extends into a flower bed with an elevated bridge leading to a platform in the middle of a cosmos field.
Check-in spot no. 9: Unforgettable Memories
Before leaving the farm, enjoy the last view of the farm at Nern Nom Sao yard, with a lust rice field in the background. This spot is perfect for taking a few memorable photos with friends and family to capture unforgettable memories.
To make it even more special, this year, the Jim Thompson Farm collaborates with “Yuree Kensaku,” a famous Thai-Japanese female artist, in the design of the farm’s characters and themes. Yuree used what are essentially iconic images of the Jim Thompson Farm Tour, such as Boonlai, its prominent young buffalo, and the bright color farm buses and colorful flowers, to design and create super cute cartoon characters in her style. She conveyed the identity of Jim Thompson Farm Tour uniquely and endearingly; simultaneously, the design concept remains bright and subtle, full of Yuree Kensaku style.
Aims & Objectives
Jim Thompson aims to preserve and convey the valuable cultural heritage of Thai people, living in the Northeastern region, to both Thai and foreign visitors in order to generate a sense of appreciation towards the ancient and beautiful Isaan customs and traditions.
History
Located on over 600 rai of land at the hillfoot of Payaprab Mountain in Takob Sub-District, Jim Thompson Farm was founded in 1988 as a production site for silk eggs, where farmers would buy fresh cocoons for the silk thread production, and as a mulberry plantation for silkworms. In 2001, Jim Thompson Farm began to open its doors yearly in December as an agricultural site to visitors, who are passionate about nature, to admire the picturesque scenery, gain agricultural experience, learn about the life cycle of silkworms, stroll through the organic vegetable garden and colourful flower fields, as well as to buy some pesticide-free flowers and agricultural products carefully grown by our farmers.
In 2007, Jim Thompson Farm brought the unique Isaan architectural design to Isaan Village, a collection of traditional Isaan houses located on over 10 rai of land, with examples such as, Ruen Korat, Huen Puthai, and Huen Kreungpook. “Isaan Village” has become another attraction welcoming visitors who are fascinated by the valuable architecture, cultures, and traditions of the Isaan region. In addition, visitors may experience the simple and self-sufficient Isaan way of life through the showcase of lifestyles, cultures, traditions, plays, cuisines, and occupations of Isaan people in the past. In 2008, Jim Thompson Farm built and gathered Korat Village, local religious constructions, Huen Tai-Yuan, ancient wood rice mill aged almost 100 years, and many more within the nearby area so as to reflect a variety of native architecture of the Northeast more clearly.
In 2009, Jim Thompson Farm launched the “Art on Farm” project, a result of collaboration between Jim Thompson Art Center and Jim Thompson Farm Tour, as a pilot project by inviting artists to display their artwork in the context of ecological agriculture and architecture of the Northeast with the opportunities to create overlapping work between art, environment, silkworm rearing, agriculture, and architecture in the Northeastern context in order to bridge art, life, and nature. The artists are encouraged to work with nature, local materials, and recycled materials. The art installations will be displayed at various points within the Farm as part of the Jim Thompson Farm Tour route, which is held annually.
In 2012, Jim Thompson Farm has reorganized its event format by setting a show concept for the first year. The show went under the concept “Sud Sanan Dan Isaan”, telling the story of Isan traditional music or Mor Lam, and received a good response from visitors. The show concept of also differentiates Jim Thompson Farm to any other farms, hence the concept is set to change every year within three contexts, such as culture, agriculture, and fabric. Jim Thompson Farm Tour 2019 was “Tam Hook Tam Pa”, telling the story of Isan memories on textiles.
Take a Sneak Peak
E-mail: [email protected]
Bangkok Office
Tel: 065-7317554 (11.00-19.00)
Jim Thompson Farm (Pak Thong Chai)
Tel: 044-373-116 and 081-928-5442
Editors note : Check out what one of our Bkk Kids community members had to say after visiting the farm the the day.
