A 30-hectare farm-turned-tourist attraction outside Pattaya now features two crops that, until recently, could have landed its owner in jail.
The Kaset Sukniyom Project at Pattaya Ma Mao off Highway 331 in Huay Yai has plots for growing fruit, durian, rambutan and assorted vegetables scattered around its 186 rai (29.76 hectares). But owner Kunnasek Duangpetch, 51, added two new crops to show off when the agricultural attraction opens Nov. 27: Cannabis and kratom.
Kunnasek rented the former tapioca farmland at the beginning of 2021 to create an integrated farming project that could be a model for natural tourist attractions in Chonburi.
To catch people’s attention – and make money from a hot new crop – Kunnasek obtained a license to grow cannabis, which can be used to create health products and food additives. Then, after kratom was decriminalized, he began growing 1,500 seedlings to cultivate the stimulating leaves.
Currently, the seedlings are growing in a hothouse but will be planted on five rai once they are large enough. The cannabis plants also were allotted five rai. Kunnasek has plans to double the land used for each crop.
But the Kaset Sukniyom Project has a lot more on the vine than just produce. It’s also a campsite, a dirt racetrack built by inmates from Pattaya Remand prison, wine bar, restaurant and shopping galleria.
Like the farm, this is no ordinary campsite. Tourists can bring their own tents, but regular and “VIP” tents can be rented, the latter coming with air conditioning.
Campsites cost only a few hundred baht a night. Basic tents are 1,000 baht a day while the VIP tents are 10,000 baht for 24 hours.
Kunnasek’s personal focus, however, is on agriculture. He is working with Chonburi Province to make the farm an education center with nine learning areas. Next year, he plans to acquire an adjoining 100 rai to make the Kaset Sukniyom Project a major draw for tourists, students, farmers and academics.
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