The Betel Nut Experiment/Interview with Jim Allen

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I didn’t even know what a betel nut was before all of this started. By about the middle of our trip, I knew something was up about betel nuts—whatever they were. I kept hearing Jim Allen, another student in our group, talking with Nick about finding them. I eventually found out all about them, and I got to participate in an experimentation with them—which was not only hilarious, but a bonding experience as well.

Basically, a betel nut is a nut that grows in Southeast Asia. The nut, when prepared properly—considered to only be done so by a woman—is said to have mild stimulant and hallucinogenic effects. I can’t recall how it’s made, but it involves the leaves of the areca tree and a little of the white mineral lime also. After it’s made, the chewer puts it inside his or her mouth near the side and chews on it for about an hour. There is a juice that comes from it, and the chewer can either swallow it or spit it out. It also turns one’s mouth a ruddy red-orange-brown color. Yuck! And, as we found out, it tastes like roadkill marinated in puke. I wanted to know what sparked this interest in a nut I’d never heard of before, so I interviewed Jim.

ME: Jim, how did you hear about betel nuts?

JIM: I heard about betel nuts years ago. My dad was in Vietnam, and he said women chewed it. I also read about it when I read “Rumor of War” by Philip Caputo.

ME: How did you start to look for it?

JIM: I mentioned looking for it to Proctor on the first or second day of the trip. I didn’t have any success in Bangkok finding it. I didn’t really look in Chiang Mai. The hill tribe village tour guide, Pom, said she would get it, but that fell through. Mr. Ha said he would hook me up in Hanoi. In the mean time, Lora and Nick found the book about it.

ME: Where did you end up finding it?

JIM: Looking for it in the market was funny. A lot of people we asked about it said no, they didn’t know about where to find it, or they wouldn’t talk to me. One old woman said no and gave me a nasty glare. We went stall to stall. We saw some woman slit a chicken’s veins, and it smelled of death. That place was raunchy—huge baskets of living frogs, eels, and crabs. Someone must have heard about us looking for it because this old woman started hitting Alyssa. When we realized she had some betel nut we asked her how much, and she pulled out a 10,000 dong note, so we were like, “score!” She also had the leaves and lime.

ME: So, what was it like and how was it?

JIM: Tastes very bad and weird—almost like acid, bitter. The effects last three days—numbness of the lip and tongue. Bobby almost ralphed.
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There you have it. First hand account. Now I get to tell you about what happened we it was actually chewed by members of my class.

After Jim found the betel nut, we (a group of about 5 of us and Nick) decided to use mine and my roommate’s room for the experiment because we had a balcony, albeit a caged one. Jim started to prepare the nuts. He handed them out to people who wanted to try one, and everyone tried at least one except me. I thought about it, but as soon as I found out how gross they were from everyone else, I was content enough not to. For my part, I helped set the mood by reading “The Legend of the Betel Nut and Areca Tree” out of my Vietnamese Legends book. Andy praised my story telling abilities. Turning the television to the Cartoon Network also helped set the mood.

The sour looks on everyone’s faces were great. The smell in our room was gross—a limey smell. Everyone was mostly spitting out the betel juice into glasses provided to us by the maids. Although it was comical for me to watch, I think everyone ended up disappointed because they expected for “something to happen,” so to speak. Nothing did.

Poor Nick kept checking his watch, and he went as far as to try 3 nuts before giving up. He even made one himself, then spit in one of the room ashtrays because it was so gross. Literally almost five minutes later he said, “sorry,"--the delayed reaction from him was pretty funny. Every once in a while someone would ask the others, “Anything happening yet?” to which everyone replied "no" in a dejected manner. Finally, some gave up and spit theirs out and left. In an attempt to discover anything “happening” Nick announced, “I’m going to go out and walk around.” Then he came back and said, “My joints feel funny.”

What was left of the group spit their betel nuts out, then they said their mouths burned. Being the nice person I am, I offered some of my yummy vanilla flavored toothpaste for people to rinse their mouths out with. When everyone left our room, it reeked of lime, but the smell was worth it for all the fun we had. For the next few days, people also used my Anbesol on their tongues (how can people actually chew betel nuts on a regular basis?) and it hurt for people to eat. I ended up really liking the betel nut experiment just because of the comradery. I didn’t try it myself, but it’s a really intimate experience sharing your toiletries with others. Nothing makes you feel closer to your classmates and professor by cleaning up their spit and pouring glasses of it down the toilet.

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Comments

[Nick]

LIME
You might want to clarify what you mean by "lime." ONe could read this and think that you mean the slightly tart green fruits instead of the white mineral that you put on dead bodies. Importantly, betel nut chewing requires the latter.