It’s one thing reading about permaculture on the internet and another learning in-person from an experienced practitioner. I was lucky to spend 10 days over the 2014 New Year holidays with Sandot from Tacomepai Farm in Thailand. Sandot was traveling in Malaysia to help a friend design and build a permaculture farm called the Green Forest Project at the foot of Genting Highlands. The objective of the Green Forest Project is to be a healing center for cancer patients and permaculture educational centre. Sited in a valley within beautiful forests, the founder Sharley envisions the 3 acre land to be secluded from the outside world. Food will be grown organically and served to the cancer patients who will live very close to nature in simple huts.

The Teachers

Sandot harvests bamboo from the forest and turns them into a hut with his machete.

It was my first time meeting a permaculture practitioner. Sandot has the tan and lean build of a Thai farmer. Coming from a family of blacksmiths, he hangs a machete around his waist wherever he goes. During lessons, I noticed that his left eyeball doesn’t move even though he might be looking around. I heard that he lost that eye a few years ago when walking pass some kids playing with fireworks. Even then, he was able to hammer a nail (which requires distance perception) much better than me!

Sandot grew up on his family farm Tacomepai (north of Chiangmai) which has an interesting story by itself. Apparently his migrating ancestors acquired the piece of land from the natives with a machete and some cigarettes! He studied to become an engineer and worked as one before eventually deciding to move back home and live off the land. He recounted a story of working and living on a desert in the Middle East. They were living in containers with air-conditioning. One day, he noticed that the air-con exhaust outside his container drips water due to condensation. He planted a single plant underneath the exhaust and it flourished. He then added more, all watered by the same dripping exhaust. Colleagues from other containers started to do the same and eventually there were many irrigated gardens in the middle of the desert!

Funnily Sandot has never been taught permaculture. He learned by observing nature and other local Thai farmers. His way of thinking and designing are aligned with permaculture principles. Once, while building a hut together, he asked me if I wanted to live a simple life. Sometimes he would break into Thai songs while we work. In the evenings after dinner we would sit around the fire to listen to Sandot play the guitar, singing “Blowing in the Wind” by Bob Dylan and in Thai about the race between the rabbit and tortoise. Unlike the fable that we are familiar with, in this song the bird flies in halfway and asks them why are they competing. The song would end with the rabbit and tortoise partnering up.

Sandot was supported by another teacher Yishen. When I first met Yishen, I thought she was Thai as she was speaking Thai fluently with Sandot. I later learned that she is Malaysian Chinese and speaks also English, Mandarin, and Bahasa. Yishen has been learning from Sandot at Tacompai for a while and her permaculture knowledge is impressive considering that she graduated from university not too long ago.

The Course

Even though Sandot and Yishen have conducted many permaculture courses, it was the first time outside of Thailand. Unlike most permaculture courses held at an established permaculture farm, we had to design and turn this land into a permaculture site. We had ample hands-on opportunities. Theory lessons were conducted in the mornings and we spend the afternoons out in the field. The class was a small group of five which was great because we each get more attention from the teachers.

Anyway, enough of words and time for the photos (credit to my course mates). We did not take many photos out in the field because we were too distracted doing stuff!

Simple Life Hut

We spent many happy hours working on this structure. It’s made almost entirely from the bamboo clump behind it except for the thatched roof. Many similarities to the traditional Malay House even though it is what Sandot builds in his Thai farm.

Simple Life Hut that we built together.

What it looked like when I first arrived. Sandot and Yishen completed the structure by themselves. We tried using a tall grass for the thatched roof but decided to use attap eventually.

All made from bamboo, including the floor and ties.

The bamboo walls allow ventilation which is much needed in the humid tropics. Hot air can easily rise and leave the room.

From inside the hut.

The house was literally tied together with hundreds (maybe thousands) of bamboo strings.

A canal to drain water away.

Yishen digging a compost toilet.

We then built a bamboo bridge that leads up to our Simple Life Hut. Within the Simple Life Hut, you hear the breeze rustling the bamboo behind. You also hear the river down below.

Digging Irrigation and Paddy Fields

To grow rice, we needed paddy fields. Paddy fields need irrigation in turn. We had to locate the water source at a much higher elevation and redirect it to our paddy fields. It took many hours of digging through the forest, sometimes under huge fallen trees that we couldn’t move, to bring water to where we needed it. It was tough work but according to Sandot his ancestors had to dig with wooden tools instead of the metal ones we used! Alternatively we could have just connected a PVC pipe from the source to the paddy fields and saved ourselves lots of hard work. However, Sandot says that by irrigating through the forest, we share the water with other lifeforms outside of our intended purpose. The ugly PVC pipe definitely wouldn’t do that.

Irrigation through the jungle to reach the paddy fields.

Paddy fields.

Paddy fields.

Yummy Food

Food was a big part of farm life. We had vegetarian meals prepared with lots of organic fresh produce from the farm. On special occasions we even came up with innovative dishes from what we could harvest on the farm.

We cooked sticky rice in bamboo and ate them on banana leaves!

Vegetarian meal eaten from the bamboo bowl that we made. We also made our own spoons from bamboo.

Soybean wrapped in leaves ready to be fermented.

Fermented soybean after a few days.

We mashed the fermented soybean and made them into balls (top left) before flattening them (bottom right).

My course mates making a drying rack with bamboo.

We smoked and dried the fermented soybean cakes for preservation. They tasted DELICIOUS.

Other Fun Stuff

Green Forest Project was sited beside Vision Eco Farm, which is a commercial organic farm started by a visionary farmer Mr Ho. They adopt good growing principles but it’s not a beautiful place so we tried to beautify it.

Theory classes in the mornings.

A multi-functional bamboo structure to be placed over the fire for cooking, smoking/drying food, drying seeds, drying clothes, etc.

Bamboo fire pit.

Solar panels that we installed.

Herb spiral under a 60-year old durian tree. Some durians dropped during our stay and we had a great time tasting it.

Sandot teaches us how to weave useful bamboo baskets.

This might seem like a mess and it actually is, except that it is also a big compost pile that we created. We layered the compost pile with the chopped surrounding tall grass, waste food from factories, and chopped banana trees.

Another “mess” that has a purpose. This is a blackwater treatment system and is a series of mulched pools down the slope. We planted some banana stumps beside them to take in the good stuff!

Sandot plays the guitar beside the fire after dinner. It’s all dark because we don’t have much electricity from the solar panels.