Thailand Cave

Cave Tour Krabi

Cave Tour Krabi Limestone Cave

Island Cave Tour Krabi

Scenic Krabi Beach

Krabi Cave Tour Video

Krabi is dotted with limestone caves, some caves in the mangrove forests have prehistoric cave paintings.

The cave tour to this palaces usually goes by longtail boat and kayak.

Krabi is also interesting not only for caving but also for other adventure type vacation, offering rock climbing, sailing and diving for those who like their vacation time spiced up with a bit of action.

The big Headed Ghost Cave or scull cave is located in Ao - Luk Krabi.

The people from the nearby village call it scull cave because sculls where found at the first exploration cave tour into the caves.

Cave paintings can be found on the top and the walls of the cave. This cave has the largest number of cave paintings anywhere in southern Thailand.

The paintings depict several subjects, shape of human beings and animals, hand and feet.
Red, black, yellow and brown colors have been used for the cave paintings.

The cave paintings are about 3000 years old and indicate a prehistoric community living on the fringes of the Andaman Sea.
 

Thailand and the the caves of the neighboring countries are home of  Collocalia francica, Grey-Rumped Swift or Swiftlet, they produce birds nest for birds nest soup.

The Collocalia francica which breeds in caves is famed in the Far East, some say that this bird was believed to obtain its nutriment from the air. Its name in Thai means 'wind-eating bird', and it is stated never to have been observed of taking solid food of any kind. The birds nest, which is fixed to the most inaccessible parts of high caves, is half the size of a small saucer. It is transparent and takes, in the first place, three months to make from the fine, web-like threads of saliva secreted by the bird.

Its first nests are collected as soon as complete. The bird then quickly produces a second bird nest, which is regarded as an inferior edition; and when this is taken, a third, of which it is sometimes left in possession. These are 'white' nests, without any foreign material used. A related species of bird, of less "good" habits, produces 'black' nests, containing feathers, flies and even droppings. These are not acceptable in Hong Kong, the main birds nest market; but find buyers among all Chinese.

The swiftlet not only does not foul its nests, but does not permit its young to do so, although perhaps in view of its reputed feeding habits, the impulse is slight. At all events nests are as spotless and saleable after incubation as before.
It was inevitable that so remarkable a performance should have attracted the attention of the Chinese who almost eat everything which moves.. In about 1750 a Chinese called Hao Yicng presented his wife, children and slaves, together with fifty cases of tobacco to the King of Thailand, then Siam, asking in return to be allowed to collect birds' nests on the islands. He soon became immensely rich and was made Governor of a province.

Realizing the value of the monopoly, the Crown then took over. A corps of hereditary collectors was created; officers of the crown who were not allowed to change their employment, and who were permitted to carry firearms to guard the caves. Bird nest poachers were heavily fined. After an analysis conducted in the manner of their day a body of early Chinese scientists unanimously declared that the nest was composed of solidified sea-foam. It was a short step to regarding it as an essential ingredient of the elixir of life. Although the elixir remained elusive, a combination of birds' nests and ginseng is still considered by the Chinese to be the nearest thing to it ever discovered, and capable in nine cases out of ten of restoring to life a patient on the point of death.

Unfortunately many unscrupulous practices are in the birds nest trade. One was the manufacture of spurious nests. Such nests were made of jellies extracted from various seaweeds, and sometimes most artfully flavored by the addition of a trifling percentage of the real thing. Sometimes experts are employed to nibble judiciously at samples of nests. Usually when you order bird's nest soup in a restaurant in Thailand, a fake will be served. Actually it takes a birds nest-eater of many years' experience to tell the difference between the genuine birds nest and the imitation.