Welcome to The Life Change Blog

We publish a short article every week about change, life and living in Thailand.

Fruit Therapy: Fact or Fiction

A New Approach To Counseling Retreats and Life Coaching

I’ve invented a new kind of therapy, I think. If therapy, as defined by the master therapist and counsellor Irvin Yalom is… “all about change” I would definitely be in with a shout, or at least a whisper.

Everyday (or “took took” as they say in Thailand) when I’ve finished work organising Counseling Retreats and analysing Personality Profiles, I cycle down the road to the local market. It’s open all the time and sells anything you care to think of. I’ve yet to be disappointed, and believe me, my shopping list often ranges from “tricky” to “downright surreal”. It reads like the results of a word association game played by somebody with a particularly deranged mind; sausages, fireworks, razors, coriander, fish food, bananas...I managed to find them all, although I had to walk down the road past the Buddhist Temple to the monk supply shop to get the fireworks, which as everyone who lives in Thailand knows is the main reason why men become monks.

The amazing thing about the market at the moment is not that you can buy almost anything but the incredible range and quantity of fruit. I’m not a particularly fruit orientated type of person, if you know what I mean. The lonesome apple or orange in a packed lunch has always struck me as a bit sad, a bit of a disappointment, something to eat to feel healthy rather than to enjoy. I’ve never been known to have some fruit just knocking about in my bag, as I know healthy people do, in order to spring it upon unsuspecting friends who look like they need a segment of Satsuma, which of course we don’t. It wouldn’t really dawn on me to buy fruit to actually eat myself…until that is, I moved to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand.

You really should see it all. I’m surprised it’s not listed somewhere as one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Huge mountains of tiny pineapples, golden mangoes and green oranges, coconuts, strawberries (grown up in the mountains), pomegranates, 4 different types of banana (four!), watermelons, jack fruit, grapes, big plump chestnuts from the Burmese border, papayas the size of marrows and melons the size of basket balls. And this is just a small selection of fruit that you would have heard of. You should try the crisp and crunchy red Rose Apples (a distant relation of the myrtle family), Longans like big juicy golden golf balls, Sapodillas which taste like a soft sweet pear, Snake Fruit that look unnervingly like snakes heads but taste like cream, bright red hairy Rambutans which I’m sure have been transported here from outer space and incredible Custard Apples which look and taste like they have just been dreamt up by Willy Wonka in his chocolate factory.

So, the other day I was feeling rather tired and cycled to the market with a head full of the day’s problems and worries. I wandered aimlessly around the bustling market just enjoying the different sights, sounds and smells (incense and grilled pork must be a winning combination) and eventually forked out 10 Baht (that’s about 18p or 28 cents to you or me) for a bunch of perfect tiny bananas each one no bigger than my index finger. They are so small and sweet it’s very easy to eat a whole bunch in one go. The next stall was piled high with perfectly ripe golden mangoes. The type of fruit, which back in the UK, would require you to arrange a special “fruit purchase agreement loan” from the bank. The price here is 20 Baht (about 36p or 56 cents). When I first arrived here I thought it meant 20 Baht each until I bought some and ended up with a carrier bag full. The price is by the Kilo! I recognized my powerlessness over cheap golden mangoes, and ended up with 2 kilos.

By now I was feeling quite jolly so bought a little bag of fresh pineapple chunks sprinkled with spiced chilli sugar. It comes with a little wooden spear to eat on the spot. So, munching away I rejoined my fellow shoppers. I bought a big bunch of juicy Longans, which my children usually eat while watching TV, making sure to drip the sticky sap all over the floor. You don’t get them in the west as they apparently “don’t travel well” according to my “Handy Pocket Guide To Asian Fruit”, but if it did there would be queues around the block.

As I was thinking about getting back on my bike I walked past a boy selling steamed groundnuts or “peanuts” as I grew up calling them. They are delicious and I always buy 10 Bahts worth whenever I see them. They are juicy and sweet and nothing like the dry tasteless things you buy in the UK to feed monkeys at the zoo.

I got back on my bike, put all my fruit in the basket and turned homeward. The sun had just gone down behind the dark mountains, the fairy lights were twinkling in front of the whisky bars and the sound of Thai pop music, and the smell of incense and grilling pork filled the warm evening air. I cycled back home round the back way, behind the little vegetable plots and thought about my fruit and realised I felt happy and worry free. Could half an hour of fruit buying in the local market be genuinely mood changing? I better find Irvin’s email address and find out.

If you decide to come out to this magical part of Thailand, whether as part of one of our Life Change Holidays or not, contact us to arrange a trip around the local fresh markets. Our friend Son, who will accompany you, will be able to introduce you to a whole new world, and you’ll also be the first to be able to say “Fruit Therapy changed my life”!

Happy eating and changing.

Until next week.

Alex.

 “Life Change Holidays really are holidays that change your life”