Kids learn to plant rice at one of the world’s top hotels

Kid’s program teaches rice cultivation. The Lanna village envelopes a terraced rice paddy farmed by blue-shirted farmers and resident water buffalo. (The harvested rice is donated to the local temple.) See larger photo here.

Chiang Mai’s Mandarin Oriental resort is landscaped with rice paddies

Lanna Kids Property Tour

Kids can explore the resort’s grounds by horse-cart or trishaw and make visits to various interesting places, such as the Buddhist prayer hall and the spirit shrine. The highlight of the excursion will be a visit to the paddy fields where they will meet the resort’s resident family of water buffalos.

Kids will be offered a change into farmer’s hats, pants, shirts and boots and wind their way through the rice paddies to the shady field hut where they can sit and ride a buffalo and learn the special technique of planting rice.

Last, but not least, kids will have the chance to meet people from the villages of Ban Tasala at the resort’s Craft Village.

“The rice field activity was lots of fun, we learned how rice is planted, got to plant rice ourselves and dress up in farmers’ clothes and mud boots, and the resort took photos of us and even sent us a photo collage later that same day.

See the hotel here.

See some visitors’ comments about the hotel here.

The magnificent Dhara Dhevi Mandarin Oriental resort — staying in a virtual historic park

By Andrew Bond

Excerpt:

His Majesty the King was once asked ‘What is your favourite food? and his simple answer was ‘rice!’ Indeed rice is the foundation of the Thai Kingdom, and if ever there was a fitting theme for a resort environment in Thailand a rice paddy is it. To sit among five star service gazing out at a terraced fields, accompanied by the sound of water softly trickling through the delicately crafted canals and dykes, must surely be the quintessential rural Asian experience.

The villas are set around a pretty rice field, for authentic effect. See larger photo here.

There is nothing romantic about the back-breaking work of rice harvesting but the newest Mandarin Oriental resort has turned a peasant pre-occupation into a wonderfully themed experience, where the cereal bowls of the nation blend effortlessly with ultimate luxury. As wine glasses tinkle and Lanna-costumed staff pad quietly about on teak ‘al fresco’ decks, guests of the Dhara Dhevi in Chiang Mai are treated to a resort experience quite unlike anything the international hospitality industry has ever seen before. For sheer effect it rivals the Palace of the Lost City in South Africa’s Sun City complex, or the Atlantis sea-themed resort on Nassau’s paradise island, and sets a new benchmark for cultural ambience among Thailand’s hotels.

See the rest of the article here.