Rice Planting and Village Visit

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Each year, some of the favorite activities for our group are things that can't be found in a tourist brochure. We are lucky enough to be invited home to Noom's village once or twice each summer to participate in local activities.

One of those activities is rice planting, which takes place each summer. Rice planting is an important part of any Asian village's calendar, as it provides a staple crop for the whole village for the year. Seeing a process that brings the whole village together, and has been integral to the culture for so many centuries, is really amazing.

It works like this: At the start of the rainy season, one plot is flooded and filled with rice seeds, while the others are prepared for planting.

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The rice seedlings grow very close together, so that the one plot turns bright green. When the weather is right, the seedlings are harvested, bound into bundles, and cut to an even length. Then, they need to be planted, in groups of 5 or 10 stalks, throughout the fields at evenly spaced intervals. That's where we come in.

You plant the stalks by walking through the mud. And the mud is about 6 inches deep, coated in hot water. And full of crabs, and frogs, and tadpoles, as well as the occasional fish or eel. Watching how fast the locals work, compared to how slow we are at our new job, in humbling. The fields are completely beautiful and it's fun to spend a few hours helping out.

Sometimes we are also able to visit the village for holiday celebrations too. Making offerings of flowers, incense, and candles in banana leaf cones and taking them to the temple is a special treat. On certain holiday nights, the temple is lit all over with candles, and people walk in three circles around the temple before leaving their offerings. When we have the chance to participate, it's always a special moment that allows us to connect to Thai culture.