Final Stopover at Vin de Ray Winery

The sun is setting and I'm exhausted because of our very long travel from Phukhieo Wildlife Sanctuary. Our driver wanted to get home fast so he just gave us few stopovers along the way. The result is my butt and back hurt so much because of too much sitting.

My travel companions, exhausted as we all were, still had little energy left for more adventure. Thus, our group leader decided to bring us to the final stopover at the winery of Vin de Ray.

I was surprised that a vineyard exists in Thailand. Whenever I hear of winery and vineyard, I always think of grape farms of Italy. The presence of a vineyard in tropical Asia is a remote possibility for me. Well, I'm glad that I'm wrong.

The first thing that welcomed me in Vin de Ray winery is a statue of a lady twisting her hair. This lady is a goddess of Buddhist myth named as Mae Phra Thorani. She is the goddess of the earth and the water pouring from her hair drowned the demons attacking Buddha.

Many Thais place images of Mae Phra Thorani at their homes to call forth the bounty of the earth. I guess that the placing of her statue in Vin de Ray is intentional because vineyards depend very much in the richness of the soil. The  winery owner is calling upon this goddess to take care of his vineyard.

Large “bottles” of wine can be seen from afar. This place is truly a winery and a vineyard.

According to Andreas Hörstemeier, a blogger living in Thailand, Vin de Ray is owned by a TV personality. It is the second time I visited a place built by a Thai celebrity. The first is the Wat Promraungsri, which we visited while traveling to Phukhieo Wildlife Sanctuary.

Grapevines.

It was my first time to see grapevines. Too bad that there is no grapefruit yet.

There are other things that the visitors inside Vin de Ray vineyard can do aside from taking photos with the giant “bottles” and grapevines. There are motorquads that can be rented for 100 Baht per hour.

Some of my travel companions rented the motorquads and zoomed around the vineyard. I just stayed on foot and watched them go because I don't know how to drive a motorquad.

I just discovered in the Internet that Vin de Ray vineyard has spotted deer. They are bred for their meat. Too bad that we didn't know of their existence. I would've photographed them if I just knew.

Vin de Ray vineyard also has a shop for those who want to buy wine, grape juice, raisins and other products made from grapes. Andreas said that the red wine has same quality as the European ones, “at least for the taste of a casual wine drinker”.

Vin de Ray shop.

There are other items that are for sale like sweets, souvenir items, vegetables and chicharon.

Vin de Ray products for sale.

I didn't bought any item from the shop because I'm such a “penny pincher”.

We still had miles to go before reaching home. So, we hit the road again after my travel companions bought all the items that they want from Vin de Ray winery.

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Info about Mae Phra Thorani came from Wikipedia.

Some info about Vin de Ray winery came from  Andreas Hörstemeier's blog, My Unseen Thailand.