Angkhang a paradise for Tops guests
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The supermarket chain's best customers enjoy a tour in the North
Sport Reward Card holders recently enjoyed a three-day “Follow the King’s Footsteps Le Tour de Angkhang” organised by Tops Market and Central Food Retail as a thank-you to its biggest purchasers of Tops organic products.
This was the fourth tour the supermarket gave customers of the Royal Agricultural Station Angkhang in Chiang Mai, and a chance to learn more about sufficiency theory and organic farming.
“Angkhang is the country’s biggest organic-product distributor,” Central Food Retail senior vice president Chiranun Poopat explained. “This is where the philosophy of a sufficiency economy is developed to boost the residents’ income.
All the vegetables and fruits are organic, safe and fresh and the cold-weather crops are sold in Tops.”
Chiranun noted that Angkhang will soon open a restaurant called Eat Thai at Central Embassy in Bangkok.
After the three-hour drive from Chiang Mai to the summit of Doi Angkhang in Fang district, the hosts from Tops gave everyone an energy boost with a choice of aromatic teas and coffees and delectable snacks. We dined at simple straw tables set against the beautiful backdrop of Garden Eighty.
The green courtyard became the stage for students in traditional hill-tribe costume to delight the visitors with dancing. One of the site’s officials then outlined its history - back to 1969 when its vegetables, fruits and flowers replaced an opium plantation on the terraced hillside.
The garden proffers such seasonal flora as cauliflower, kale, magnolias and snapdragons.
Dinner was in the three-rai Flower House, which is decorated with thousands of blossoms of different species to give the impression that you’ve arrived in Paradise. It was a romantic four-course feast, with the team of chefs serving fine European-style dishes a singer entertained with Broadway tunes and other classics.
On the second day we explored a strawberry farm in nearby Baan Noh Lae, The Daraung hilltribe people showed us how the berries are cultivated organically. Off to Baan Khobdong next to give the children yellow jackets as part of the “Tops Sharing” campaign. We had a short stroll around, observing the rural way of life and admiring hilltribe handicrafts.
In the afternoon there were workshops on decoupage, gardening in a bottle and making bracelets. Those who wanted to get closer to nature set off on a 980-metre trekking route, part of it astride mules, followed by a welcome foot massage.
The evening was spent in the Bonsai Garden – a campfire party with an international buffet and live music.
The final day featured a visit to the Rose House, shopping for locally produced organic souvenirs and taking pictures in a vast garden of red and pink poppies – the benign kind these days.
