Deep in some horticulture website comes a line on how kids love sunflowers for their brightness and their bigness. But as we take a Sunday drive to where Thailand's rice fields become rolling countryside and huge hills of marble and granite, a child's fascination appears strikingly more evident among the adults swarming the edges of field after field of sunflowers, or thantawan as they are called here.Certainly no honey or fragrance has drawn them. Crowding under the circus-like canopies of festive yellow, blue and green stripes, perhaps they see what Van Gogh saw. Maybe they hope to follow the flower's face turning from east to west, drinking in as much sunlight as it can in a day. When fully grown, the flowers will stop chasing the sun and stand still until their heads droop and their vivid colour evaporates and someone comes along and picks them for what has been described as the ultimate bird food. Although, the mineral content of the disk flowers - the hundreds of spikes that fill the face - make it an amazing human treat. Sunflower seeds are said to be in the same protein league as beef and have more iron than any other food except egg yolks and liver.
Whether it's the vast spread of bright colour or the up-close burst of life or just a pleasant excuse for a drive in the country, more than a million sunflower pilgrims head to central Thailand each November to January. Farmers in 13 Thai provinces plant sunflowers in rotation with other crops. The sunflower produces the world's second most important and valuable oil seed (coconut oil is the first). Some provinces are far more scenic than others, such as Mae Hong Son, but not so convenient for a day trip.
