For the Birds

As I have mentioned in other blogs, Birds Nest Soup is one of the most expensive food substances consumed by humans. It is made from the nests of swifts, small birds that usually nest in the caves common in the limestone karsts. The nests are made of bird saliva and are glued onto the walls of the caves with the same. Yummers! I have tried it and it really doesn't taste like much, but it is supposed to have amazing health qualities, whatever those might be.

To harvest the nests, folks build crazy scaffolding out of, what else?, bamboo. I have seen this spider webs of bamboo rising to insane heights on cliff faces and overhanging caves. The nest harvesters clamber about like monkeys, depriving the birds of their homes and then selling the birds nests to brokers. The brokers, in turn, sell the nests to folks who like this sort of thing, mostly Chinese consumers. I have seen some very large amounts of Baht change hands in one of the specialty shops in Bangkok.

The locals here in Kampot have figured out an easier way. They place a sound system in the top floor of a shop house and play the swift bird song on a tape loop, mostly in the mornings and evenings. The swifts then build nests and colonize the upper floor of the house. In the evenings, you can see hundreds of the little birds wheeling about, flying in and out of the windows and eaves. When the locals need some extra cash, they harvest the nests without the need for risking their necks on rickety scaffolding. Brilliant!