The King's Royal Project

Dropped by the King's Royal Project shop on the way home from the Doi Kham temple today. This is one of my favourite places for fresh produce as the items are really fresh and reasonably priced. 


About the Royal Development Projects

His Majesty, King Bhumibhol Adulyadej, had devoted his time, energy, and life to improving the lives of the Thai people and the development of Thailand all these years. His extensive travels to all parts of Thailand over the years have given him first-hand knowledge of the problems and difficulties facing the Thai people. This inspired him to set up thousands of development projects nationwide with the aim of raising the standard of living in Thailand.

Since 1952, His Majesty King Bhumibhol Adulyadej has initiated more than 3,000 royal development projects in various areas including agriculture, water conservation, healthcare, education etc.

About the King’s Royal Project

The King’s Royal Project is a development project that was started after His Majesty King Bhumibhol Adulyadej visited the northen hill-tribes of Doi Pui in 1969. During the visit, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej observed that farmers there were using the slash and burn method to clear land for growing crops. This reduced the forests to ashes, resulted in deforestation, and also caused other adverse effects on the environment. He also saw that the farmers were growing poppy plants, used to make opium, which was illegal and undesirable.

His Majesty King Bhumibhol Adulyadej then started the King’s Royal Project with the intention of using alternative crops to replace the poppy plants. These crops generated more income for the farmers than poppies and helped to reduce poverty, opium production, and deforestation, at the same time.

Today, the King’s Royal Project provides high quality fruits, vegetables, flowers, beverages, sauces, personal care items etc to consumers in Thailand as well as overseas under the ‘Doi Kham’ brand - all of the produce meet Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) regulations. Not only does the project give Thais easier and cheaper access to food that were originally grown abroad only, it provides employment to thousands of Thais and is also a model of sustainable and profitable farming.

Roadside Lucky Draw

 

This is a very popular game of chance and it can be found at many roadside eateries and mom-and-pop convenience stores. Many of them have it as it is a lucrative source of side income.

The game consists of two boards - one has rows of little folded pieces of paper, each bearing a number, stapled to it while the other holds the prizes that you can win, again each bearing a number.

Every three baht (about SGD 0.13) entitles you to a try. You tear a piece of paper from the first board to reveal the number within (you can buy as many chances as you like). If the number matches any of the prizes on the other board, you win that prize. If it does not, you get nothing. Prizes range from soft drinks, beer, liquor, and cash in various denominations of up to 1000 baht (about SGD 400). If you do not like the non-cash items, you can sell them back to the shop for a lower than market price.

Winning a prize is not easy. The odds are already low to begin with and when the pieces of paper left on the board get too few (and the chances of winning get higher), the operator will replace the board with a new one and the odds of winning become low again. However, I have ever won a bottle of scotch whisky within 10 tries but soon regretted it as it tasted funny and left me with a bad headache and hangover the next day (I suspect the liquor was fake). Theoretically, it is possible to win all of the prizes left by buying up all of the remaining pieces of paper left on the board but I have never tried this.

This is a highly addictive game for many people. They will keep going back, hoping to win the big prizes, as the pieces of paper left get fewer and fewer. Singapore used to have this game back in the 80’s and before, known as ‘Tikam-Tikam’, but it was later banned, probably because of its addictive nature.