World is full of paradoxes. While travelers come to Thailand (at least Northern) looking for real Thai culture, Thais are busy with building them Western looking guesthouses, offering “real american breakfast”, and even trying to grow potatoes to be able to make french fries.

Luckily it´s not everywhere like this. We are in a permaculture farm just 6km away from busy touristy Pai. And here it’s just jungle and rice fields. And loud nature concerts and bright bright stars at night. And some cosy little bungalows spread around in the forest.

You can live out of forest. Some leaves are good as vegetable, and full of vitamin A, from others you can make biodysel for you vehicle, lemongrass works against mosquitos, other leaf is perfect shampoo, another perfect for a tea and against a sorethroat, not to mention coffee, papayas, mangos, Jack fruit, passion fruit, bananas and more food growing around. All the grocery and pharmacy all around you.

Then rice, which = food here like potatoes are for us. Quite some work with its nursery, planting and harvesting, taking care of water levels… But cooking it is simple!

And then bamboo. At first when you see some construction made without a single nail, your mind automatically starts questioning its strength. But then you cross such a bridge tens of times, your bungallow doesn’t get blown away and soaked by tropical rain, and you become a believer :) Then you take some lunch in a bamboo plate using a bamboo spoon with some little bamboos in your plate with rice that has been cooked in a giant bamboo and you start loving the plant. And a bamboo bag I made today I would eagerly use in Europe.

And all small nice details. Water coming somewhere from the wood, when you find a secret switch somewhere in the wall, bicycle powered washing machine, woven “shopping bags”, swinging desks. Only shiny white toilets standing on a pile of rock look completely out of place.

And of course wonderful people who make such a place possible, hard- working and relaxed at the same time, humming Thai songs all the time and wearing big smiles that make their whole faces shine.

More from Tacomepai in our pictures.

Maybe we all have some sort of a perversion including shit look-a-like food. Some of you might’ve heard stories about dessert Mämmi, made out of water, rye flour and powdered rye malt:

A bowl of mämmi. (Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA)

…or you’ve even heard about “mustamakkara”, which is traditional food in the area where I’m living now (Tampere). It’s translated “black sausage” and it’s made out of blood and hulled grains. For me it tastes rather good, but having it on your plate isn’t most aesthetic experience:

Black sausage with lingonberry jam. (Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA)

Newcomer in series is this candy translated “licorice minium”:

Photo by Jokapäiväistä leipää -blog

I’m sure this is going to be a big hit among childrens. Me… I don’t even want to try this.