tuamai

I'm also having the same problem. Thought I was forgetting to sign out, but today I clicked on SAB forum, saw that I was already logged in, so I signed out. I closed the forum page and then clicked it back on and was still signed out. But, when I went off line then back online and clicked on the SAB forum page I was already signed on! Tried it 3 times with the same result. Not good!! Dell computer IE Browser Roadrunner for IP

I've never won anything, so the odds are on my side. C'mon lucky #50!!

Bay Leaf (Laurus Nobilis). Sorry no video.

I did get a lot of curious looks, but then I was one of the few tourists who visited Vietnam back in 1991! If you like the betel buzz better than the kratom buzz I may have to get a red mouth again! There's a betel nut tree growing right in the side walk in downtown Honolulu about 10 minutes away from my apartment and no one seems to know what it is. My wife pointed it out to me and said it's definetly betel nut. The tree is about 10' high and loaded with betel nut! Today being a holiday, think I'll go out for a walk.

The betel nut I had in Vietnam was made up of the betel leaf, nut and lime paste. Saw a lot of old women partake, but never saw any men chewing it. My Vietnamese girl- friend at that time told me mostly old women whose husbands had died chewed betel nut. Think I'll just stick with Maeng Da and keep my pearly whites pearly white.

Being in a hurry yesterday to get to work, I didn't read your whole post and didn't realize you already had the translation. Not sure if they're using bark from acacia catechu or pentace burmania, but from what I've read, I'd say the acacia. I've only tried betel nut once while on a trip to Vietnam (paid my own way, no free ride from uncle sam!). Liked it, but when the cute little Vietnamese girl I was traveling with went into fits of laughter on meeting up with me at the beach, I had to find a mirror to see what was so funny. Couldn't believe how deeply red my lips, teethe and whole mouth had become from eating just one. Mostly old ladies eat it around SE Asia and I thought their mouths were so red from years of daily use, but my mouth was completely red from just one go and stayed that way for around three days. Is there another species of betel nut that doesn't turn your oral cavity deep red?

Hey Kadakuda, Is that your English writing above the Lao? That's it: "seesiet" or probably better "seesiat". Wifey says it's the bark of a tree everyone eats with betel nut in Northeast Thailand and Laos. She says she's never seen the tree the bark comes from, just the peeled bark. I looked it up in my very good Thai dictionary and it says "acacia catechu and similar trees."

"]Laos[/size] I only really found it in one spot in the south of Laos about 20 mins away from "400 islands". i mentioned above, and i am very interested in it. they dont use lime. only fresh nut, leaf and a bark that is scraped. Maybe tsuamai or someone else who may be able to read Thai can also read Lao. I asked the guy to write the name of the tree it comes from in Lao, so if anyone things they know how to read it, i can scan it and put it here. the bark has no special smell. The wife reads Thai and Lao. Go ahead and post it and I'll give you the English.

Glad to hear you made it back ok. You are the intrepid traveler! In what province did you find the kratom in? How did you come to meet the Thai guy with the Kratom tree. Very difficult to meet Thai people out in the boonies who know any English at all! Most Thai people that I've talked to about kratom say that it cures diabetes. Did you hear anyone say that? Haven't been down south since the 80's, but didn't ever hear of kratom back then.

Sawat Dee Khap, Kadakuda. No posts in 8 or 9 days! Figure you're back in Taiwan recuperating from your trip. Hope all's well.

Sounds like you're having quite the trip Kadakuda. I found the article I mentioned earlier about kratom titled:"Kratom: Thailand's Secret of the South" in a 2003 copy of the Entheogen Review.

Not many in Laos. If you want bars, go to Thailand!

Searching the internet a bit to find a Japanese connection to making kratom illegal during WWII. Turns out the Thai government made kratom illegal at that time because so many opium users switched to kratom because the Thai government made taxes on opium, which was legal then, ridiculously high. The Thai gov.'t was loosing tax revenue on opium, so they made kratom illegal to make people go back to opium and increase tax revenue!! http://www.tni.org/sites/www.tni.org/files/download/kratom-briefing-dlr13.pdf

With all the other drugs available in Thailand, kratom is pretty low on the list. As I mentioned earlier, it carried a 500 baht fine per leaf when i was there last year. When it was made illegal in 1943, I wonder if the invading Japanese army had anything to do with it? May not be a good idea to have to fight Thai rebels jacked up on kratom!

Found this on youtube recently and thought you might find it interesting:A Brief History of Kratom www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO604vjQklc The rope is a little over done though. They don't hang people in Thailand. They use machine guns instead.