Today Dad and I went on an eco tour of the Mangrove Forests on the southern tip of Ko Lanta Lai (the island of Lanta big) and the Village of Ko Lanta Noi (the island of Lanta small). We went by long boat -- the same kind of boats from the last post. Included in the ride was a Swedish couple, the wife is working as a kindergarten teacher at the local Swedish school), a Swedish couple with their son who is 7 and their 9 month old daughter, our Guide Mr. Nas and his 7 year old son. As you can imagine it was a meeting of the 7 year old minds, full of play and merriment. Both boys where armed with cameras which they would take pictures of anything that took their fancy, especially each other. (Now Dad and I are even, as he erased the picture of the boys, stating that it had no pictographic value).
Koh Lanta is one of the smaller islands that has recently (in the last twenty years come to tourism) and its community is very unique. Sea Gypsies, Muslims, and Chinese have coexisted in harmony for oer 200 years in this fishing community. Our tour is part of a community based program to both teach tourists about the unique qualities of Ko Lanta and to replant the Mangrove Forests that shelters the island from the sea and provides a buffer between the salt and fresh water. Mangroves also provide wood for building houses, medicine, and used to be used as a coal. (You see the other neighboring islands have really just become tourist party places, and Ko Lanta wants to remain very Thai: independent but extremely generous.
First we went through the mangrove forests and fed the monkeys. These monkeys are called Ma Caw Caws.
Then we visited the village just as Saturday morning religious school was getting out and we were swarmed with Muslim children on bikes all yelling, "HELLO!"
This may be a good time to talk about how much Thai people love children. Every where in the village we went, the Thai people exclaimed over the baby and the two boys. The hotel, Andaman Lanta Resort, we are staying at is full of children and every morning the are greeted, names remembered, given the choice foods. The Thai people, in general, are also as generous and loving with their own children: adults often put their arms around the child's shoulders to guide him or her, they are cooed over, and they run around as the adults work.
Then we went to Mr. Nas's sister's family's house, where we very generously invited into their yard with mangoes (picked right off the tree that was shading us), two kinds of bananas, papaya, and coconuts. Here is Mr. Nas's sister is displaying the food and her husband is feeding the chickens a banana. The family insisted that the baby take a half dozen bananas home.
Finally we ate a provided lunch on a beach (with more bananas and banana sticky rice)surrounded by amazing cliffs and then went to a cave, this area is known for its climbing and you can climb inside and outside of this cave. The whole tour was beautiful and our guide wonderful. And it was just like any good international event, the two boys exchanged shirts at the end of the day!
I wish you all could have come with me on this adventure,
Elaine
5 comments:
Hi, Elaine! I am really enjoying your fabulous travelogue. Your post about the mangrove forests reminds me of how I've spent the last week at work. We hired someone to transcribe a bunch of interviews for us, and the results were so bad that I had to spend almost the whole week redoing them. One of her typos was "man growth swamps." (In another case when the interview said "crime, substance abuse, and lack of education," she typed "crimes of communication.") At least I got a few laughs out of it! :)
Was the area that you are traveling through affected by the 2004 tsunami? If so, can you still see its effects there?
Elaine!! This sounds wonderful and unreal to me. Fresh mangoes off the tree! Bananas on the beach! Love it!
The banana cuisine reminds me of an episode of "Reading Rainbow" where LeVar Burton went to a restaurant and had candied bananas for dessert. When the chef told him he was going to make candied bananas, LeVar Burton said "Candied bananas?" with the most glorious sense of wonder. And then we got to watch the chef make the candied bananas at the table. They looked really good. And LeVar seemed to enjoy them immensely.
Hello commenting friends, it is so nice to hear from you! Dad and I loved all these comments. To end our banana day we also tried to order Banana Roti (this amazing Indian dish they made in Malaysia -- a deep fried dough with bananas in it) but instead we got banana fritters with honey. But I will now associate it with Le Var.
Kristen, great question. We ask it ourselves often. Most places have a new cement pier (which does not really reach the water now) from the tsunami money. And it appears that the destruction has encouraged a major increase in tourist building (resorts and the like). Thailand was effected but not as bad as Indonesia and many are thankful for the powerful Mangrove protection. Ko Phi Phi was very badly destroyed.
I am sorry for all of the bananas. At least it wasn't all mushed in every dish.
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