We did our best - fending off all well-meaning attempts to persuade us to join in with festive roast dinners in Santa outfits and tinsel in tropical 27 degree sunshine. Bah humbug indeed. Fairly successful, although Jack and Bua did manage to sneak a decorated topiary bourgainvillea into the house when we weren't looking.
Our hosts have also been very kind in driving us on a couple of trips - to the famous teak temple of Ao Noi a few miles up the coast and to Waghor Aquarium.
Perhaps the most interesting discovery for me was finding that our village here is a centre for marine research. Just behind the fishing harbour and next to the topiary park is a large facility run by the Thai Ministry of Fisheries where they are growing sea cucumbers. The team are researching their potential use both as human food and as an anti-cancer treatment. Apparently sea cucumbers (Holothuria scabra) are valued in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They contain an active agent that has been found to be effective in stopping the cell cycle and slowing down metastasis in advanced prostate cancer. Sadly, the species is endangered in the wild so the research is being conducted to find out how to farm them efficiently. Hence the hundreds of concrete tanks here.
I wonder what they taste like? They don't look particularly appetising!
The other interesting finding was in the fields next to the aquarium where hundreds of dome-shaped concrete pods are stored, ready to be taken to sea and used to create one of the biggest artificial reefs in Thailand. The hope is that this will help the coral ecosystem to regenerate. I don't know why the pods are sitting in the field and not in the sea!
Other than that, various photos...
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| Ao Manao beach |
Jack and Bua also drove us to a large garden centre just beside the Myanmar border. The border post is closed of course but it's interesting to see.
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| The unused border post |
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| I just like yellow flowers against a blue sky. |
We had a hell of a storm the week before Christmas. Indeed a Thai warship and two fishing boats were lost just off the coast in the Gulf of Thailand during the storm. Very sad.
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| Prachuap Khiri Khan prom. Windy! |
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| This is back in the fishing village next to our place. |
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| Most nights we eat at one of the local restaurants along the front and have a few beers. |
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| The sun rises from behind the mountain and it can look quite dramatic |
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| We did get to watch some of the footie of course |
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| This is the trip to the aquarium and science park. |
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| Back at Khlong Wan, the Min of Fisheries research station has a series of hatching ponds with plenty of bird life |
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| Ao Noi teak temple |
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| The obligatory cave with reclining Buddha. |
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And many a sunset view with beer from our balcony!
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| Never been very good at selfies! |
Sea cucumber, like other echinoderms, has arginine kinase as its phosphagen kinase rather than creatine kinase. Nerdy comparative biochemistry fact. Seems unfair to eat sea cucumbers when they have a similar ecological function to terrestrial earth worms
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr Nerdy McBiochem. I see what you mean about unfairness. I'm afraid they score rather poorly in the cute and cuddly metric though. There were also some species of sea urchins in tanks but I couldn't read the Thai labels so I've no idea what they were doing with them
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