Thailand – Laos: Day 10 – Part 2 – Lopburi Sunflower Field

Continued from Thailand – Laos Travel: Day 10 – Part 1 – Hua Lamphong Railway Station & Travel to Lopburi. For pre-travel, please refer here.

Upon arrival at Lopburi station, O God! The weather is very cold. It’s like cold autumn in the west. That’s right, I didn’t make up a story. Besides, I never thought it would be this cold. Probably because the time is still early which is 7.35 am and the position of Lopburi which is already located to the north of Thailand. My mistake was to wear shorts and cool the calves. Luckily I brought socks.

But don’t worry, this cool atmosphere is only for a moment. After 8.30 am, the temperature will return to normal to a level that can be accepted by both adults and children.

BEFORE WE FURTHER OUR STORYTELLING, I WILL SHARE TIPS FOR THE RIGHT TIME TO VISIT THE SUNFLOWER FARM IN LOPBURI:

1. The last week of November to the first week of January is the appropriate time.
2. We came on January 6th. So with the pictures presented, you can already guess how the shape of the sunflower blooms.
3. My suggestion, come visit in the last week of December.
4. All these tips prevent readers from coming here at a time when the flowers have withered, rotten, begun to lose their yellow and green color and others. This will make you spend money for an inappropriate time with the place being far away anyway.
5. Is Lopburi considered as far to be visited? Near Bangkok, there are also similar farms. But is it possible to get a view with a background of mountains and hills? For Insta worthy photos, backgrounds play a big role and Lopburi is the best place.
6. Time? Between the hours of 8.00 am to 10.00 am due to the cool temperatures, not many tourists at that time and the overflow of sunlight that hits the hills and the sunflowers (after 9.30 am).
7. Duration? One hour is enough. The maximum is 1.5 hours. Information on the duration of the visit will allow readers to estimate how to board the train from Bangkok, visit the farm and return to Bangkok.

Because the ticket counter had already opened early, we bought a third-class train ticket to go to Ayutthaya at 12.20 pm. And we headed towards the Left Luggage Office located in this station to rent a space to put a backpack temporarily and bring only a small backpack to the sunflower farm. This is the first time we left stuff in the Left Luggage Office and I will explain the method later.

Before arriving here, I first did a study on the price of a rental car with a driver to go to the Lopburi sunflower farm which is located 18.8km away and the journey takes 30 minutes. Recommended by my online friend not to rent a car that costs more than THB500.

Upon stepping out of Lopburi train station, there are 4 to 5 rental cars ready to pick up passengers. Looks like a woman who may be in her 50s kept greeting us and offering a price of THB600. I as usual asked for a THB500 discount and she agreed. After all, we were three and the price was reasonable. If the price can still be negotiated, it is better. Should be reminded, they just drive and take us there and there is no service like a tour guide (who usually follows us to all the corners there and gives information). So, no tour guide wages here, just round-trip work. Again, the price is for renting the whole car and not for the cost of one passenger.

Well the more accurate GPS coordinates: 14.81044481, 100.75128936

Why do I feel the location of the farm we get is better than other farms in Lopburi? I consider it lucky. Keep reading, I’ll explain later.

During this morning, our stomachs felt hungry. Just know that the train ride from Hua Lamphong starts at 4.20 am. We didn’t have time to eat anything. I told the driver to take us to breakfast at a halal restaurant. Apparently, this driver knows the place. Maybe because he often brings Muslim tourists or maybe because in Lopburi there are many Muslims. We were left here for a while for half an hour.

To the knowledge of the reader, Ayutthaya which is an hour drive from Lopburi has a relatively large Muslim population for the category of central and northern Thailand location. If in the south of Thailand, of course, everyone is aware, there are many halal restaurants there.

We were taken to a village house where the lower part of the house was used as a food stall and was not as big as a restaurant. This morning, a variety of dishes that need to be cooked first are also available, but that also depends on our individual tastes. Some people can’t stand to see the atmosphere of a stall or restaurant littered like this. Some people don’t care. What else can we do if the town of Lopburi is very hard to find other halal stalls?

We’re sitting on the side here.

Here is the menu. First, from the top of the menu, scroll down. The view shifted from the menu to my shoes. I’m sorry, I accidentally didn’t have time to crop this image. We just ordered white rice, meat soup and omelet. For Malaysian readers, here also served an omelet!

I just noticed why only one type of food is labeled “Muslim”. The others are not for Muslims? Maybe it’s a misprint or maybe the food is famous for the name of a food that comes from “Muslims”.

Our hearts were cold, calm and peaceful when we saw the calendar with the picture of the Kaaba behind where we were sitting. The feeling of being upset thinking about the menu that says “Muslim” earlier has calmed my heart again …

While appreciating the picture of the Kaaba earlier, next to us there were also school teenagers who were playing cards.

This is the exterior of this Muslim stall. Actually, this village area is right behind the train station. Simply put, if arriving at this station from the direction of Bangkok, look ahead and will see the railway tracks. If you look back it will lead to the door outside the station building and head to the parking lot or main road. And still standing in a forward-looking position, try to find the gate of this station and start walking there (need to cross the railway tracks).

Is it really hard to follow this guide? It’s okay, refer to the map above for more accuracy or click here: 14.799518333333333,100.61596499999999

See how close it is to Lopburi train station?

Our throats and appetites were ahead of everything and ready to enjoy the rice.

At about 8.41 in the morning, the driver arrived and took us to the sunflower field. Before this, I thought our destination was located 1 hour away. Apparently, it was only half an hour. Even the speed of the car I think is not more than 70km/h.

Presenting…. Lopburi Sunflower field!

Really a pleasure to look at. It’s like being in a country that has four seasons even though it’s not far from Bangkok. With a blue sky. Just wow!

This is the first time in our lives that I, Tatie and Aqif have seen a sunflower plantation of this size. Ok, you want to know why the location of the farm we are in is considered the best? Although getting here is considered good luck, back from there I made a comparison and found, the differentiating factor is the hills and mountains located on the horizon of the picture. Amazing, right? If you already know the right time as I explained above with a combination of sunlight, your visit here will be even more wow!

At the other end on the hill, there is a temple. The car rental package we took was just to the sunflower farm and nothing more.

The panorama of mountains and hills here covers almost 2/3 of the eye view in front.

Usually, friends will always share pictures of sunflowers from the front. Here I show the flowers from the back. Beautiful too. Like a small child or a human being standing in a crowd.

From a closer distance. It’s true that sunflower will follow or face from which direction the sun rises. It is not only limited to sunflowers but almost all other flowers.

What is mysterious is, most flowers only face the rising sun and not when the sun is setting or standing upright over the head or other corners.

It’s fun for me. With good weather in the morning at 9.30 which is still cool and comfortable makes it feel really like a dream that has come true.

The state of the flowers as if they were all standing looked at us like VIPs or guests of God who can only be captured in the heart through the spirituality and substance of life that flows on these flowers and also into ourselves.

This is not a withered flower but just about to grow and has not yet reached maturity to bloom.

The back of the flower is closer.

This sunflower is large, the diameter of the petals is more than 20cm.

While we were enjoying the 180-degree panorama here, suddenly the sun rays splashed on the hills and mountains and highlighted its different colors from the beginning of our arrival earlier.

The memories we left here with our dear children. Kind of like Hindustani movies too.

That’s where our driver parked her car. See how far our position is from the road. If in this area, I think half an hour is enough. Unless you are going to the second area that I will show below which requires an entire time allocation of 1 hour.

To the knowledge of the reader, the soil here is of the hard type or red soil. No need to worry about your feet sinking into the ground.

I didn’t miss taking pictures of memories with my children ……

….. as well as with us as a family. The picture was taken by our driver who suddenly came towards us inviting us to go to the second part.

One last photo session before we moved on to another place. Initially, I planned to make it look tall, but it didn’t happen because my face that was hiding was clearly visible.

Next, we set foot in the area that I call the 2nd part because here there are stalls selling souvenirs, sunflower seeds as well as landscape decorations built here.

Sunflower seeds (kuaci) that we buy in the supermarket and enjoy while eating them, come from sunflowers.

I inserted a video from Youtube on how to harvest seeds from sunflowers. I’m sure readers will see it many times and it will be fun every time it is knocked, hundreds of seeds fall.

On this day, January 6, many lands have been leveled for the planting and seeding of new sunflower trees. But the field full of flowers remains a pleasure for the eye to behold. The land is only leveled in this area.

These are the stalls in the 2nd area.

From a distance, we saw a windmill and a replica of the giant flower. From the stall, we stepped a little into the middle of the farm again but not far which is about 200 meters from the stall.

This windmill looks small but is actually quite large.

With a mountain landscape in the background, blue clouds, replicas of flowers in bright colors. It’s super nice ..!

Behind that, there is a ladder to go up to the middle of the hole in the replica flower.

Around this windmill, many flowers are starting to dry. Then I tried to look around to see the sunflower seeds in it. The sunflowers here I guess are in medium size. Unlike the flowers in the Youtube video above.

Somehow I like to take pictures with marker stones here. People say that this stone is a sign of the beginning of a road. But what is the road here when it is located in the middle of a field? Haha. Don’t care much. The important thing is there are memories for us.

We headed back to the booth in the 2nd area. We don’t buy any souvenirs here. Just looking around. It is located in the interior of the farm.

A replica of a sunflower.

Just cute.

This is another row of stalls located on the side of the road.

Here, we buy sunflower seeds that have been peeled and priced between THB50 to THB80. In my personal opinion, the original sunflower seed (not peeled) is even tastier.

Our last memory here is of being photographed with a big tree. The branches are so many with lush leaves.

That’s the driver’s pickup truck that we rode to get here. Actually, it’s a two-seater version truck, but in the back can still fit 3 passengers.

Follow our story in Lopburi which continues to Phra Prang Sam Yot and Phra Kan Shrine.