Sitting next to a fire pit are dreadlocked sage burners and office workers curious about the alternative life of organic farming.
A bamboo hut, which serves as lodging for volunteers, sits in the middle of the rice fields.
Asher, a WWOOFer (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms volunteer) from Australia was trying to start a fire. His girlfriend was telling us about how they have gone from being vegan to having stopped eating grains altogether. Julien, on a gap year between high school and college in Switzerland, and on his way to teach English in Vietnam, was playing Bohemian Rhapsody on the guitar.
In the three days I volunteered at Tacomepai Farm, I learned to tell what nutrients a plant needs from the colour patterns formed on its leaves. I learned the basics of contact juggling from other volunteers who learned it from a circus in town.
The volunteers picked rocks from the river to build an herb spiral. They learned what an herb spiral is and why it's beneficial. They ate from containers made from splitting a bamboo trunk in half, and washed the containers using ashes as soap and coconut husks as sponges. The food was picked from the garden. Pumpkins, potatoes, bananas, papayas, onions, mushrooms, aubergines, rice, coffee, countless of herbs, the list goes on.
Tacomepai Farm, run by Sandot Sukkaew, is more than an organic farm; it is a community that unites people from all over the world through a single notion of living naturally and consciously. I arrived at the end of a two-week long permaculture course and the farm was packed with participants from Japan, Australia, Canada and Bangladesh _ with one Thai volunteer.
Located 6km from Pai, Tacomepai is part of the WWOOF network, and the organisation links volunteers to organic farms. WWOOF started about 40 years ago in the UK and is active in more than 100 countries around the globe. In Thailand, there are roughly 40 participating farms. Some farms are family-run, with families living in earthbag houses (a method derived from military bunker and dike techniques), adobe houses or bamboo huts, with a few hectares of farmland. Some are larger-scale enterprises that grow organic produce commercially, such as Adams Organic, which has more than 50 hectares of farmland and provides an opportunity for volunteers to learn about professional logistics.
Others provide options of meditation, yoga, craft lessons and other projects/ activities to nourish the soul. All are centred on sustainable living. The experience undoubtedly varies from farm to farm. In theory, no money changes hands. The volunteers generally work for four to six hours a day in exchange for food and lodging. The visits can last between a few days to months. Farm owners gain extra hands, and volunteers gain knowledge in organic farming while collecting stories to tell, and making new friends. The farms promise an alternative way of life, cheap travel, and most importantly, experiences.
Working on the farm offers the rare chance to live a completely different life and to be welcomed into that life. There is an unspoken consensus on human happiness. There is something dreamy about growing and eating your own food. There is something wildly romantic about forgoing the conveniences of daily life, such as having a lamp by the bed, or having a bed at all. WWOOFing offers a chance to see what is perceived to be a "real" way of living, which also reflects the ingenuous commonalities throughout the world. This fact explains why the acronym has evolved from initially being Weekend Workers on Organic Farms to Worldwide Opportunities.
Sandot Sukkaew, owner of Tacomepai Farm.
WWOOFing has become a new form of travel that is anti-tourism, anti-consumerism and anti-consumption. The experience, it is believed, is a hands-on cultural exchange, as opposed to the voyeuristic elements of tourism.
Sandot's farm began when he planted 1,200 mango trees more than 20 years ago. He transformed it into an organic farm after realising that the conventional monocropping system didn't work well and that he wanted to live sustainably, and not sell produce commercially.
The farm usually produces enough to feed Sandot, his family and his family of volunteers. They only buy condiments such as salt and cooking oil. ''It's really simple. We fit into nature and not let nature fit into us,'' Sandot said. The volunteers are drawn do this romantic notion. A woman with her six children, all covered in dirt, were there to learn a way of living that is independent of much money.
''It's more than a living. It's survival. The reliance on money, the working from eight to five, is ultimately unstable. We want a better life. I want a better life for my children,'' she explained.
The Tacomepai Farm now has about 15 bamboo houses spread over the property. One sits in the middle of a rice paddy. The one I stayed in is perched on a tree. Sandot started hosting volunteers and passing on his knowledge after a traveller took a wrong turn down the main road connecting Chiang Mai and Pai and ended up on his farm.
''After that, people started hearing about me and coming to the farm,'' Sandot explained. ''I didn't even know what permaculture is. I didn't know that what I was doing is what they call permaculture until someone told me. They gave me a book. What I've been doing, I've learned from nature. Now I just want to spread the knowledge.''
From his experience growing up on a farm, Sandot instinctively knew the philosophy behind permaculture _ mimicking nature and letting it do its work. ''The best thing to do is to drop everything back into nature,'' he said, throwing watermelon seeds and shells on the ground. The sentiments of the volunteers seem to be just that, ''to drop everything and get back to nature''.
Days begin from 6am on the farm, but the roosters start crowing much earlier. Work is on a volunteering basis. You could help with breakfast, which on one day was sticky rice, ginger marmalade, fresh watermelons and papaya, or work on various projects such as making coconut oil, collecting firewood, tending to the garden, or practising Tai Chi taught by a volunteer.
Everyone was busy with something. A few volunteers were grinding coffee with a human-size pestle and mortar while talking about how ''in real life'' it would take two minutes to switch on an electric grinder. But no one questioned why they doing it. Time passed differently on the farm.
The age of volunteers at Tacomepai range from three to above 50, and a large proportion of the group have recently graduated high school or college, are exploring the world, or navigating a postgrad existential crisis _ many fitting the backpacker age with long-term and low-budget traveller profiles, most travelling alone or with a partner. Some heard of the farm after spending some time in Pai, some through WWOOF, and some from talking to someone on the bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.
At meals, there are constant talks of travel plans, new plans being made with new friends to travel through Southeast Asia, discussions on where to buy organic tobacco, and Allen Ginsberg and Naropa University founded on Tibetan Buddhist beliefs. The farm connects people in states of perpetual wanderlust, curious about the world and its socio-cultural complexities. It presents the chance of contributing to a foreign community, to live idealistically. It is also a chance that is only available to those who can afford to take the time or spend some money on travel, whether you are from other parts of Thailand or far away.
''My neighbours think I'm crazy. They said I should build guesthouses instead of these eco-huts,'' said Sandot.
But while Sandot's purpose in building lodging have nothing to do with gaining an income _ he only wants to educate others on permaculture practices _ he has timely tapped into a growing trend in travelling and volunteering, whether or not he intended it.
Once, at dinner, he commented: ''Look at all these smiling faces. More than 30 people and everyone is smiling. It's not like going to a pub with five of your friends. Here we're all together.''
WWOOF, beyond being about organic farming, has presented itself as a reaction against commercial tourism, an opportunity to live a rural farm life, a local life, an alternative way of life, whatever you call it.
''There aren't tourists here,'' Julien said, although everyone on the farm was from elsewhere.
GETTING BACK TO NATURE
Volunteering opportunities vary widely throughout Thailand. To be able to see and connect to the long lists of farms, people must pay a membership fee to become part of the WWOOF network in a specific country. Here is a small list of options:
Asa Lanta
Location: Koh Lanta, Krabi
Run by Anke from the Netherlands and Aoi, a Thai native, Asa Lanta is on Koh Lanta. Over the past few years, the couple has worked to turn their 3.6 hectares of land into a natural farm. The farm now has a clean water supply and electricity, as well as three adobe houses, two compost toilets and an open-air shower, among other things. There is a dormitory for volunteers, as well as a kitchen and community area.
Volunteers work for three hours in the morning, with a day off a week in exchange for free accommodation and two meals a day. The work ranges from weeding and planning to making earthen bricks, among other things. The farm also offers craft workshops such as crystal healing and jewellery making. There is also a basic natural spa. Other craft projects include making furniture and utensils with clay, bamboo, and wood, as well as making herbal health products. Volunteers may be asked for a monetary contribution during the first week of stay, for accommodation, as well as improvement of the project.
The couple actively works to preserve nature and is now toiling to prevent the building of the 800MW Coal Plant in Krabi, which could adversely affect the coral reefs and the entire ecosystem.
Nong Weang Community Project
Location: Buri Ram
Located in the village of Nong Weang in Buri Ram, the farm, like Tacomepai, offers permaculture education. The farm is 24 hectares in size with a diversity of farm animals. Volunteer work includes helping with farming, as well as learning about local plant species, rain forest harvestings, grey water management, vermiculture and aquaculture. There is also an opportunity to teach English at the local school to children between the ages of five and 11. The farm provides single-room accommodation and food is locally-grown farm produce prepared in Thai style.
Dharma Inc
Location: Loei
A cross between a dhamma retreat and a farming experience, Dharma Inc is located in the hills near the Mekong River, with over 6 hectares of land cultivated based on "the principle of caring for the environment that gives us life". The land used to be a monoculture lychee orchard and since its purchase in 2006, efforts have been made to reintroduce diversity to the environment. Various animals have now returned to make homes on this land. The farm composts 100% organic waste and uses vermiculture practices. Apart from duties like gardening, weeding and compost maintenance, volunteers have the access to classes in yoga, Ayurveda, meditation and permaculture.
A volunteer cooks a communal meal using an earth oven.
Volunteers relax at the yoga hut during free time at Tacomepai Farm.
