Today I flew into Chiang Mai to meet some of the Nuffies here that flew in a few hours before me. We’re in Chiang Mai this week for our long overdue company trip.
Our company trip is a combined company trip of the Nuffnang & ChurpChurp teams in both Malaysia and Singapore. We’re staying in this really nice resort here that I kinda neglected to take pictures of today because I was in a rush. I shall take many pictures of our rooms and resort tomorrow.
What I did take lots of pictures of though was our little group activity we did earlier today. A few hours after landing in Chiang Mai airport I found myself in a paddy field dressed like a farmer.
The activity that the organizers of the trip had planned… was planting paddy.
We were all broken up into teams and had a competition going to see who could plant the most paddy quickest and who could do it in the most organized “straight-line” way. You’ll be surprised, planting paddy in a straight line is harder than it looks.
At first I was hesitant to get into the paddy field because it was all muddy and all. When I did I could feel my foot squish the mud below it and it gave me a really gross sensation on my feet. I did eventually get used to it though and planting paddy became fun. It was extra fun given all the taunting and trash talking we were giving each other in the spirit of competition.
Today I learned that planting paddy isn’t easy especially considering how most paddy fields have a huge land mass. Even planting on that small patch we had in the hot sun was a challenge for us already. I now think rice is sold for too cheap… for the effort that goes into planting or growing it.
During lunch that day when I looked at the rice on my plate, I couldn’t help but wonder how long it took to plant the rice on my plate.
After our planting paddy activity we then had a cooking competition.
We were all taught to cook some Thai dishes and had to cook it to see who had the better dish. We made papaya salad, pattai and this really coconut milk based dessert with chestnuts.
Almost made cooking seem soo easy.
Alright I have to go to bed now. Have an early start tomorrow. We’re going to be riding elephants and going on some bamboo raft. So gotta get all the rest we need.
G’night!
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space