Rayong’s Fruit Farm

I went to Rayong’s Suphattraland-a huge plantation where different kinds of Thai fruit is grown. This was a few months ago, before I changed jobs- I went with my grade 4s on their school trip.

From Bangsaen, it took around two hours to get to the fruit farm and once there we had to wait for one of the Thai teachers to get our entry tickets. We didn’t pay because we were on a school trip but the cost is 300 baht for Thais and 400 baht for foreigners, but that includes fruit tasting and papaya salad for lunch.

On arrival you get a free drink of iced durian juice which is pleasantly refreshing. Then everyone piles onto the tour bus, which holds about 30 people, and it takes you through the plantation so you can see all the different fruits being grown. It stops briefly for you to taste the rambuttan which have been plucked from the nearby trees.

The tour bus continues to a large area where you can taste a few more different varieties of fruit-like mango, pineapple, dragon fruit, jack fruit and durian. All these fruits, as well as many more, are grown on the plantation. It was the first time I have tasted durian and I liked it. It is a large fruit with a sharp spiky skin and it smells of rotting flesh. But if you can ignore the smell you will be pleasantly surprised with the taste. It is very sweet and has a slightly strange velvety texture. It was quite delicious.

We had lunch at a little restaurant in the middle of the plantation and then went to look at the honey farm, where they breed their own honey bees. There are products that you can buy at over inflated prices. Royal Jelly, which is apparently very good for you, was a little out of my price range at 2500 baht (46 GBP). So I bought a bottle of honey instead but I am sure I could have got the same thing in the supermarket for half the price.

I liked the visit there, it’s interesting for me to learn about new stuff, and there were plenty of tour buses arriving so the place is a popular tourist attraction.

If you have a spare afternoon, and are located in that area, or if you just want something different to do, Suphattraland is located at Ban Khai in Rayong province and is open every day of the week, 6.30am to 6.00pm.