WE DROVE back from Ranong, on the border with Burma, to Phuket and, while the coast is seldom visible, the hilly vistas are breath-taking.
Something about rubber plantations gives them a mesmerising glory that you simply don't find among the pine plantations in other parts of the world.
Pines block out the sun and kill everything below them: rubber trees tend to be more gentle.
The dappled lines let in the sun and change in perspective, depending on the time of day and the inclination of the plantation.
Sometimes, we come across a grove that is so beautiful, we should stop to take it all in. So we do.
And at this time of the year, the leaves are falling in fantastic colors that sometimes give a European autumn a little competition.
While the rubber plantations glint and glow, all's right with the world. If the hills and the valleys had remained all jungle, what a dull place the Andaman would seem to be.
Owning a plantation or two may not be the joy it once was, though.
Prices have dropped alarming in the world economic downturn, so we learned from Buntheng Thungin, director of the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund.
A kilo of rubber that brought a price of 99.43 baht in July was bringing only 34.51 baht by December.
Predictions are that world demand will shrink by eight percent in 2009 compared to 2008, so it could just be that some planters will opt for other crops, or even developments of different kinds.
We hope not too many sell up because the rubber trees help make the Andaman a great place to be.
Of the three commercial invasions of the region, tin mining has left a legacy of lagoons, the rubber added man-made lines of color . . . and tourism?
Tourism, unfortunately, leaves buildings. And most of them are very, very unbeautiful things. There are no dappled delights among them.
On the way back from Ranong, there was one rubber plantation where we just had to stop. Nearby, the menfolk of a village were holding a singing bird competiton.
Any country where the menfolk hold singing bird competitions has a lot going for it. And then, there are the rubber trees . . .
Something about rubber plantations gives them a mesmerising glory that you simply don't find among the pine plantations in other parts of the world.
Pines block out the sun and kill everything below them: rubber trees tend to be more gentle.
The dappled lines let in the sun and change in perspective, depending on the time of day and the inclination of the plantation.
Sometimes, we come across a grove that is so beautiful, we should stop to take it all in. So we do.
And at this time of the year, the leaves are falling in fantastic colors that sometimes give a European autumn a little competition.
While the rubber plantations glint and glow, all's right with the world. If the hills and the valleys had remained all jungle, what a dull place the Andaman would seem to be.
Owning a plantation or two may not be the joy it once was, though.
Prices have dropped alarming in the world economic downturn, so we learned from Buntheng Thungin, director of the Office of the Rubber Replanting Aid Fund.
A kilo of rubber that brought a price of 99.43 baht in July was bringing only 34.51 baht by December.
Predictions are that world demand will shrink by eight percent in 2009 compared to 2008, so it could just be that some planters will opt for other crops, or even developments of different kinds.
We hope not too many sell up because the rubber trees help make the Andaman a great place to be.
Of the three commercial invasions of the region, tin mining has left a legacy of lagoons, the rubber added man-made lines of color . . . and tourism?
Tourism, unfortunately, leaves buildings. And most of them are very, very unbeautiful things. There are no dappled delights among them.
On the way back from Ranong, there was one rubber plantation where we just had to stop. Nearby, the menfolk of a village were holding a singing bird competiton.
Any country where the menfolk hold singing bird competitions has a lot going for it. And then, there are the rubber trees . . .
