Tamarind

The tamarind tree is a personal favourite of mine as it helped me a great deal when I was hitch-hiking around western Thailand back in 1986. Hitch-hiking wasn’t really the preferred method of transport for most travellers and tourists, and the border area with Burma (or Myanmar as it’s now called) was often just a kilometre or less away. When I think back it’s amazing I wasn’t given more grief by the local police and military, but I think they were often just amused by my Western way of trying to save bus fares when I must have appeared very rich in the locals’ eyes - even if I did often look like a smelly hippie! Anyway... back to the tamarind. The tree is magnificent - huge, spreading branches, often a majestic height, and frequently found planted along the side of the road as a wonderful sun-block for the locals. The fruit, resembling brown broad bean pods, would simply fall to the road when they were ripe and ready. Some days I’d sit for three or four hours under their shade, wondering if I’d get a ride, and I found that by sucking on the pulp from the inside of the tamarind I was kept refreshed - their sour and astringent flavour keeping my mouth salivating. One day, after about five hours in the incredible heat, I was amazed to see an elephant hurtling towards me from far away along the scorching road. I was transfixed until it got quite close and I realised it was actually on the back of a small pick-up truck - the haze coming off the road had kept that hidden from my tired brain. It whizzed by, I didn’t get a ride that day, and I headed back to whatever town I was trying to leave and no doubt ate a Pad Thai or stir-fried rice flavoured with tamarind amongst other things.