Where Cowboys still thrive and visitors go Ummm...Milk!

During the Vesak day weekend, Li Li and I decided to go to another one-day weekend getaway! As we are in the exotic Thailand, we really want to do things that Thai locals do, and that typical Singaporeans do not have a chance to, therefore we hopped onto our black mafia Fortuner and spent a day at a cow ranch and a winery (ok, maybe 2 wineries)!

Farm Chokchai is the largest cattle ranch in Southeast Asia, and it has always been very popular in Thailand for its milk and delicious original milk ice-cream. The very interesting thing about it is that it has sold its brand "Chokchai Farm" years ago and now brand their dairy products "Umm...Milk!". Don't buy Chokchai Farm milk, it's fake!



This is not Texas, but this is where cowboys are still alive, probably the only place in the region too. The 2.5-hour tour was conducted completely in Thai, but they are starting to warm to foreign guests like us by putting English subtitles on all their videos and giving us a handbook in English which we can refer to along the way when we feel lost.



After the introduction video which shows the ranch's history, the tour started off with demonstrations on how they milk their cows. For some reason, I feel this sight of a whole row of cow's butts very amusing. Maybe I have been a cityboy for too long, and now after almost 29 long years, I finally get to enjoy the things little boys deserve.

In the middle of a cattle ranch, a dragonfruit orchard with the blue skies and the mountains as a backdrop.

Stacks of hay that are way bigger than anything we have seen before, the farm does this to preserve some food for the cattle when the going gets tough.

How about this for a cowgirl to bring us around the place.

There were 2 very interesting shows during the course of the tour: A cowboy show and an animal show. Li Li munching her favourite original milk "Umm...Milk" ice-cream while waiting for the cowboys to start strutting their stuff.

The best sideshow was actually when our tram suddenly stopped and there was a herd of funny-looking sheep getting chased onto the back of a lorry by a shepherd dog. It was real good fun and made me appreciate the awe of nature, where there are dogs "created" to love chasing after sheep and sheep "created" to shiver in fright when they see that specific breed of dogs. Incredible.

To make this a complete family experience, we got a taste of feeding various animals like deer, rabbit, sheep, even camel. They rounded the whole tour off with a hilarious animal show. It was in Thai, but we laughed all the same.

Any visitors in Thailand, if you have time you do not mind a 2 hour journey to and from Bangkok (4 hours in total), I think this cattle ranch experience is not to be missed.


Stay tuned for the winery experience.