Page 42 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL SUMMER 2025 THAILAND

On the Road

Our OAT trip covered some 750 miles,
many more if you count stops along the
way, as we zig-zagged from Bangkok to
Chiang Rai. On some days, the pace seemed
whirlwind and we craved downtime (i.e.
naps!) but generally we were comfortable
with the itinerary. Though we are experi-
enced travelers, it’s unlikely we would have
enjoyed many of these adventures travel-
ling on our own.
Joe set the tone, leading us on orienta-
tion walks in each new city, previewing
planned stops and spontaneously adding
some that broke up our time on the road.
His many informal “lectures” expanded our
knowledge of Thailand’s past and its thriv-
ing present as the second-largest economy
in Southeast Asia. He shared flaws and is-
sues too, but in a country where some criti-
cisms can mean jail-time, he’d often end
these commentaries humorously with “but
you didn’t hear it from me.”
One impromptu stop brought us up
close to a rice paddy. Thailand is the
world’s second largest exporter of rice,
planting and harvesting two crops annu-
ally. In the midst of describing its complex
and labor-intensive cultivation, Joe asked
our driver to pull over next to a rice farm
that stretched to the horizon. There he
plucked a slender green shoot to show us
the growing grains. A later stop - not as
appealing - revealed the fate of the rice
growers’ nemesis - rats: A road-side booth
sold them grilled and ready to eat. Eew!
Another unplanned photo op beckoned
along a road bordering salt flats. We
watched workers toil in the blazing sun as
Joe gave us the scoop (pun intended) on
the process. Seawater is pumped into
shallow fields, left to evaporate in the sun,
and then raked into blinding white mounds
by hand. It's an exhausting job that pays
about $10 a day. Hard to believe how
much effort goes into what we casually
sprinkle on dinner.

42 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE SUMMER 2025