An island of cashews and rubber trees

Another move north to the large island of Phayam.   Not far from Ranong, the border town with Myanmar.   The largest group of visitors here are German, either young backpackers or families with small children.  Accommodation, in fixed tent camp sites or simple huts, is cheap, facilities minimal.  One of the lovely things about the island is that there are no cars.  A one-lane concrete track runs between the main beaches, nice and shady from the overhanging trees, and transport is motor bike or push bike.  It has become quite a popular place for expats to open little shops with home made yoghurt, organic bread, and yoga and meditation centres.  Plenty of dreadlocks around.

We have been hiring mountain bikes to get around, and were soon off the concrete track and exploring the island.  Came to a sea gipsy village.  The Chao Lay or sea gypsies are a nomadic people who live a very simple life – the concepts of time, age, and counting are not important to them.  They are very skilled at wooden boat building, diving and fishing and the houses we saw were wooden frames on stilts with woven mats for walls.  Unfortunately the plastic age has reached them and there was a lot of non degradable rubbish around.

Cashew nuts are the main crop of the island – we had never seen a cashew tree, and were interested to see the recognisable curved nuts topped by a large red or yellow fruit.   The fruits are actually a false fruit.  The ‘nut’ is the fruit with a seed (the cashew nut as we know it) inside.  The red and yellow fruits are soft and juicy and can be eaten but have quite a strong smell and are usually mixed with other fruit juices.  They don’t keep so are never marketed.  The ‘nut’ is dried in the sun for about ten days, then shelled and boiled.  Dried again, and roasted.   The bakery makes delicious cashew nut brownies which we find hard to resist.

Rubber trees are common on part of the island.  In a simple shed we watched them pouring the white latex, partly coagulated so very lumpy looking, into large plastic barrels.  No English spoken so we aren’t sure about the next step of the process, but an online investigation says that acid is added to separate the solids from the high water content.   There were large rollers like giant cast iron mangles operated by a diesel engine, and the resulting mats of rubber were hung on lines to dry.

Already our plans to stay for a couple of days have stretched to a week, it is that sort of place.  We have found out that we can renew our visas in nearby Ranong on the border, so there is no hurry to get back south.  We thought we would have to be back in Phuket by early Feb.