Boat Rides, Delicious Rice Crackers & Lotus Fields All At This Hidden Gem In Bangkok

I&rsquom sitting on the edge of a wooden seat, crouching as our boat floats underneath the leaf of a banana tree. The sound of the boat&rsquos engine is louder than our voices, and my companions and I are inaudible to each other. &ldquoWhere are we going next&rdquo I shout politely to Phi James. He responds with, &ldquoIt&rsquos 11 am, ka&rdquo clearly misunderstanding my question. I try again, this time wildly waving my hands in an attempt to be more articulate. Luckily, before he tells me the month next, the speedboat comes to a halt.

We&rsquore spending our Friday morning at the Mahasawat, a local hidden gem in Bangkok. A small community lives on the edge of the eponymous canal, an hour away from the city. Here are all the reasons to visit

Go lotus-picking

Our first stop at Mahasawat is a lotus farm called Uncle Jam&rsquos lotus field. We switch our ride from the noisy speedboat to a local rowboat and then go into the lotus field. While one half of the field has been covered with a layer of lotus leaves and budding flowers, the other half has been intentionally left to rest.

As we float over the curled green lotus leaves with an umbrella in hand to protect us from the sun, we pick up a few lotus buds and take pictures of the beautiful field. Lotuses are especially important in Thailand as a devotional flower. After the ride, the owner of the field Khun Tew Kha helped us to fold the petals of this lotus flower in the way it is offered to Buddha during prayer. 

Lotus is also such an underrated ingredient in food&mdashand multi-functional too. Its stem can be stir-fried or used in a curry, it can be deep-fried, or even made into tea. Here too, you can buy lotus tea and cool off on the pier before going to the next station or pick out your own fresh lotus flowers at just 4 baht each. 

Make your own rice crispies 

And eat them too at the local shops here run by the Mahasawat Women&rsquos Cooperative. Rice crispies or khao tang, which are a popular snack in Thailand, are made by the dozen here every day. I observe as a woman is cutting out a daily batch of crispies, which are deceptively easy to make. These heart-shaped bite-sized wonders are made from just rice, oil and water. The rice batter is then hand-pressed, cut into different shapes and sundried.

After that, they are&nbspdeep-fried and served with toppings of either sesame seeds or dried pork shrimps and lathered with a little homemade soya sauce. These are crunchy, delicious and extremely snack-able. There are only courses of action here resist the temptation of these goodies or resign to your fate and buy multiple packs of the crispies to take back home. I highly recommend the tom yum flavour.  

Try a fruit bigger than your fist

The gac ( baby jackfruit) is a local fruit grown on vines in South East Asia, especially Indonesia. This fruit is large, no less bright than the sun, and quite frankly, heavy enough to be a murder weapon, is grown in a farm at Mahasawat. I visited the gac fruit plantation at Ban Fakkhao, the thatched roof of which was twisted and twining with gac vines, to try some freshly squeezed juice mixed with coconut milk. The rich-in-beta-carotene fruit, albeit rather bland, is packed with benefits, which start from giving great skin to even help prevent cancer. 

Go on a rollercoaster on a farm 

If you ever thought that sleepy rice fields were unexciting, think again&mdashor like me, just go on an unassuming tractor ride in Mahasawat. Advertised as a tour around the fruit orchard, this is nothing less than a joyride on a pushcart tractor led by a racecar driver in disguise. You&rsquoll rush past mango trees and banana leaves, turn around the bend and spot a scarecrow.

At the end, when you&rsquore presented with a platter of the fresh fruits&mdashfrom mangoes with palm sugar, large pomelos and ripe bananas, you&rsquoll sit contentedly and hum &ldquowhat a wonderful world&rdquo. 

Getting there There are several airlines from fly from various cities in India to Thailand, including Thai Airways, Jet Airways, Air India, IndiGo and SpiceJet. The journey is only 4.5 hours long and fares start as low as @INR 5,500, depending on the airline and season