The best period to travel in Thailand is during November – March, which is the winter season of Thailand. If you don’t have much time to spend and want to travel outside of the Big Mango, the Sunflower Festival might be an interesting day trip for you. The Sunflower Festival in Thailand starts around November and goes on until about February as it is the best period where the sunflowers are in full bloom.
The best place to see sunflower fields is Lopburi, a fairly small province in Central Thailand about 2,5 hours drive away from Bangkok, famous for its sunflowers and monkeys. The reason why there are so many fields here is that the local economy develops them for sunflower seeds oil, as well as sunflower seeds for snacks. Before the harvest, the sunflowers create vast yellow fields, being splendid tourist attraction of Lopburi.
During the weekends, thousands of people from Bangkok head out of the city to Lopburi for a day trip to take pictures in the sunflower fields. For people in Lopburi it has started to become a major tourist attraction. Each farm takes turns in planting the sunflowers so that there is at least one area of blooming flowers during this period. To see the sunflowers at their best, you have to leave Bangkok early in the morning, because this is the best time to see sunflowers, while they rise and face up to the sun.
Most farmers will charge you about 10 baht to enter their fields to take pictures. and some fields along side the roads are free and not as busy as the fields where farmers charge you. The places that charge admission are easy to recognise; they usually have stalls selling souvenirs and snacks relating to sunflowers like sunflower oil, sunflower seeds, umbrella with sunflowers printed on, t-shirts and many more. They also offer a short tractor and cart rides through the fields with some places even offering elephant rides.
The best way to see the sunflowers is to have your own transportation, because you can search for fully bloomed fields that might not be reachable by public transport. If you don’t have your own transport, then you could join the special train trip that goes from Hua Lamphong Station in Bangkok to the sunflower fields. The train goes only at the weekend and on public holidays, and is selling out fast. So hurry up and get yourself a ticket to Lopburi, one of Thailand’s oldest cities!
/// Written by Neng Neng, Thailand
Website: www.nnvsbkk.com
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