Monday, April 25, 2011

Bear Bile

I've written in the past about the horrendous process of extracting bile from bears. I've been told -- and written about before -- that people actually have bears in cages in Hanoi and extract the bile in the city. Supposedly a pint of the bile can cost thousands of dollars because people think it's the ultimately medicine for some ailments. Anyway, Huyen and I were driving up a mountain and there was only one restaurant open. While waiting for our food, we saw this sign on the wall advertising bear bile:



I'm hoping that since the sign was partially ripped, that they don't sell bear bile anymore. I didn't see any in the shop and didn't hear any growling bears so I'm gonna think on the positive sign and assume it was just decoration to go along with the mountain theme of the location.

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