Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Turns for the better
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 11/12/2016
» Unlike the Philippines, which is battered by no less than 24 typhoons a year, Thailand is hardly hit by typhoons. Thais, therefore, did not know what to expect when Typhoon Gay hit the Gulf of Thailand on Nov 3, 1989. With gale-force winds of 120kph, it killed 529 people, including fishermen and offshore oil rig workers, and rendered 160,000 homeless in the southern provinces of Chumphon, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The plants are bugged
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/04/2016
» There’s a sad footnote to the story about Petchsuporn Rapley’s date palms in Doi Saket, Chiang Mai (Green Fingers, March 6). For those who did not read the article, Ms Petchsuporn planted some 100 date palms as an experiment a little over three years ago. A year later two trees started to flower, followed by a few more last year. Braving sharp-as-nails giant thorns, she and her workers cross-pollinated the trees manually and these successfully bore fruit for the first time last year.
Leave those trees alone
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/07/2015
» I was on my way to fetch my grandson from school last week when I passed by workmen busy trimming tamarind trees along Si Ayutthaya Road outside the Chitralada Palace compound. As branches cut from the trees fell to the ground, other workers picked them up and loaded them onto a lorry. They were still busy working on that particular stretch of road when I passed them on the way back.
All the fruits of the fair
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/05/2015
» Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha seems to have the lot of agriculturists at heart. Once again he turned the road behind Government House into a marketplace, this time for Thai fruit and vegetables, and presided over the opening ceremony himself on May 6. Dubbed the Thai Fruit and Vegetable Festival, the market opens at 10am every day. It closes at 7pm from Monday to Thursday and at 8pm from Friday to Sunday until the end of this month.
Fruit in a barren land
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 25/01/2015
» When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Citrus fruit aside, that was exactly what happened when His Majesty the King was given a piece of land in Thung Sai Yai, in the village of Khao Tao in Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan province, in the late 1960s.
Leisurely look at nature
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 27/04/2014
» My family has made it a tradition to travel together, either to our country home near Loei or to my daughter Nalinee’s workplace in Phuket, at least once a year. It is our way of spending quality time together. Even when we are driving to her place, Nalinee flies into Bangkok to join us for the trip. Driving 900km to Cape Panwa in Phuket is not everybody’s idea of fun, but it was not as bad as it sounds as we made stops along the way when we went there during the long Songkran holiday recently.
Scientists, Step away from the pineapple
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 16/12/2012
» Arose by any other name would smell just as sweet. Similarly, a pineapple by any other name would still taste like pineapple. But what if the pineapple tastes like coconut? According to an AFP report, researchers from Australia's Department of Agriculture in Queensland are in the final stages of developing a new variety of pineapple which has the taste of coconut. The new variety, to be known as the AusFestival pineapple, is reportedly sweet and very juicy.
These trees love a sea breeze
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 04/03/2012
» Marc Jacqueline and his wife have acquired a piece of land near Khanom Bay in Nakhon Si Thammarat and want to plant trees around their property to define its borders. ''We were planning to use mango and coconut trees, but maybe we should look at alternatives such as teak or Acacia mangium or Caesalpinia pulcherrima,'' he wrote.
Orchids are born to be wild
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 26/02/2012
» While we were staying in a hotel during a family holiday in Prachuap Khiri Khan, the friendly hotel owner suggested that we make a side trip to Dan Singkhon near the Thai-Myanmar border. ''There's a thriving market there for wild orchids from Burma,'' she said. I had heard of Dan Singkhon before, but although Prachuap Khiri Khan is my family's favourite holiday destination and we go there every chance we get, we had never been to Dan Singkhon. It's not because we don't like orchids, but buying orchids taken from the wild is tantamount to encouraging poachers to go back to the forests to collect more plants to sell in the market.
Pucker up for soursop
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 01/01/2012
» Happy New Year to all readers. The year 2012 starts today, and may it bring you prosperity not only in monetary terms, but also the things that matter most in life, namely good health, love and happiness.