Hues of rainbow colors in Orchid and Butterfly Farm in Chiang Mai

Its been a week that I have been back from Thailand but honestly the Bangkok hangover is yet not over.  Songkran- the Water festival is still on my mind. Every evening when I see my neighbours using a garden hose for watering their plants, I am transported back to the Chiang Mai market where we used the hose to play Songkran with the locals. We splashed and got wet to the fullest.  Hope you read the ‘Songkran Special’ post from my Thailand series?

Travel blogging is fun because it helps us to live our beautiful moments more than once.  I cant live without clicking a lot of pictures and my travel stories take their form when I go through my travel pictures back home.  Today, when I was going through the Chiang Mai collection, I hit upon the most pleasing pictures from Chiang Mai because nature never fails to amaze us. The visit to Chiang Mai’s Bai Orchid and Butterfly Farm was a short one but it was absolutely worth it.  The orchids and the butterflies were pleasing to both heart and mind.  My camera too enjoyed the captures of the lovely orchids, their colourful hybrid forms and fluttering butterflies.

Orchid love from Chiang Mai Welcome to the Butterfly Farm, Chiang Mai!

Thailand and Orchids have an old love

Thailand’s love for orchids was well known to me but  I pictured it when I was offered an orchid at Bangkok airport while de-boarding the Thai Airways international flight and I quite loved the gesture. Next, I happily pinned it to my shirt.

1,000 species of orchids thrive in Thailand and it is a major export industry too. These plants flower bloom in the north of Thailand.  Hybridization is very famous among Thai horticulturalists. In the north of Chiang Mai in the Mae Sa Valley, there are four orchid and butterfly farms.  This area is home to 473 species of orchids and approximately 1000 species of butterflies.

Hanging Roots of Orchid plants

I had never seen so many orchids together.  The range of orchids was truly fascinating. The gorgeous colors and their lovely shapes made my heart hump with joy.  What I found unique was that these orchids were not rooted to the ground. Later I learnt that the bulbs are capable of storing water from last rainfall and their spongy roots absorb water from morning mists too.

Rainbow Colors in the orchids

After walking through the Orchid farm, we walked towards the Butterfly farm.  This small arena was full of fluttering and colourful species. It made me nostalgic about my childhood when my cousin would go around catching them and I would tell him not to do because it would hurt them.

Here, I chanced upon some lovely ones after years. They were in vibrant and gorgeous colors.  I walked stealthily to capture them as fluttered and sucked nectar from the flowers.  For some I had to seriously run around from one side to another to capture them as they jumped from one flower to another.

A few of my favourite captures are as below…

Seriously, I could have stayed at this place for an hour more but since we were getting late for our flight to Bangkok, we had to wind it up quickly.

Nature-lovers will love this place and others must visit this place to appreciate and fall in love with God’s creation. In fact the hybridization of orchids has human passion and hard work involved too. Children will definitely love to see uncountable butterflies at one place.  Such places of natural beauty are absolutely enticing for bloggers who love photography and professional photographers are ought to make the best of this place.

Hope you all enjoy the slideshow of my beautiful captures.

Thanks to TAT (Thailand Authority of Tourism), New Delhi for inviting me for this FAM trip.