And… We’re back. Apologies for the delay since my last Island Wrap. The pandemic is taking its toll on many of us, isn’t it?
I did accidentally delete two (haha really) nearly finished articles recently, including a completed edition of this very Island Wrap. Doh! (Substack, if you’re listening, please add a manual save option. The instantaneous auto-save may be great for A.I. bots, but not for boneheaded beach bums like me.)
Now I’m diving back in while preparing for my first trip outside of Bangkok since March. The plan is to venture into the Mid-Southern Gulf. If you’ve never heard of Ko Mattra or Laem Talumphuk, you’ll meet them soon if all goes as planned. Another island I hope to visit is Ko Taen, though given the recent news coming out of the Ko Samui area (see weather news below), that is far from a given.
Later this week I’ll publish a story about how Thailand’s zero-sum approach to Covid-19 could affect foreign tourism here in the future. I’ve also drafted a story on Ko Mook (or Muk), the island that turned me into an island lover.
Things have been getting a bit stormy of late.
Along with posts on his usual adventures (and, as is often the case, misadventures), Stuart has been writing some thought-provoking stuff on the ethics of travel. The last two editions of Travelfish Weekly looked at “travel writing’s trickle down effects” and the perils of “influencer marketing agencies.” On Couchfish, an essay responds to those who say, “you should have been here yesterday.” Fantastic stuff.
Travelfish is currently fundraising with a goal of commissioning stories from writers based in Southeast Asia. If you want to support independent travel media at this perilous point in time, please consider making a donation. And if you’re a writer in the region with a story idea, let Stuart know. He pays well!
One more head’s up: I’m looking to slim down the Island Wrap moving forward. However, this one is lengthy since it covers the last few weeks of the news cycle. From now on, my commentary on key issues will mostly come in separate posts.
Pick of the week: CHARITY
Ocean Quest Global works to rehabilitate coral reefs through education programs that encourage anyone to “dive with purpose.” Prior to its founding in Malaysia in 2010, most coral rehabilitation efforts were undertaken by marine biologists and other experts. By imparting a methodology that does not require a PhD to implement, OCQ instructors enable any diver to start saving reefs. The organization is currently assisting in the much-publicized rehabilitation of Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh. Check out the video below to see just how they do it.
Ocean Quest Global teamed up with the Dept. of National Parks to rehabilitate the Maya Bay ecosystem after it was closed to tourists two years ago. In other words, they helped to undo the damage wrought by the attention that came from a film starring a young Leonardo Dicaprio. (Source: Manuel San Martin)
Weather news
Damage from Tropical Storm Sinlaku was reported across much of coastal Thailand over the past few days from Trat to Trang and Ranong, where 1,000 houses were damaged and some destroyed. The storm also unleashed severe flooding in upcountry Thai provinces. Loei endured some of the worst of it.
Sadly, a Raja-operated ferry transporting trucks and garbage sank in rough seas on its way from Ko Samui to Don Sak late Sunday night. Nine of the 16 passengers were rescued by nearby boats as the ferry capsized, but the skipper’s body was later recovered on Ko Mot Daeng and four others were still missing as of yesterday. Divers from Ko Tao are reportedly preparing to enter the wreck.
After being pulled out to sea in the darkness, a pair of survivors managed to make their way to Ko Taen by yesterday morning. Bangkok Post reported:
“Mr. Pachara, a survivor, said he drifted in the sea between Ko See and Ko Haa for two or three hours, kept afloat by a rubber buoy. At one point, he saw a marine police boat some distance from him, but was unable to attract the attention of anyone on board. He was eventually blown by the wind toward Ko Taen, where he scrambled ashore at about 8:00 A.M. and was helped by islanders.”
The tragedy prompted officials to halt all ferry services running between Don Sak, Ko Samui, Ko Phangan and Ko Tao until further notice.
A river cruise boat also sank in Bangkok earlier on Sunday, although that accident was more likely the result of poor maintenance and/or overcrowding. Thankfully, all 75 passengers were safely rescued before the triple-decker pleasure craft sank into the Chao Phraya River. An investigation has begun.
The tropical storm did bring good news when locals in Pattaya awoke to find the beaches covered in shellfish. “Some of them collected more than 300 kilos of clams and mussels and sold them to tourists at cheap prices,” reported The Nation.
Flash floods hit Pattaya and other parts of Chonburi province twice over the last month, necessitating the rescue of motorists on some roads. As with there and other big-name tourism destinations along the coast, like Phuket and Ko Samui, locals on Ko Lanta are blaming construction projects for flash floods.
Tropical Storm Sinlaku capped a rough stint of weather across coastal Thailand. A fisherman drowned when his boat sank in rough seas off Hua Hin. On Phuket, one man survived and another went missing after a wave knocked them off the rock they were fishing on at Paradise Beach. In Chaiya, a woman who was digging for shellfish drowned after being swept out to sea by an apparent riptide.
A “freak storm” tore the roofs off 20 houses in Hua Sai, a rural district in Nakhon Si Thammarat. Across the Malay Peninsula in Trang, residents of Ban Hua Hin are demanding erosion control measures. Their beach has disappeared, and the advancing sea is threatening properties and the village sporting grounds. As a recent New York Times report made clear, the “extreme high tides” may worsen.
Planting mangrove trees is one way to prevent erosion and damage from storm surges and tsunamis. Volunteers in a bunch of coastal Thai provinces did exactly that on the week of July 26th, which was World Mangrove Day.
Wildlife news
A good drone video captured pink Irrawaddy dolphins swimming in the Ko Chang archipelago. Down on the Andaman coast, pink bottlenose dolphins dazzled onlookers near the mouth of the Krabi River. On nearby Ao Nammao, locals were saddened to find the body of a dugong calf washed ashore. No plastic debris was found in its belly; the lad is thought to have sadly drowned after losing its mum.
Tourists are still flocking to the Phetchaburi coast to look for the Bryde’s whales that return to the Upper Gulf each year from April to August to feast on small fish and shrimp. Local boat drivers have become so familiar with the whales that they quickly named a newborn calf Wan Yud, meaning “Holiday,” when it made its first appearance on King Vajiralongkorn’s birthday on July 28th.
If you want to see just how dramatic a Bryde’s whale-watching trip can be, check out this set of gorgeous photos that David Ames recently posted.
Moving on to marine life with gills rather than blowholes, the video below shows the moment when a whale shark swam right up to a boat and let some very excited fishers give it a few pats on the head near Cha-am.
There is nothing like meeting a whale shark. (Source: ข่าวเพชรบุรี 24ชั่วโมง)
Black-tip reef sharks swam up close to shore off the southeast coast of Ko Samui, not far from where leatherback sea turtles continue to nest. Want to see something adorable? Check out this video of the final straggler out of some 60 sea turtle hatchlings to wobble its way into the sea for the first time.
Leatherback eggs were again found at a beach in Thai Mueang, north of Phuket. The highest number of sea turtle nests found in Thailand for decades has been widely viewed as a positive result of thinning tourist crowds. However, marine biologist Kongkiat Kittiwatanawong told The Phuket News that a more worrisome factor may partly explain the uptick in nesting:
“Turtles usually lay eggs from November through March, but it is July now and turtles are still laying eggs … It is hard to tell, but right now we believe that rising sea water temperatures may have affected the turtles, tricking their biological clock into thinking that it is still the right time of year to be laying eggs. Sea water temperatures are higher this year.”
I have two sea turtle rescues to report, both from Krabi province and both involving young hawksbills. Pointed shells make them especially vulnerable to getting tangled up in nets and other debris, partly explaining why they’re endangered.
The first rescue happened near Ko Poda when fishers carefully used a butcher knife to clip a turtle free. The second came courtesy of Mathias in Khlong Muang:
Beneath the surface, divers blamed the degraded state of reefs around Ko Nu and Ko Maew on fishing debris and silt shifted by ships calling at the nearby Songkhla port. All the way across the Gulf in the Ko Chang archipelago, BB Divers posted a video of blue staghorn coral that looked much healthier near Ko Rang.
Now let’s head from sea to land on the back of a three-meter rat snake that swam right through a group of freaked-out swimmers off Nai Harn Beach on Phuket. Lifeguard Nara Ratnarak quickly caught the non-venomous yet intimidating serpent after it reached the sand. He speculated that it swam over from nearby Ko Man, although he wasn’t sure because he “could not talk to the snake.”
If that story didn’t make you cringe, try this one about a cobra found coiled up in a toilet in a a school in Ao Luek, northern Krabi province.
Venturing further inland, rangers in Prince of Chumphon Wildlife Sanctuary were thrilled to spot a crested fireback pheasant for the first time in five decades.
Another endangered species, the Siamese crocodile, made a rare appearance in Kaeng Krachan, Thailand’s largest national park and a candidate for UNESCO Natural World Heritage status when the committee meets again this November.
Not far from Kaeng Krachan in Phetchaburi you’ll find the headquarters of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, where founder Edwin Wiek spent a week in a cage to raise funds to rescue elephants, monkeys and other captive animals trapped in financially struggling zoos and other tourist attractions. He’s no longer in the cage, but you can still donate through the foundation’s website.
Social media corner
When I saw @NeilShelley’s photos from his trip to Ko Mook last week, I could not stop myself from pouring my heart into a forthcoming story about how this was the island that inspired my whole Thai island quest. “The Shellman” also posted photos from Trang town and Phuket. He has a rare talent for street photography — do check out his Twitter posts and his Instagram account @caffeinebased. Of the many shots and insights that he posted from Ko Mook, I agree that this one is ace:
In other news
A vacant pick-up went for a dip off Yanui Beach on Phuket after its owner neglected to pull the handbrake when parking. Locals jumped into action in a tug of war to free the Hillux from the crashing waves. Here’s a video of their effort.
If you want to read about economic meltdown, take your pick. An article in The Guardian and one in The Telegraph discussed the dire situation on Ko Samui. Trouble on Ko Samet was the focus of a second story in The Telegraph, while Ko Phi Phi was cited in a CNN Travel report on the possibility of moving away from mass tourism in the region. As for local media, Pattaya News revealed that abandoned beer bars have morphed into makeshift homeless shelters; The Phuket News reported on pleas for aid from business owners; and Bangkok Post added a warning from the Tourism Council of Thailand that roughly a third of the country’s tourism-related businesses could shut down permanently by the end of the year. Rough stuff.
Youth-led rallies re-emerged around Thailand with three demands: “The dissolution of parliament, an end to harassment of government critics, and amendments to the military-written constitution that critics say virtually guaranteed victory for Prayut’s party in elections last year,” reported Reuters. Around 2,500 protesters shut down the Democracy Monument traffic circle in Bangkok on July 18th, and smaller protests have taken place in other provinces. Phuket is one of them.
Up in Pattaya, authorities are embarking on a billion-baht makeover of Jomtien Beach. However, the State Railway of Thailand cast doubt on a high-speed railway project linking Bangkok’s airports with Pattaya and U-Tapao Airport. Officials are however moving forward with a new pier and wastewater treatment facility on Ko Larn. When they finish, you can call it “NEO Ko Larn.”
On Phuket, officials are planning a three-billion-baht health facility near Mai Khao Beach that would include “an international health plaza, a premium long-term care center for the elderly, a hospice care center for terminally-ill patients, and a comprehensive rehabilitation center,” reported Bangkok Post.
Down in sleepy Phatthalung, authorities are talking about building a six-km suspension bridge across Songkhla Lake. (Seriously, is that really necessary?) Across the lake in Songkhla town, police blocked some protesters from attending a rally to oppose a controversial industrial estate project.
Another set of 3,000-year-old paintings were discovered, this time in a cave on Ko Thalu in Phang Nga Bay — here’s a video of the art up close. Meanwhile, researchers in nearby Ao Luek uncovered 200,000-year-old fossils thought to come from saber-toothed tigers, hyenas and other ancient beasts.
Finally, a group of tattooed teens in Surat Thani “made a laughing stock” out of police officers who tracked them into the forest, suspecting drug use. When the canny cops arrived, all they found was a pot of noodles boiling on a stove. 🌴