In Thailand, TOURISM is definitely one of the most important industries and major sources of revenue. The major tourist centers - Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Chang, Sukhothai, Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle, Mae Hong Son and the like - continue to prosper as tourists regularly to travel to these areas and spend their monies.

Without the resources or facilities to compete with the major resort centers for the tourist dollar, small rural communities in the hinterland have to come up with alternative strategies to develop a local tourism industry. One of the most effective and healthiest strategies is ECOTOURISM. Marketing the natural beauty of the surrounding forests and the traditional arts and culture can be an effective way to build a small but very sustainable tourism industry. As the growing tourism industry depends on preserving the natural beauty and the traditional culture, there is real incentive for the community to protect the wilderness areas and forests that tourists come to explore. A real conservation ethos and a healthy respect for the environment is developed within the community. As the tourism industry develops, small local guesthouses and hotels, restaurants, cafes will be built to accommodate the increasing number of out of town visitors. In addition, artisan centers and other cultural attractions can be developed and will flourish as well. So long as the host community maintains control of the tourist product and their lands, everybody will benefit from this type of tourism development, and the environment will benefit as well. This is a model for ECOTOURISM development.

In rural Thailand, a prime example of a successful ecotourism promotion evolving is in Sa Kaeo Province, where for the 2nd consecutive year in a row, they are staging a butterfly sighting festival at Pang Sida National Park for the months of June and July. Apparently for the first year (2005) of the promotion, there a was a substantial increase in the number of visitors to Pang Sida National Park for the month of June compared to the previous year 2004. The Pang Sida National Park has gained the reputation as ‘The Realm of Butterflies of the Eastern Forests”, with more than 350 species of butterfly easily sighted. This promotion has benefited the community substantially with the increased revenue of tourism dollars and with the development of new jobs - over 40 youths from the Sa Kaeo area were trained in 2006 as qualified butterfly guides. More importantly, this butterfly festival has given the community a real incentive to protect the Park and the indigenous wildlife that lives there, as that is the resource that is bringing them the tourism dollars.

For full story on Festival: http://thailand.prd.go.th/the_focus_view.php?id=1487

Let’s hear it for Butterfly Power!

While attending a tourism exposition in San Jose, Costa Rica in the early 1990’s, I learned about plans for a new ecotourist attraction that would allow people to explore and learn first hand about the rich and complex diversity of life in the rainforest canopy. It’s estimated that about two-thirds of a rainforest’s species live in the canopy (the uppermost, branching layer of the forest). One of the guest speakers at the Expo was the well-known tropical biologist, Dr. Donald Perry, who for many years had studied the diverse mix of fauna and flora in the rainforest canopy by utilizing a system of pulleys and cables to navigate among the treetops. Addressing the many travel agents, the press and members of the travel industry who were attending the Expo, Dr. Perry announced his plan to develop and operate the Rainforest Aerial Tram, Costa Rica’s First Canopy Tour. The Aerial Tram would be modeled after a ski-lift gondola ride consisting of a series of small open-air cable cars each held together by a three kilometers long cable. The first rainforest Aerial tram opened in 1994, about an hour’s drive from San Jose (Costa Rica’s capital city) on a private rainforest reserve just outside of Braulio Carrillo National Park.

Since the introduction of the first Rainforest Aerial Tram in 1994, the canopy tour business spread like wildfire in Costa Rica. Several more Aerial Tram tours opened - including a Rainforest Aerial Tram near the Pacific Coast Beach resort of Jaco (sister of the original Rainforest Aerial Tram near Braulio Carillo National Park) as well as an unrelated Aerial Tram near Arenal volcano. In addition, several canopy tours have utilized suspension bridges for tourists to walk among the treetops. However, it is the zip-line tour which has really taken over the canopy tour industry. Today, there are currently over 100 canopy tours available in Costa Rica, most of them located in close proximity to the more popular resort and tourist areas. By far most of the canopy tours are of the zip-line variety, which is very fast paced and is more akin to an amusement park ride than a means of learning about nature.

On the zip-line tour, people are attached to an overhead cable with a safety harness, propelling themselves from one tree platform to the next at relatively fast speeds. Small animals and birds that live high up in the canopy might mistake you for a flying ape or a UFO. This type of canopy tour may frighten some people who are afraid of heights. A word of caution - while this type of tour is undeniably fun and thrilling like bungee jumping, it can also be very dangerous. There is no government regulation in Costa Rica of these canopy tours, so before you get strapped into the harness, you should check out the safety standards of the outfitter and verify that they have a proven track record in these types of tours. Since 1997, there have been two zip-line tour deaths in Costa Rica that have been attributed to faulty harnesses.

The canopy tour, which has been entrenched in Costa Rica as a popular eco-attraction, has since been introduced to many other popular tropical destinations from South Africa and Ghana in Africa to Jamaica and St. Lucia in the Caribbean and Peru in South America.

While I have not been on any canopy tours in Costa Rica per se, I did have the pleasure of going on a canopy tour in December 1995 while visiting Ghana in West Africa. Located not far from from Ghana’s Gold Cost, Kakum Rainforest was chosen as the site of Ghana’s first canopy tour. A relatively new attraction at the time, this canopy tour consisted of a series of suspension bridges between platforms located high up in the rainforest canopy. It was very fun but my traveling companion, a young lady from Accra, Ghana’s Capital, experienced a fear of heights. Eventually she conquered her fears and completed the walk among the treetops feeling total exhilarated.

Factoid: It is reported that Canopy tours generate some $120 million annually in Costa Rica , and attract by conservative estimates over 200,000 tourists every year.

Reference:

http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=costa_rica@53&cur_section=fea&feature=30011

Parrot’s Beak’s (Gmelina Philipensis) is a tropical shrub native to the Philippines. The long pendulous flowers are comprised of yellow blossoms which emerge at the end of a tube-like structure of overlapping bracts. (Source: Flowering Plants of Thailand - A Field guide by Patrick D. McMakin). I first encountered this unusual looking plant in Barbados at the Flower Forest (picture 1-2 top left). During my travels to Thailand, I also stumbled across Gmelina Philipensis (where it is known locally as Ching-chai) in a unique shrine-like setting in the gardens of one the small guesthouses near Chiang Dao (picture top right).

Apparently travelers around the world love Thailand as evidenced by Travel and Leisure’s latest reader’s poll. According to their readers, Bangkok, Thailand’s capital city, ranks as the world’s 3rd best city and Chiang Mai, Thailand’s 2nd largest city and gateway to the Northern provinces ranks as #5. Pretty impressive stuff! Tourism to Chiang Mai and northern Thailand should get a real boost when the Royal Flora Expo, Thailand’s international horticultural exposition kicks off. Scheduled to take place from November 1, 2006- January 31, 2007, Thai Government officials are expecting over 2 million visitors to Chiang Mai for this horticultural extravaganza.

You’re probably wondering what are the two top cities in this poll - Well, if you guessed Florence and Rome, you are right on the nose. My hometown of San Francisco finished 10th in the reader’s poll. Boo…

Also in the hotel category, Bangkok placed two hotels in the top ten
with the Peninsula and The Oriental ranked #4 and #9 respectively

The most unusual plant that I have seen during my travels has to be the Bat Plant or Devil Flower (Tacca chantrieri). I encountered this exotic looking plant while touring Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden in Northern Thailand; I was really awestruck to say the least when I first saw of this plant - it had the appearance of something very sinister or evil, ‘like a plant from hell”, No wonder some people called it the devil’s flower. Other people have likened to this plant to a flying bat or a mean cat with lots of whiskers

Native to Southeast Asia, the Bat Plant (Tacca chantrieri) is grown in shade with filtered light and protection from the wind; as a houseplant it thrives with high humidity. Berries are produced after flowering.

Needless to say, I think I’m going to buy one of these plants for my house as it makes a very interesting conversation piece.

Source:http://mgonline.com/batplant.html

The storied history of the Water Lily (Nymphaea lotus) begins during the times of the Pharoahs in ancient Egypt. The water lily was revered by the Egyptians and the mighty Pharoahs were often buried with these flowers. The plant is quite popular in Thailand, where it is found growing in water gardens and ponds as well as water planters. The water lily comes in many different colors including white, violet and blue. I took this picture at Jim Thompson House and Gardens in Bangkok. If you look at the photo carefully enough, in the lower foreground of the picture (towards the center), you’ll see a wasp sitting on one of the leaves.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphaea

Monarch butterflies are known worldwide for their majestic beauty. As any butterfly enthusiast knows, the host plant for all monarch butterflies are plants that belong to the Milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae). In Northern Thailand, I came across three Thai monarch butterfly caterpillars feasting on Blood Flower (Asclepias curassavica), which is indigenous to Central America but has been introduced throughout the tropics.

In Thailand, there are several native Milkweed species including Giant Indian Milkweed (Calotropis gigantea), Oxystelma esculentum, Tonkin Jasmine(Telosma minor) , Tylophora indica and Hoya kerrii, of which the latter four are climbers.

In many rural communities in East Africa (and tropical Asia), the Mexican Sunflower has proved to be a very cost effective and efficient fertilizer in areas where years of slash and burn agriculture have robbed the soil of its fertility. Very high in phosphorus and nitrogen, the sunflower decomposes very rapidly making these crucial nutrients readily available to such A very prolific and aggressive plant, this wild sunflower species (Tithonia diversifolia) is native to Central America and Mexico. During the 20th century it was introduced to tropical Asia and Africa, and has spread to South America. Wherever this plant goes, it has been a very successful colonizer, establishing itself in a variety of ecological zones including the mountains and grasslands of the tropics and subtropics, and is very common in wastelands, along the roadsides and in urban areas. In some circles and communities, this plant with the gold yellow daisy-like flower is considered to be an undesirable as it prospers at the expense of the native plants and vegetation. Let’s face it, the Mexican sunflower is an invasive weed!

However, this wild sunflower (also known as tree marigold) has been discovered to have many positive and beneficial attributes and has been embraced with reverence by many rural communities around the world. In Northern Thailand, where the plant was introduced shortly after World War 2, this wild sunflower , renamed in Thailand as the Bua Tong Sunflower, was allowed to propagate freely on the barren hillsides of several relatively isolated areas in the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province. The beauty of the gold covered hillsides during the short blossoming period of November and December led to the creation of the Bua Tong Sunflower Festival, a popular tourist attraction and event especially among Thai people. As a result of this popular festival, several sunflower fields in this rural province have been granted protected status and the Bua Tong is allowed to grow without interference. After the blossom is over, the local people collect the seeds of the Bua Tong Sunflower to make a very effective and natural insecticide.

In many rural communities in East Africa (and tropical Asia), the Mexican Sunflower has proved to be a very cost effective and efficient fertilizer in areas where years of slash and burn agriculture have robbed the soil of its fertility. Very high in phosphorus and nitrogen, the sunflower decomposes very rapidly making these crucial nutrients readily available to such agricultural crops as corn. According to some recent scientific research, the Mexican Sunflower was discovered to contain 80 percent more phosphorus than legumes and it contains enough nitrogen and potassium to promote crop growth. Using this weed as ‘green manure” is a viable and healthy alternative to toxin laden chemical fertilizers. In these communities, this ‘cheerful weed” is viewed as playing a very important role in their well-being. Prior to it’s use as a fertilizer, some rural communities in Kenya used the sunflower plant as a remedy for stomach ailments and as a painkiller. This sunflower species is also used a source for animal feed. The plant is nutrient dense and contains a high percentage of fiber.

In many tropical gardens, many people have braced “this cheerful weed” as an ornamental shrub. Last but not least, in parts of East Africa, a leaf extract of the Mexican Sunflower has been used as natural pesticide in protecting cabbage crops against the ravages of the larvae of the Diamondback Moth

No wonder, some people in Asia and Africa
believe this exotic weed is a gift from the Gods.

Sources

http://www.avrdc.org/pdf/04neem.pdf.

http://www.farmradio.org/english/radio-scripts/71-5script_en.asp

http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/newsroom/annual_rep3.htm

While I was at the outdoor market last year in Mae Hong Son in Northern Thailand, I encountered this interesting looking bug sitting on a plant leaf. I could not figure out for the life of me whether this little critter was a fly or a moth. In retrospect, I should have taken a frontal view picture of the bug as this may have helped me make an educated guess, but I was not using my head at the time. If there are any entomology enthusiasts out there, can you please help me identify this bug - is it a fly or moth, and what is the species name?

Anybody?

I have a confession to make - I consider myself a world traveler, however, to be honest with you, even though I am native Californian (born and raised in San Francisco), I have very limited travel experience in the USA. In fact, I probably know Jamaica, Barbados, Costa Rica, Mexico and Thailand far better than I know the United States (or even Southern California for that matter), based on the number of trips I have made to these tropical destinations and the amount of real estate that I have traversed. I guess you could say that I love hot, exotic tropical places. Believe it or not, I have been to Jamaica at least 35 times but the last time I was there was sometime in 1995. Some of you who may be reading this may jump to the conclusion that I was crazy about some “Jamaican hottie”, but the truth is wasn’t (the gals only wanted my money) - it was mostly business, however I admit to having a soft spot for the “laid back-soon come” atmosphere, the ice cold Guiness Stouts (and spicy Dragons) as well as the pulsating driving beat of reggae music. As you may have guess, my favorite destinations currently are Thailand and Costa Rica - I have visited each of these countries six times, having traveled far and wide, visiting many different cities, rural mountain villages and towns, taking leisurely walks thru the jungles and rainforests, and playing the role of lazy beach bum on beaches of so many different shades and hues - white, black, gold and gray - while watching a different tropical sunset every single night.

Like many oversea travelers I meet, I have better familiarity with foreign lands than I do with my own country. Sometimes, we take the natural beauty and the interesting places in “our own backyard” for granted as they are in such close proximity. However when we are traveling abroad to foreign and strange new destinations, we have tendency to stretch our wings and journey to many different places and experience new things. Every day is a brand new adventure.

Such is the psyche and nature of the beast known as the traveler.