It has actually been a little more than a year since we bought a 4 rai piece of land just outside Bangkok, Thailand. (4 rai = about 1.6 acres) But since I just started this blog, I’m picking up this project in the middle.

How to begin? Let me describe the scenario…

Praew and I bought a piece of land that was mostly submerged under water except around the edges. It was farm land many years ago. They grew the famous “Bang Mod oranges“ <bahng mohd> here until the owner passed away and his children moved out leaving the land idle for about 30 years. It is right on the canal about 30 minutes walk from our current house. And when we bought it, the surrounding area had a surprisingly rural feel given how close it is to more developed areas.

Like a little pocket of quiet in a busy world.

Now we have a boat dock for our long tail canal boat, are currently building the first house on it, digging a pond which we are hoping to keep clean with biofiltration, and designing our main house, gardens and orchards.

Have a look at this picture of the land before we began development.