Greetings from coastal Thailand, where many communities are cleaning up after Tropical Storm Nuol blew through over the weekend. That story and others — including a destructive industrial project and the end of Thailand’s pandemic-related visa amnesty — are on the way in this edition of the Island Wrap.
Later this week I’ll take you on a trip to a small island in the Eastern Gulf with nothing but a coconut farm, a few beaches and a herd of deer.
Over on Couchfish, Stuart spent a day with the Mekong River dolphins and met a fortune teller in Cambodia. He also waxed about remote Kepa Island, home to one of his favorite places to stay in Indonesia.
The name Laem Tukkata is used for both the cape that forms the southwest corner of Ko Mak, and the laid-back beach pictured above.
Pick of the week: BEACH
One of my favorite spots for down time in the Ko Chang archipelago is Hat Laem Tukkata, a compact beach hidden away in the southwest corner of Ko Mak. A wooded hill backs the pinkish sand and hosts a few “resorts” with bare-bones huts that fetch as little as 300 baht per night. Baan Ing Kao is the largest, but all three are made for backpackers and it’s easy to show up and look for the ideal bungalow in person. A bit of coral is worth a snorkel offshore, and even if you don’t stay here, do stop by and rent a kayak to check out the nearby twin islets of Ko Rayang.
Weather news
Tropical Storm Nuol ripped through Central Vietnam late last week before proceeding into Northeast Thailand, kicking up the sea throughout the region. Simultaneously, separate storms battered the Thai Andaman coast.
The only shipwreck that I heard about in Thailand over the past week was a fishing boat that sank on Saturday near Ko Surin in the Upper Andaman, sadly causing the death of the captain. All others on board survived. Throughout coastal Thailand, precautions kept most fishing and tourist boats safely anchored. But not all:
This footage shows the conditions on Saturday at Railay West and Noppharat Thara beaches in Krabi, where a speedboat driver retreated after making a bad decision to proceed with a tour. (Source: มาหยานิวส์ สื่อออนไลน์)
In the Eastern Gulf, overflowing runoff flooded roads and homes in the vicinity of Salak Phet in southeast Ko Chang. A Centerpoint car ferry got stuck off the northern coast of the same island on Friday night, leaving 90 passengers stranded for four hours. Some people reportedly refused to board car ferries bound for Ko Chang the next day, when ferries to Ko Mak and Ko Kood stopped running.
Back in the Andaman, more than 50 houses flooded along the coast of Ranong near Myanmar. Fallen trees cut off power to much of Phuket, where lifeguards rescued a foreign man who was struggling in the waves off Ao Sane. Damage was also reported in parts of Phang Nga province’s long coastline.
In the Ang Thong group of islands near Ko Samui in the Mid-Southern Gulf, an estimated 15% of Ko Hin Taek’s largely limestone mass snapped off from the rest of this uninhabited islet. Shards of rock were still falling from the huge fracture yesterday, according to marine park officials.
By Monday, Nuol had moved on and the seas are already calmer throughout coastal Thailand. A video from Phuket shows surfers riding what was left of the storm.
Wildlife and environmental news
On Saturday the 19th, volunteers in many provinces marked international coastal clean-up day by clearing piles of rubbish from shorelines. Trash Hero deserves credit for organizing many of the coastal clean-ups that have become frequent in Thailand over the past decade. Other efforts come from freestanding groups like Clean Phangan, whose organizers were recently interviewed by Phanganist.
Campaigns like these are having an impact, but the sea waste problem is so enormous that only bans or serious restrictions on many types of packaging would give humans a chance to solve the problem rather than add to it. Plastic ocean waste will triple by 2040 without swift action, according to one recent study.
Trash Hero volunteers fighting tidal rubbish on Ko Wai earlier this month. (Source: Dept. of National Parks)
Sea Going Green posted an update on the rehabilitation of Maya Bay on Ko Phi Phi Leh, based on interviews with some of the divers involved. This widely reported story deserves attention, but I’m one of many people who think it has overshadowed other important environmental issues around coastal Thailand.
Case in point: The Thai government plans to construct a 6,620 square-acre industrial estate with new deep-sea ports on the coast of rural Chana district in Songkhla province. If built, it will have a hugely damaging impact on the environment and, by extension, the local communities that rely on fishing and farming.
I’ve mentioned this issue in previous editions of the Island Wrap, but a fantastic report for CNA by Pichayada Promchertchoo was the first I’ve seen that covers it in depth for an English-language audience. While the full article is well worth a read, do at least give this video a look to see what is going on in Songkhla:
A report on what’s at stake in Chana if the government develops the area for industry. (Source: CNA)
In wildlife news, a crocodile left an unsuspecting fisherman’s arm badly injured after dragging him into a murky stream in Klaeng district of Rayong province. Locals later trapped the croc and grilled it up for a community meal, as “revenge.” The two-meter reptile is thought to have escaped from a farm during recent flooding.
Authorities are searching for the poachers who killed an elephant for its ivory in Nam Tok Sipo National Park, not far from Malaysia in Narathiwat province. And a tiger mauled a zookeeper at the Elephant Kingdom in Pattaya.
Social media corner
Anyone looking to learn about Thai food should follow Austin Bush on Instagram. Known for his 2018 cookbook, The Food of Northern Thailand, this food journalist and Lonely Planet alum has shifted his focus to Southern Thai food in recent years, delivering details on specific dishes, ingredients, eateries, markets, towns and provinces. Last week he shared “the pretty much perfect khao yam,” a healthy and herbaceous “rice salad,” in far-flung Yala down in the Deep South.
Tourism industry news
More details on Thailand’s forthcoming “special tourist visa” (S.T.V.) have emerged. My advice is to forget about it, for now, unless you’re flying on a private jet. Why? Take out your magnifying glass to view this graphic:
The government’s claim that 1,200 foreign tourists will spend more than 800,000 baht ($25,500 USD) each, per month, has been called “senseless.” And only 6% of potential United Kingdom tourists polled by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (T.A.T.) said they “were okay with spending two weeks in quarantine upon arrival.”
Still, some tourism industry leaders welcomed the plan as “the first step” to bringing foreign tourists back to Thailand. The T.A.T. wants to make quarantine “fun” through virtual cooking and meditation classes, for example. The CEO of government-backed Thailand Long Stay Co., which is facilitating the process for potential tourists, claims that 10,000 Scandinavians are interested in the visa. We’ll see.
Meanwhile, the Thai government is not extending the visa amnesty that began in early April beyond this coming Saturday the 26th. Any foreigner whose right to stay expired during the amnesty must leave the country or obtain a letter from a doctor or their native country’s embassy stating that they’re unable to travel due to health or transport limitations. And it’s not only tourists being forced to leave.
Foreign business owners who are unable to meet annual income and staffing quotas are also facing visa expirations. Despite the pandemic, the government is not easing rules for foreign owners of restaurants, hotels and tour/dive companies, among others, who are cannot meet requirements that are meant for normal times.
The backdrop to all of this is an economy that has fallen into a deep recession. In Phuket alone, “thousands” are still in need of food donations.
Want to feel better about things? Transport yourself to Ko Mak. (Source: Bangkok Post)
In other news
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at Sanam Luang in Bangkok to call for systemic changes in Thailand over the weekend. A few quality sources on this ongoing movement include Reuters, Thai Enquirer and Southeast Asia Globe.
A new speedboat service is set to link Ko Samui to Sichon on the mainland coast of Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The demand is there thanks to the rising popularity of the Ai Khai (“Egg Boy”) shrine at Wat Chedi.
A factory in Suphanburi is producing electric-powered ferries for Phuket. “The (ferry) services provided will cover Andaman coast provinces within five years,” Marine Dept. chief Wittaya Yamuang told The Phuket News. Also on Phuket, no memorial service was held for the 90 people who died when One-Two-GO Airlines flight 269 crashed after a failed landing attempt on September 16th, 2007.
Both of the tsunami warning beacons that Thailand is responsible for maintaining in the Andaman Sea were found to be out of service and “scavenged for parts,” according to the National Disaster Warning Center in Bangkok.
Finally, Bangkok Post’s Karnjana Karnjanatawe takes us back to 1985, when foreign tourists first found Ko Mak while exploring the Ko Chang archipelago. Around this time, a grandson of the Chinese trader who bought Ko Mak a century earlier “built ten simple huts with thatched roofs to welcome tourists.” While the island now has around 40 resorts, the spirit of it hasn’t changed all that much. 🌴
Yes, good idea, make quarantine fun. Am half way through mine so probably too late for me. However, allowing the "grownups" who are spending 15 nights in an expensive gaol (jail for the Yanks) to have a beer or a glass or 2 of wine wouldn't go amiss. It would also help the economy what with the price charged here for a glass of wine!!:)