Issue 27

 

 

Hotels can give back to nature as much as they take out. Thailand Horizon visits a resort whose ethos is most firmly rooted in the organic produce it uses.

The abundant greenery and classic wooden Thai-style houses may initially draw visitors to this resort just outside of Bangkok, but what makes Sampran Riverside so welcoming is its dedication to preserving Thailand’s cultural heritage through its 40-year-old Thai Village Cultural Centre, and its attempt to promote an organic lifestyle to city-dwellers.

“Sampran Riverside has been a family-run business for 53 years,” says Arrut Navaraj, managing director of Sampran Riverside and third generation of the family. “We let our visitors experience the Thai way of life through activities in our Thai Village, from cooking, making flower garlands, weaving, to rice farming, among many other options.”

Located in Nakorn Pathom, an hour’s drive from the heart of Bangkok, Sampran Riverside is a 70-acre resort that boasts a four-star riverside hotel with 160 rooms, six antique Thai houses around a lake, a spa that uses its own line of homemade herbal products, and a 10-acre organic farm open to all just a short boat ride away from the main resort.

“Our interest in organic farming began about ten years ago when we wanted to offer our visitors organic produce,” says Navaraj. “Since then, we became involved in the agricultural community in Nakorn Pathom and bought fruit and vegetables directly from the farmers. A few years ago our project where we encourage farmers to use organic methods instead of chemical called the ‘Sampran Project’ received funding from the Thailand Research Fund.”

To take this initiative further, Sampran Riverside opened a weekend farmers’ market called ‘Talad Sukjai’ (Happiness Market) in November 2010 as a channel for the public to buy organic produce directly from the local community.

“We also have the road show where we bring farmers to sell fruit and vegetables to office workers in the city,” says Navaraj. “The consumers like it; they meet the growers so they get to talk and build a trust system with each other.”

As for Sampran Riverside, Navaraj’s focus for 2015 is to develop the spa treatments and programmes. “All our spa treatments are made from what we grow,” he says Navaraj. “Eventually we will be opening a shop in the city as an outlet for our organic products.”

Sampran Riverside
Km32 Pet Kasem Road,
Sampran, Nakorn Pathom 73110, Thailand
+66 34 322 588-93
www.sampranriverside.com

Words by Sirinuch Borsub