Pearls from the Orient

Ot is handing out complementary chicken sandwiches and soft drinks and he's got quite a few takers as the brisk sea air results in quite an appetite. At midday we board the speedboat and roar back to Rang Yai where we file into a cool room displaying pearls in various stages of growth.

As our shipmates and fellow day trippers are from Russia, a blonde girl with a decidedly laconic outlook on life gets up and explains the life and times of Komrad Pearl. Basically, there are three different types of pearls: Akoya, Mabe and South Sea and all are cultivated on Rang Yai.

Akoya, as the name suggests, is originally a Japanese pearl and is small and dainty – used for earrings and bracelets. Akoya only produce one pearl and that takes two years to grow.


Pearls available at the gift shop

South Sea pearls are the biggest pearls and produce three pearls over a lifetime of 15 years whereas Mabe come in a half global shape and are used for earrings and pendants. There are both fresh and seawater pearls cultivated on Rang Yai Island and the seawater pearls are rounder than their freshwater equivalents.

It's easy to tell whether pearls are fake or not: simply rub them together. If you feel resistance and if the pearls feel like they are scratching each other they're real. Fake pearls offer no resistance.

After the demonstration some people went directly to purchase pearl artefacts at the neighbouring gift shop and I went looking for an English-Russian dictionary.

from www.phuket.com