Stars-Although you may not see them when you approach, the livestock of the pearl farm are neatly arranged on the warm shallow sand bed around Phuket, the largest island in Thailand.

These work horses may work at a glacier speed, slowly forming pearls ranging from white and cream to silver and champagne, but the harvest can easily make up for this.

Plastic buoys floating on the water mark the location of these mollusks. The only clue to their existence is a small boat, which is filled with various equipment, buckets, nets and ropes.

The 70-year-old said that this simple process belongs to Kriangsak Ung, and he uses it to care for his approximately 10,000 shellfish, "to check if they are in good condition, and then bring them in and harvest pearls later this year. ".

For 46 years, this slender man has been working as a pearl farmer in Phuket. Although he has experienced many reversals during that time, he still loves his job.

Ung cultivates two types of pearl oysters: Pinctada Maxima, the largest of about six oysters used in pearl cultivation, and Pteria penguin, commonly known as the penguin's wing oyster.

Ung said that a pearl will appear in about two years, but if it is a particularly large specimen, it may take up to four years. "A young, happy oyster, we can use it up to three times."

Ung proudly turned his attention from his studio to the adjacent jewelry store, where his wife Nuanpit has been designing and making pearl necklaces, pendants, bracelets and earrings for many years. Nuanpit ear studs are relatively small, and the price is as low as TBH500, which can meet the needs of various budgets. The largest pearl in the store has a diameter of 16.2 mm and is priced at 120,000 baht.

Kokichi Mikimoto, a pioneer of Japanese pearl cultivation, successfully cultivated pearls for the first time in 1893, although it took him many years to develop his technique until the results were perfect.

Since then, the principle has remained more or less the same: the farmer puts a small piece of material (usually a bead or sometimes) into the shell to start the process, puts a small piece of pearl into the shell, and waits.

Almost all real pearls on the market today are cultivated artificially​​-so they are usually more affordable than rare natural varieties.

In order to obtain flawless pearls, Ung uses round conch shells. He was sitting at a small table in the workshop, surrounded by various exquisite equipment, and fixed one of the shellfish on the bracket in front of him.

Ung uses experienced hands and tweezers to insert foreign objects into the shell.

Behind him, the tanks lined up in a row. Little mussels grow here, the next generation.

Ung is a self-made pearl farmer. "This technology is not difficult, it is simple and'low-tech'-pearl cultivation really requires only time."

But there are also setbacks. The most important of these was the tsunami on December 26, 2004, which destroyed Phuket Island.

"It was a Sunday," Weng recalled. The shop was closed, and he, his wife and four children were upstairs in their apartment on the first floor. "We were lucky. But the water came over and over again and destroyed everything. The rest is the house itself."

All their oysters are lost. "We had to start again." After some effort, things finally got back on track. That is, until the coronavirus emerges.

"Now is another difficult time. And business is just getting better."

Ung's smile gave way to worried lines. "Since the beginning of Covid, we have almost no income." However, he will open a shop every morning. But nowadays, tourists rarely go to Ao Yon.

Since July, people who have been fully vaccinated have been allowed to return to Phuket without isolation. But the number of tourists is strictly limited, bureaucracy and strict rules are onerous.

Despite these challenges, Ung never considered giving up. So what is the reason why he loves his work so much? He thought for a while.

"I like being outdoors and in close contact with nature," he finally said, adding that he also values ​​the loneliness brought about by work, which he felt was particularly important in the early days.