by Loti | Mar 13, 2013 | Animals, Birds, Food, Thailand
Thailand. Here we are back in the Andaman Sea looking at one of the many caves appearing in the limestone karsts. The caves are home to a bird species, of the swallow family, who builds its nests high inside the dark caves. And somebody has to harvest the nests since they are highly prized by the Chinese for making bird nest soup. You can see one of the bird nest gatherers in the photo along with some of the bamboo scaffolding they use to climb up to the nests. This goes on my list of most unique jobs ever. The nests are only woven by the male birds and made of bird saliva so in essence, bird nest soup is the same as eating steamed bird spit (yummy). But don’t cringe as bird nest soup is one of the most expensive animal products consumed by humans. The gatherers live in the caves for up to a month at a time and most are heavily guarded to prevent theft. Luckily this guy appeared friendly as he waved at us. And on an interesting note, a synonym for gatherer is magpie, another bird friend who we know recognizes him/herself in the mirror. So the world comes full circle. ...
by Loti | Mar 13, 2013 | Bermuda, Landscapes
Bermuda. Having never heard of a karst until visiting Thailand, I was excited to learn there are karsts in Bermuda. Not only karsts, but caves. Filled with stalagmites and stalactites. On a quick business trip to Bermuda last week, standing in the Customs line, I watched a video on the caves and cave animals living in Bermuda. Caves in Bermuda? I have been to Bermuda 12-15 times and never heard of caves. It just goes to show what happens when we look around us to experience life. A karst is formed when water sinks into limestone forming peaks, caves and sinkholes. And Bermuda has one of the largest concentrations of caves in the world with over 150 caves. Really! This is Crystal Cave with an underground walkway through the cave. Our guide told us stalactites always go down (an elderly lady told him the tights are always down. I don’t know if she meant hers but it has helped me remember it). The stalagmites grow up and a column is where they meet in the middle. How very cool....
by Loti | Mar 11, 2013 | Animals, Art, Thailand
Thailand. What are all these intricate patterns on the beach, I wonder? Where did they come from. Aliens? Reminds me of the mysterious corn maze circles. But on closer observation, there are tiny little sand colored crabs scurrying around. Every time I get near they descend into their burrows. It turns out, the sand balls shown in the photo, are made by sand bubbler crabs native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The crabs take sand into their mouths, sift thru it looking for organic materials washed in by the tide, and then spit the sand out into a ball. They can make 360 balls an hour (I am not sure who sat and counted) forming the most amazing patterns radiating from their burrow holes. At high tide, the balls are washed away and the crab starts all over at low tide. The longer the tide is out, the more detailed the pattern. Quite the little artists in nature....
by Loti | Mar 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
Thailand. Traveling to the southwest corner of Thailand, we flew into Krabi. The waters around Krabi and Phuket, about a 2 hour drive between the 2 cities, is known as the best all season sailing waters in the world. On a private longboat ride we were able to visit some of the numerous limestone karsts (a great scrabble word) in the Andaman Sea, located off the southwest coast of Thailand. A karst is a unique landscape found all over the world, including in Indiana (go figure), formed by the underground erosion of rocks such as limestone. And these are indeed limestone karsts. This area of the world has no winter and an average temperature of 82 degrees for both the water and air temperature. There are no hurricanes or typhoons (this place is looking better and better), however….. Isn’t there always a but? The 2004 tsunami devastated the entire region which lies on the ring of fire where 90% of the world’s earthquakes occur. Oh my. We didn’t see signs of the devastation and I am very glad I didn’t read about it in detail until we got home, but it is a real threat. Funny, no one mentioned it at the resort we stayed....
by Loti | Mar 5, 2013 | Food, Thailand
Thailand. I always heard Pad Thai had too many calories, too much salt but I never really investigated it until arriving in Bangkok. This is the way Pad Thai is served at The Oriental Hotel where we stayed. Really delicious. So what is in it? Well fish sauce, tamarind paste, red chilies and rice noodles, with cilantro, lime juice, chopped peanuts, bean sprouts and maybe some protein and dried shrimp thrown in. All things I regularly have in my house. Not! And Pad Thai was voted the #5 food in the world by 35,000 people in a CNN poll in 2011. Interestingly, Rendang was voted #1 and cheeseburgers were way down the list at #30. Rendang??? I have so much to learn as I have never even heard of this exotic food from Indonesia and I consider myself to be fairly well travelled. So I tried making Pad Thai at home, finally locating the tamarind paste at Whole Foods, and it was really good. A restaurant portion of Pad Thai comes in at a whopping 900 calories, but my at home version was about 350 calories. The American Heart Association even recommends Pad Thai as a healthy option when eating Thai food. So just watch the portions and enjoy....
