The birthplace of Michelin tires

Today I went on a 5-hour biking tour through the countryside. It was me and two older couples- one from Denmark and one from France. Lovely people. We rode through dozens of pineapple, rubber, and palm oil farms. Our tour guide, Raizz, was really knowledgeable and of course, I asked a million questions. We all had a laugh because he kept asking us if we were convenient. “Is your bike seat convenient?” “Is the sun convenient?” “Does your helmet fit conveniently?” We quickly realized that by “convenient” he meant “comfortable.” Good, because I wasn’t prepared to answer such a deep question as, “Is the sun convenient?” He said he’s been saying wrong it for years.

Pineapple:

They grow a smaller, sweeter variety here. When they sell it, they chop the top off so they can plant it again. It makes me wonder how the pineapples we buy are replaced since we buy them with the crown still attached. We got to try fresh pineapple on the farm and oh man, it was delicious. Raizz also passed around a small bowl of a white granular substance and said we should put some salt on. I was skeptical, but hey, if Thai people put salt on their pineapples, I’ll try it. Needless to say, it was sugar…

Rubber:

Rubber trees are wild! They trim a section of the bark and have a spout that drips into a bowl where it then firms up a bit. It felt kind of squishy like silly putty or a rubber ball. Raizz made sure to let us know that Thai rubber is far superior to Malaysian or Indonesian rubber. Most of the farms around here sell to Michelin to make tires. In the picture below, it took only 12-24 hours for this amount of rubber to accumulate! For reference, the bowl is the size of a large cereal bowl. Trees are so cool!

Palm oil:

To make palm oil, the bunches of fruit on the trees are cut down, mashed, and pressed to extract the oil. Raizz advised us not to walk around the piles of dead palm branches lined up by the trees because cobras like to sleep under them. COBRAS. Aka Nope Ropes. Aka Regretti Spaghetti. He didn’t have to tell me twice. He also told us that only men were strong enough to cut the giant leaves off the trees. Anyone want to take bets on whether or not I was able to keep my mouth shut? Spoiler alert: I wasn’t.

Rubber trees

Rubber tapping

Pineapple

Palm oil trees

We finished the tour by drinking coconut water out of coconuts cut right in front of us. I generally don’t like the flavor of coconut, but it was fresh and delicious! 10/10 would drink again.

After a wonderful bike ride, I’m currently sitting at a beach cafe sipping on a latte while writing this post. Gangsta’s Paradise is playing on the cafe radio. It’s a beautiful 85 degrees out with a little breeze coming though. I’m nice and convenient.