Phi Phi Lay

Besides its attraction for the local fishermen Phi Phi Lay is also an important source of income as a place for collecting the nests of the edible-nest swiftlets from its numerous caverns and rocky hollows. Whole families compete for the franchise that allows them to risk their lives clambering up precarious bamboo scaffolding, or liana ropes, to harvest the nests - a highly prized ingredient in Chinese cooking, which can sell for as much as 2000 U.S. dollars a kilogram in Hong Kong, where most of the Phi Phi Lay nests are exported. The edible part of the nest is the swiftlet saliva which binds it together. This is then separated out and cleaned to go into birds' nest soup.