I met Tobie today who’s done a lot of great video work on the Betel Nut phenomenon in Taiwan. Here’s a segment of a movie with that was shown on National Geographic and worth watching.
BTW, I’ve never tried a betel nut. But Tobie told us a great story from South East Asia about the origins of the habit of betel nut chewing. It’s a great story.
For more reading, read the report by Julia Dimon entitled Betel Nut Beauties.
Thanks for the kind words, Ken! I noted with interest that the betelnut legend you linked to differs from the version that I've known for a long time. As happens often, legends become modified by the retelling. The version I know, in my opinion, is more romantic, and can be found here: http://www.usssatyr.com/betel.htm
My betelnut-girl photo gallery can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobie_openshaw
Thanks, Tobie, for finding my post! Your comment ended up in the spambox, I have no idea why… anyway I found it. Actually some of those flashier betel nut stores are quite amazing to look … could some be ‘works of art’ in their own right?