KRABI DISCOVERY » Living & Lifestyle

Beneath The Veneer Of Tourism.

admin — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:39:45 +0000

Sprinkle Of The Local Life.

Posted By KDSH

Unique Success
For years, Thailand has been developing a unique tourism industry with something to offer for everyone. In the ” Land of Smiles ” featuring a modern capital city with countless attractions spread out among its provinces. Each province features their own history, unique culture, cuisine, temples and activities. Many visitors can enjoyed outstanding beaches, islands, delectable Thai food and relaxing massage under the sun, sand and sea.

Life Is Local
With the touristy appearance especially along the Andaman Coast, it is impossible to understand the local Thai people and its hospitality without learning first about its daily lifestyles that contribute into a phenomenal tourist destination.
Try to put money into local people’s hands by spending your money in the local economy. Engaging tours and excursions or services run by locals will educate you and benefit them. The money filters through the local economy and it can provide jobs, food on the table, diversify the local economy and improve the quality and sustainability of tourism.

Intimate corners of Thai Society, produced by Andaman Rising.

Anchored in Faith —- Phil Daquila
The Cost of Hope —- Julie Turkewitz
Diving for Change —- Lillie Elliot
Forging Family —- Erin Debnam
A Good Son Forever —- Abby Metty
I am Storm —- Grace Koerber
Insight —- Stacey Axelrod
My Elephant, My Brother —- Selket Guzman
Raising Burmese —– Eileen Mignoni
Robed in Merit —- Nacho Corbella
The Sabai Life —- Kate Napier
Striking Heritage —- Zach Hoffman
The Asian Tsunami —- Wilson Andrews, Laura Walters and Zach Ferriola-Bruckenstain
Nine Lenses, Nine Lives —- Charissa Lloyd
Preparing for Another —- All Photo/ Video Team

UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism & Mass Communication announces the release of a collection of 15 student-produced multimedia stories about life in southern Thailand after the 2004 Asian tsunami. Presenting a month long foreign reporting assignment in which 14 journalism students traveled to the province of Phang-nga, Thailand to explore some of the most intimate corners of Thai society. Based out of a village next to the Andaman Sea, students used photos, audio, video, graphics and design to craft cultural snapshots of a region that has risen above tragedy. Working with a team of Thai translators, they documented the story of a teenage cross-dresser in a traditional Muslim community, the narrative of an illegal immigrant family from Myanmar, and the spiritual transformation of a young monk. Congratulations to all the students involved and a special thanks to all the wonderful families in Thailand who generously allowed us a glimpse into their lives.

Click here for their multimedia stories : http://www.andamanrising.org/index.html

The Banana And Its Many Uses

KDSH — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:32:59 +0000

Over the years Thais have developed many other useful purposes for different parts of the banana tree.

One choice gift that Mother Nature has created for us is the banana. What the true value of this gift has for us depends, however, on the ways we can find the most uses for it. There are many kinds of bananas in Thailand, with various types flourishing in different environmental conditions. There are wild bananas that prefer narrow valleys in the mountains. These are not widely eaten because the fruit is full of hard seeds, but the leaves are useful. The kluay lep mue nang are a kind of wild banana that grows in rocky crevices where the soil covering is not thick. The fruit are small but compensate for it with their fine fragrance and sweetness, plus they don’t have seeds. The province where they are most common is in Chumphon. Kluay khai, or “egg bananas”, grow best where the temperature is somewhat hot, like in Kamphaeng Phet, for example. They are small and short with a flavour all in their own. Kluay hom grow best in the Central region.

But the most common type – grown in all parts of Thailand – is the kluay nam wa. There are many other varieties, too, but one thing they all have in common is that the fruit and leaves are put to good use. Thailand’s culture finds a myriad of uses for the banana plant and its fruit. Some are connected with religious beliefs, some with the durable materials it supplies, and some with cuisine. One old belief-based custom that has survived till the present has to do with building new houses. Thai tradition requires that a ceremony be performed before the first pillar is set into the ground to bring good fortune. A sugar cane plant and a banana tree are tied to one end of the pillar with multicoloured pieces of cloth. The sweetness of the sugar cane represents happiness and the banana tree, growth. When the ceremony is finished the sugar cane and the banana tree are planted next to the house. So in the future the family who live in it will have sugar cane to eat and the banana tree will keep supplying them with fruit. The materials provided by the banana plant have also been put to use in many ways over the centuries. Every household would probably have at least one banana tree on the property, or at least nearby. If someone was caught in the rain, a banana leaf made for an excellent umbrella, which could simply be discarded when the weather cleared up, and then deteriorate and become a natural fertiliser. The thin membrane on the stem of a banana tree could be torn into strips and then dried under the sun to make an excellent twine. In the past it was moistened before use and the cord it produced was easy to tie and extremely tough. Banana leaves could also be dried and then formed into cups to hold both dry and wet foods.

New leaves that had just opened were used to roll cigarettes, which were very popular years ago. Banana leaves can be used to wrap all kinds of foods. They have long been used by market vendors to wrap, for example, steamed pla thu (mackerel) or fresh chillies before presenting them to a customer. Even now, when vegetables are kept fresh by storing them in a special drawer in the refrigerator, vegetables stay fresher for a long time if they are tightly wrapped first in banana leaf, and then in newspaper. The leaves are also used to wrap certain kinds of foods, and sometimes the association of banana leaves with a particular dish is so strong that it becomes its symbol. Haw mok (fish meat and herbs steamed in a curried coconut custard wrapped in banana leaf) is a good example. If it isn’t steamed in a banana leaf wrapping, the symbolic link is gone. It may not even taste as good as it should.There are many other steamed foods, including kanom kluay, kanom tan, kanom sai sai and khao tom mud that must be wrapped in banana leaf. Some grilled snacks are cooked in banana leaves, too. Among them are kluay ping (sticky rice wrapped in banana leaf, together with sliced bananas), or the same thing made with taro root or beans. One trick for making the chilli dipping sauce nam prik kapi really delicious is to wrap the kapi in banana leaf first, then grill it over a fire until the leaf is scorched. The grilling process brings out the aroma of the kapi, and the nam prik made with it becomes far tastier. As for the banana fruit, it can be eaten either raw or cooked. In the past, when children were getting their first tooth and getting ready to learn how to chew, their mothers would take the fruit of the kluay nam wa and grind it together with rice. The banana helped with the digestion of the rice. Kluay nam wa is used to make a number of desserts, including kluay ping, kanom kluay and kluay buat chee. Even the small, hard, root-like runners that spread the banana tree can be eaten. They are especially good when cooked in gaeng som (a sweet and sour spicy curry made without coconut cream), together with pla chon (snakehead fish). These are only a few examples of dishes made with bananas, mostly the kluay nam wa variety. There is one more kind of banana that shouldn’t be overlooked – the kluay tanee. Some people like to plant several different varieties of banana trees on their property to get many kinds of fruit. Kluay hom can be sold but they take a long time to bear fruit, and the bananas themselves take some time to fully ripen. Kluay nam wa bear fruit that is ready to sell more quickly, and everybody likes them. But one type of banana that will be represented by only a tree or two is the kluay tanee. Its leaves are very tough and hard to tear. The leaves of other varieties will tear when a strong wind blows, but the long leaves of the kluay tanee are much sturdier and they are also coloured a more intense green. They make a first class wrapping material, or kluay bai sri, the funnel-shaped receptacle used for making religious offerings. The fruit is full of hard seeds and difficult to eat, but the flowers are highly esteemed by cooks. As soon as a plant comes into flower the blossom is cut to make gaeng lieng (a vegetable soup-like dish). The pulp of the flower has a delicate texture without coarse fibres, and is white, sweet and crunchy. The ingredients needed to make gaeng lieng include fresh peppercorns, shallots, the aromatic root called krachai, a little kapi and a single dried chilli, all pounded to a fine consistency. Then the meat of a dried fish that has been grilled to crispness is added and pounded together with the other ingredients until they are thoroughly mixed. The kluay tanee flower, cut into fine shreds, is boiled in water to which the paste is also added, plus a little salt, or nam pla, is put in as well. Before the soup is lifted from the fire some fresh bai maeng lak (a type of basil) is added. Gaeng lieng made this way is more delicious than if made with the flower of any other kind of banana. These are just a few of the countless uses the Thai people have found for the banana plant and its fruit. Some types have fruit that is left aside in favour of the highly useful leaves. Others have tasty fruit but leaves for which no purpose has been found. This is another example of Mother Nature presenting us with a balance of useful properties. It has been left to us to find ways in which each type of banana can benefit our lives.

SOURCE : http://bangkokpost.com/leisure/restaurant/37975/the-banana-and-its-many-uses

Balls of life revive ailing eco-systems

RDER — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:21:57 +0000

Folk wisdom is giving Chumphon residents a novel way to help the environment, and increase the diversity of aquatic life in the rivers and sea

Ancient seafolk wisdom is being used to help restore the richness of Thai marine and river life. Balls the size of a human fist are thought to hold the secret to reviving the damaged eco-systems of both the rivers and the seas. Earlier this month, hundreds of people in Chumphon who live along the Phato River that empties into the sea came together to form the so-called “From Mountains to the Great Waters Network”. The network works on the preservation of the rivers and the sea through emulation of the ancient practice of feeding at the bottom of the food chain. .

In the old days, people would cut tree twigs, submerge them in the river and let them decay. The decayed twigs create humus which becomes food for microbes. Microbes, in turn, become a food source for the plankton in the sea. As plankton are regarded as the starting point of the food chain, the higher their concentration, the bigger contribution they can subsequently make to growth in the population of clams, oysters, sea cucumbers and fish which feed on them.

The twig decaying process, however, is a very time-consuming one.

The network has invented what it calls “probiotic balls” which work equally well in increasing marine life but at a very much quicker pace. The network said the balls were made of organic fertiliser and leaves and leftover food, rice bran, fermented herbal juice, and sea mud. The ingredients are left to ferment and then rolled into balls which are later thrown into the river or sea. During a recent excursion, network members tossed more than 84,000 balls into the Phato River. Most of the balls were buried in the mud around the Ao Thungkasawee mangrove forest, with only a small number near the sea shores. The group has learned a lot from folk wisdom and adapted it, said

Wiwat Salyakamthorn, president of the Natural Agriculture Foundation and a key leader of the network. “The seas in Thailand are dying. If humans are destroying the environment, something must be done before it is too late,” he said. The balls would also add oxygen to the water. The network has observed that after only a month of throwing the balls, stocks of aquatic life had increased around the river mouth and sea. The balls, he added, cost almost nothing to make while there is so much to gain from the sea in return. In addition, the natural breeding pens were made by weaving bamboo cane with coconut leaves into a container where small fish could take shelter. Mr Wiwat said the sea has been hard hit by such human activities as farming, industrial pollution, overfishing, and tourism. Plastic bags and rubbish litter the beaches and the marine creatures’ habitats are badly damaged as a result. The sea is becoming less and less fertile, forcing the fishermen to venture many miles farther out to catch fish these days. He said he had witnessed the failure of some sea conservation projects because they lacked the collective will and effort of the local communities. It would be pointless if the fishermen or seafront communities make an effort to conserve the marine environment only to see the people upstream continue to pollute the river, he said. But Mr Wiwat has not lost hope. “The sea is too vast and the residents here have learned that their one small step could lead to a great leap,” he said. The issue of sea conservation should not be left to the people along the coast to resolve alone. Everyone must work together and cooperate at the community level, only then will we achieve the results we want, he said. “We should apply what we learn from nature to solve our environmental problems,” he said. Restoring the sea with microbial technology was a good example of putting the sufficiency economy philosophy into action, he said. Also, fishermen have been told to stop using destructive fishing techniques while those living along the river were asked to use organic fertilisers in their gardens. Tourists have been urged to stop dumping rubbish into the sea. The network has undertaken many other projects to reverse environmental degradation such as organic farming, setting up tree banks and promoting community-based tourism, which is based on the sufficiency economy principle.

Source :
By: Lamphai Intathep
Bangkok Post

Harvest From The Sea

RDER — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:01:14 +0000

JELLYFISH AS FOOD

Jellyfish are considered a delicacy in Asian countries, a popular food item for the Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Malaysian and not forgetting the Thais. With careful preparation, it can be served raw or cooked. After harvesting from the sea, processing involves salting and drying for a number of days, before being serve as a main or side ingredients in popular Asian food dishes such as the Japanese sushi and Malaysian rojak. Shredded jellyfish is serve as a favourite cold dish during a Chinese wedding party.

JELLYFISH MARKET STUNG BY SLIP SLIDING ECONOMY

By Chutima Sidasathian
Phuketwan.com
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

JELLYFISH are enjoying the seas off the Andaman coast much more this season. This would normally be a pleasing aberration for jellyfish seller Anon Lanpet, if not for too many other people. But with prices of the Asian delicacy down to barely a quarter of previous seasons, the pudgy stingers are best left to drift, he says. Khun Anon has been running his edible jellyfish export business for three years. Sales have been good. But this year, with the world economy dipping downwards, orders from China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan have dropped, he says. The slowdown in demand combined with an unusually high number of the ‘lobonema smithii mayer 1910′ jellyfish along the Andaman coast has caused prices to drop to 2.5 to 5 baht per jellyfish. Last year, each good-sized, squidgy edible jellie could fetch 10 to 13 baht. Phuketwan caught up with Khun Anon in Klong Tom, Krabi, where he happened to be working. But his operation is mobile, set up on beaches along the west coast provinces. He moves to where the jellies are most plentiful. A jellyfish man from way back, he says there are not many people in the jellyfish business. It requires a substantial investment up-front. Khun Anon has arrangements with buyers in China who give him an advance of 80,000-100,000 baht to buy jellyfish from the fishermen who catch them in nets thrown from their boats. Each catch is hauled to shore and processed right on the beach. Each jellyfish is cut, cleaned and put in a sauce for seven days. Then it is packaged and sent overseas. All of his sea-grown harvest is exported, he says. Khun Anon hires temporary staff to prepare the jellyfish at the same beach where he buys them off the fishermen, paying 30 baht an hour. Workers concentrating on jellyfish do the processing in eight-hour shifts. Another kind of edible jellyfish, ‘rhopilema hispidum vanhoffen 1888′, is plentiful in the Andaman, too. But Khun Anon does not buy them because they are difficult to clean. To prepare them for human consumption takes 15 hours; just not worth the effort at current price levels, he says. ‘Lobonema smithii mayer 1910′ are known to deliver a powerful sting. They are quite unlike the jellyfish that turned up in large numbers on Phuket’s west coast in January, which have stings that are considered harmless. A variety of jellyfish plus salps and comb jellies, creatures that look similar to jellyfish, have been spotted around Phi Phi and Raya islands, in the Phuket region, recently. On Phuket, where research into the increasing sightings of jellyfish of all kinds is continuing, interest now centres on the three-day seminar from April 1 where some of the mysteries of the outbreaks should be explained. Of greatest concern is the dangerous and potentially deadly box jellyfish, now identified as coming in three species, two of them at one particular bay on Phuket’s east coast. Australian delegates will join the seminar and report first-hand what steps can be taken to accurately assess the scale of the problem. There is also a public seminar being planned for April 4, at Le Meridien Phuket, not far from Patong. Meanwhile, Khun Anon is looking for alternative markets.

MEMORABLE MOMENT IN KRABI

Jellyfish farm in Thailand

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