The weather was good this morning and I was feeling much better so at 7:30 we booked a backwater tour for that morning and out of the house by eight o’clock. The tour we booked was eco-friendly which meant that the boat was powered by two men who used long sticks of bamboo to thrust the boat forward instead of a motor. Twenty of us piled into a small van and traveled for a little over an hour to arrive at the boat. It was peaceful on the water – both the experience of the movement and the surrounding sounds. Our local guide identified the various plant life and birds that we saw. The tour included a few stops – one to observe coir making (rope making), another for lunch and short trip in a smaller boat and a third to a clam shell plant. It was a holiday so the workers at the clam shell plant were did not work and we were able to walk around the plant and see the various processes. After the meat is removed from the shells, the clam shells are mixed with coal and cooked for several days. The cooked shells are then treated with hot water and steam is released. Finally the shells are stirred with a shovel until it a fine white powder is formed. The chemical process is turning calcium carbonate into calcium oxide and then calcium hydroxide. The calcium hydroxide is sold to a variety of industries and is used in concrete (to make it white), toothpaste, applied to stagnant water among other things.
The rain started as we made our way back to the car and it rained heavily on the drive home. Tara and I enjoyed an early dinner and watched the nine o’clock special feature on HBO.
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