Location chiangdaoroundhouses .
A few pictures to refresh people’s memories of part 1 and also for those who don’t know this amazing place ,owner and guest and all round nice person check her out at http://maggimck.wordpress.com/
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Right on with the story .
.A Japanese friend of Maggie’s turned up and on learning why I was there she promptly said yes “there are rows and rows of anchan in a forest just outside of Chiang Dao .
The owner is also looking for someone to rent his place “
I thought what the heck I,ll take a look at the place anyway with a view to renting later .
We drove for about 20 minutes north of Chiang Dao and
parked the car at the side of the road and began the walk into the forest .
What I thought was a 10minutes walk was more like 30-45 minutes before we got to the house .
We were parched as we didn’t take any water with us but the owner of the house soon gave us clean mountain water .
We announced why we were there to view the property and hunt for anchan and sure enough there was 6 huge rows of around 500 meters long and 8 feet high the beautiful blue flower .
The following picture doesn’t do the anchan hedge justice as it was full of bright blue clitoria .
What a beautiful setting with a calm river playing it’s melodic melodies in the background .
First the owner showed us the house and then showed us the immediate surrounding which was full of passion fruit and anchan as far as the eyes could see .
What a wonderful site from the house surrounded by such beauty with the river on one side and the forest of high teak trees ,bamboo the blue of the anchan and smell of the passion fruit engulfing the other 3 sides .
The owner said we could pick s much anchan as we liked
So we set to work haha
Anchan is easy to pick but we soon got bored hot and hungry and so we moved to the passion fruit and ate as we picked .
All the while the Japanese lady kept whispered in my ear about a seed and all I could make out was omega 3 omega 6.and that it was from Peru .
We soon filed a rice sack full of fresh passion fruit .
Then we walked about half a km to where this Peruvian seed was growing .
My first sighting of Sacha inchi .
I thought what a nice looking fruit .
The owner produced the seed from inside and I immediately took a small bit to taste .
Big mistake .
I could feel the power of this plant immediately and on hindsight my antennas must have been fully on as usually I would have taken the whole seed or at least a much bigger bite but something told me to try a little only .
I felt my mouth and throat go dry immediately .
That sensation didn’t go away for a few days .
Don’t let that put you off people .
To me it told me it was a powerful medicine and to be respected .
I didn’t know anything about it at the time
I bought 1kg from the house owner and told him I would investigate more about it .
He told us that you had to,roast it for it to be edible and also you can make a tea from the shell .
With that we returned to the car
Tired but happy with our days adventure
A sackful of anchan
With promise of much more .
A sackful of passion fruit with the same promise
And a new plant to investigate
Such an interesting adventure with a chance meeting of someone coming for a cup of tea
To be continued .
Thank you for reading