Island Wrap #72: Expanding 90-day visa exemptions, a rare albino whale, a booming Phuket and Samui, and more
A spin through the most consequential news and other media from the last month in Thailand's islands and coastal areas.
Greetings island lovers and welcome to your free monthly review of news from Thailand’s islands and coastal areas — and sometimes beyond. Much has been going on, making this edition a particularly packed one.
To also access the Thai Island & Coastal Directory and many other in-depth articles while supporting independent travel media…
Latest posts from Thai Island Quest
T.I.C.D.: Lower Songkhla coast & islands
T.I.C.D.: Songkhla Lake region (Part III: Phatthalung)
*This month in the Thai Island & Coastal Directory we’ll embark on the Pattani and Narathiwat coasts before advancing into the second to last chapter of this book in progress. As for whether that will be Ko Samui and the Mid Southern Gulf, or Khao Lak / Ranong and the Northern Andaman, I’ve yet to decide. For now, feel free to check out the six chapters that are fully or nearly complete as we approach 800 islands covered — with at least a hundred more to go.
Weather & shipwrecks
15 people on a fishing trip rescued from capsized boat off Koh Kut (Thai PBS on a wreck that thankfully left no one seriously hurt.)
Six Russians and Three Thais rescued after yacht capsizes in Rawai (The Phuket Express on another successful rescue, this time off Ko Hey.)
Travel
Notes on Koh Larn: A lovely little island cursed by its location (Nomadic Notes)
“Curve of secrets” scuba diving attraction unveiled in Trang (Thai PBS with a questionable use of “unveiled” given how this site at the islet of Ko Waen has been known for its vibrantly colored soft corals for quite some time.)
Phang Nga hotel offers 360-degree view of Phang Nga Bay, highest glass skywalk (The Nation hyping what is amazing to some and a monstrosity that actually detracts from the vistas at Samet Nangshe to others.)
Baan Tham Suea: a tranquil retreat near Bangkok (Thai PBS covering a little-known corner of the Kaeng Krachan area in far western Phetchaburi province that certainly looks special in this photo-rich article.)
Enchanting Tham Namtok Pha Daeng cave beckons in Surat Thani (The Nation on a remote cave / waterfall in Khlong Phraya Wildlife Sanctuary.)
Tourism
Thailand’s hotel industry will add 10,000 rooms by 2024 (Khaosod with quotes from one of the region’s leading hotel market analysts.)
Phuket booms as wealthy Russians seek a new home (Nikkei Asia offering plenty of context as Phuket’s “real estate market hits 100-billion baht record,” as reported in a separate article from The Phuket News.)
Three million tourists visited Samui Island in 2023 (The Phuket Express on Ko Samui’s booming recovery, which the Bangkok Post adds will be buoyed by the 47 cruise ships expected to bring 25,000 passengers in 2024.)
Tourists in briefs ignite fury in Thailand (Thai Enquirer on the two men who wore nothing but leopard-pattern Speedos at Phuket Airport, adding to an uproar over tourist misbehavior that was already growing thanks to images of a guy peeing out the back of a moving tuk tuk in Phuket, and women sunbathing in swimwear at sites in Bangkok and Chiang Mai that are sacred to Thais.
Thai tourism authority proposes 90-day visa-free stays for more countries, Western countries targeted (The Phuket Express with what could be great news for many travelers — if it actually materializes.)
Muay Thai enthusiasts welcome 90-day visas, but want more (Bangkok Post on a proposed new visa type that would be just for Muay Thai training.)
National park chief banks on ‘tourism challenge’ (Bangkok Post on a new Thai national park “passport” that, according to additional reporting from Thai PBS, sold out all 90,000 of the initial copies after being promoted by a South Korean YouTuber.)
Society
Move Forward stands at the brink of dissolution (Fulcrum with sharp analysis on what a Constitutional Court ruling could mean for the party that won the most votes in last year’s election — and for Thailand at large.)
Needless forest evictions persist (Bangkok Post with an op-ed on how authorities continue to arrest and evict the indigenous Karen people of Kaeng Krachan despite promises made to resolve the land-rights conflict during Thailand’s successful bid to make this national park a UNESCO site in 2020.)
Thailand gets applause for not sending rock band Bi-2 to Russia (Khaosod on how Thai authorities arrested the anti-war musicians after they performed in Phuket but ultimately let them board a plane to Israel as they wanted.)
Thailand’s adult-use cannabis roll back: From Laissez-Faire to structured framework (Business of Cannabis with a measured take on a topic that has often lacked nuance in the international and domestic press.)
Pita warns Phuket may become a garbage hell if not addressed (Thai PBS)
Environment
A land bridge divide: Southern Thailand’s mega-project (CNA with an excellent video report on a contentious idea with footage from Ranong’s sleepy Ko Chang as well as the Chumphon coast and a fruit- and coffee-growing area in between.)
Is Thailand’s ‘Clean Air Act’ enough to end pollution? (DW)
Misunderstanding over actual size of lithium deposits found in Thailand (Thai PBS after a government spokesperson grossly overstated the amount of this precious element discovered near the Andaman Sea in Phang Nga.)
Divers remove 338kg ghost net, repair reef damage in Sattahip (The Pattaya News on some good works done off Ko Rin.)
Seeing Bangkok’s canals on a boat powered by solar energy shows its potential for water transport (SCMP)
Wildlife
An extremely rare albino Omura’s whale was filmed by a tourist near Ko Phi Phi before disappearing. Over in the Ang Thong islands, Bryde’s whales — thought to be a mother and calf — delighted a boat tour.
A dolphin was rescued after getting stuck in a net amid a floating garbage heap in Trang’s Kantang district. Meanwhile, a team of divers freed a manta ray from fishing debris at the Hin Daeng reef near Ko Lanta, while local fishers did the same for a leatherback sea turtle up in Khuraburi.
A mother leatherback sadly didn’t make it after washing up twisted in fishing debris in Thai Mueang, although another of these hefty turtles laid 135 healthy eggs nearby the same day. In nearby Phuket, an olive ridley sea turtle nested on Karon Beach for the first time in a decade.
A flame jellyfish warning was issued for Ko Rok southwest of Ko Lanta, and these bruising stingers were also sighted in Phuket.
The Nation wins headline of the month with its story on the “Clawed Monets,” better known as sand bubbler crabs, that are creating elaborate “mosaics” nightly amid the sands of Khao Lak - Lam Ru National Park.
Three tigers were photographed by a camera trap in the wilderness of western Chumphon province, much further south from where these big cats have more commonly appeared in recent years.
A lion cub riding in the back of an open-top Bentley caused a stir in Pattaya and led to three being charged for owning the lion without a permit. This same charge was later brought against another Pattaya resident whose two illegal lion cubs were reportedly seen “roaming on a street.”
An alarming Thai PBS report reveals how 13,000 wild elephant incidents “resulted in 29 injuries, 21 deaths and extensive damage to crops and property” in Thailand last year, as human-elephant conflict keeps escalating.
A small snake of unknown species startled passengers on a Bangkok to Phuket flight when it slithered out from an overhead bin before an attendant calmly coaxed it into a bag for removal. And in Chonburi, a truly enormous king cobra was found to be sick after spooking some golfers.
Lastly in wildlife news, 250 million-year-old fossils found in Phetchabun province indicate “that the area where the ancient town of Si Thep is located was once connected to an ancient sea”, reports Bangkok Post, referring to Thailand’s latest UNESCO World Heritage site.
Transport & infrastructure
Where going to school is a daily adventure (Thai PBS on how Moken kids of Ko Phayam have long been forced to wade through a lagoon every day after a small bridge was partially built but left unfinished — and when their plight went viral recently, big political fish promised to finish the bridge fast.)
Rail link with eastern Malaysia studied (Bangkok Post on a proposal to link Sungai Kolok in Thailand’s Narathiwat province with Kantau Ranjang and, potentially, Malaysia’s proposed East Coast Rail Link to Kota Bharu)
Bangkok urban rail transit update — 2024 edition (Future Southeast Asia with an info-packed post on the city’s massive metro expansions.)
Phuket seaplane terminal to open up island tourism (The Nation on what is expected to be Thailand’s first seaplane terminal.)
Thai Airways: A downward spiral of service, accountability, and national pride (Thai Enquirer with an opinion piece summing up a Thai writer’s thoughts after bumping into problems en route from Bangkok to the UK.)
In other news
British base jumper dies in 29-storey fall in Thailand (The Guardian on a tragic accident in Pattaya.)
Samui, Phuket, and Bangkok — ‘The White Lotus’ confirms shooting locations in Thailand (BK Magazine on the next season of this popular HBO series.)
I leave you with…
A brief yet touching exchange between a Thai kayaking guide and Liverpool football legend Jamie Carragher on the jade water of Phang Nga Bay.
Thank you for reading Thai Island Quest, for the love of the islands. Yes, all of them. 🌴
am reading the piece on MFP now, also read a great, extremely extensive piece about it from Andrew M M (won't say his whole name, you know why, just in case); it enrages me what the dinosaurs are doing, and i'm sure that increasing numbers of Thais are also enraged about this as well, it is so obvious that democracy is being thwarted!
it's a shame about the trash, garbage, marine/fishing deritrius, etc in the sea, an escalating condition!
when i first moved to Lanta Sept 2009, there would be just 1 or 2 days during the worst, most severe storms during low season would cover our beach w/all sorts of trash, mainly plastic; our neighborhood beach, Klong Khong, was particularly susceptible (more so than Klong Dao, Long Beach, etc) because of the rocks hugging the shore (which also gave us spectacular sunsets thanks to tide pools!) by my 5th year, the trash would come several times, often being swept partially- but not totally- away by a tide only for the next tide to deposit more- and be washed further up on the shore... instead of a few days/season, it became several- often 1/2 dozen- occurrences of a week or more each season!