Chaiprakarn Trip

There were 2 main areas of Mango supply during my last week visit to Fang.

1^st was at Chaiprakarn and 2^nd was Wianghaer.

I had the opportunity to visit the Chaiprakarn site. Beside the fact of being born and lived in Chiangmai for almost half of my life as much as I could recall this was my 3^rd or 4^th visit to Fang

Chaiprakarn is small and compact town. There were 2 things really surprise me.

1^st Most people I saw used a more advance computer than I and Facebook was on every screen!!

2^nd Most people speak Chinese! This really puzzle me so I really had to search for more info when I got back and found out that Chaiprakarn was a strong hold for a division for the Kuomingtang Army (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuomintang.)

And also found their descendants point of view. http://chiangmaibusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/blog-post_4774.html

So I learnt that lots of people knew this fact about Chaiprakarn.

It is also amazing how they pass on the culture, language also housing style; it really reminds me of China’s suburb. I shown these pictures to my Chinese teacher and she was really amazed.    

What I realize to myself is how narrow my experience and view are, I never knew there was such a place like this only 2-3 hours drive from my home. It shaken my confidents of what I think I really know it also reminds me that you can discover new things every day. You just have to accept being a fool and accept new things which are hard and it gets harder and harder when you get older.

I hope myself could maintain accepting new things as long as possible.  

Fresh Fruit Business

Last Thursday, I had to travel to Fang district to see some mango selecting. As I said before this year's weather is quite strange.  For example the winter was very cold and long and this summer is extremely hot. We hit 40 Celsius last month. These phenomenal heavily effected the agricultural production.


Firstly it effected the harvest schedule, for example the Mangos riped very fast and almost all in the same time. That is not good for marketing this meaning that the supply exceeds the demand.

The result was tons of produces had to be sold to the factories to be process to juice, frozen or canned goods by very low price. This is not good for the farmers but it was better than nothing.

Secondly after they all riped and came out in one sort period it caused a shortage in the next period.

Finally because of the extreme hot weather the mango are effected and then comes the quality issue
.
Fresh produce business is sometimes similar to Stock trade. The price goes up and down daily by the demand and supply.

There is a lot of pressure in the work. Your in between the producer and buyer and everyone is pressuring you but also fun if you could control your emotions and resist to the heat. I think every work is like this its a mind game personally for you. Just play and try Winning.

Fashion Set 2010

About 2 weeks ago I organized a fashion set for my sister’s cotton shop.
It was a hot Saturday, even we started in early morning it was still very hot.
Even though DuangChampa http://duangchampa.com/ gave us a free room to use but it was normal air. After a short experience with the heat we decided to open a room to be our resting and dressing room.
DuangChampa being this year location was very generous with us. They gave us full freedom to take shoots every where liked and their place was so gorgeous we wanted to take a shot at ever corner and angle.
For the morning set our model were Yuian (Japanese) and Chompoo (Thai). They both did a great job and they both had fun. We took most shot in the gardens.

Yuina

In the afternoon set we had a little to rain just to cool us down a little. Our models were Aor (Thai), Fon (Thai) and Jessamyn (USA). This set was longer than the morning set. Even we took most shots in the building we still got exhausted by the afternoon sun.

Fon

Jessamyn

Aor

The whole day was really tried but the work was really worth the sweat.
To me this year was more organize but i didn’t do enough preparation with the photographer, this year we tried to use a wedding photographer to do the shot. We got warmer feeling than others people fashion set but we didn’t get quite enough detail shoots for the clothes

Petchaboon Chili Plantation Visit

Well! Well! Time has pass since I wrote my last blog.
The past 2 weeks has been quite busy for my since I have been on the road for almost a week but living in such a mobilization age, travelling is not an excuse.
The bottom line is I’m still lazy and lack of motivation.

I came to feel that being employed in a company as a middle manager with some one above and some people under you is much easier to manage than being self employ.

Being your own boss means you have only yourself to please and you don’t have anyone to do the stuff you don’t like. My problem is I find pleasure sleeping on a bed in a good air con room and I don’t like to work.
The truth is
“I’m capable in managing lots of people except myself”
Well!  That is enough of sharing my personal problems.

Today I want to write something about my work, my fresh fruit work.

About a week ago I had a marathon road trip, driving to a number of provinces, totaling distance for around 2,000 km. This tops all my road trips, although it was very fun.
This trip’s main propose was to show a Japanese customer the chili plantation in Petchaboon and a VHT factory for mangosteen in Chantaburi.

The Chili farm was located in the middle of mountains I was road sick along the way but the moment I got out from the truck and took a deep breath, the fresh air blown away my dizziness.

The Almost finish chili plant in the middle of mountains

The old chili crop (Almost done) so the quality is so so

Our customer inspecting the Chili

It was an amazing sight to see but it was extremely hot. Because chili trees are small and short they don’t provide shades. This farm is almost done so the chilis are not that good.
Then we went to another farm. This one in the normal land not far from the main road they have just cultivates the small trees. We will have to wait for almost more months until harvest time.

The New Plantation area

New Chili Plant

In summary the farms were well organize for my own perspective but Pee Joe the farm controller was still unsatisfied and told me lots of things still have to be improve.
Anyway our customers seem to be satisfied for the quality and management. Just hope to get some good news in the coming months.

The groups picture at the farm