Island Wrap #77: '100% of the corals' bleaching at Ko Phi Phi, Phuket flood, durian on the rise, festival season, and more

A free monthly spin through the most intriguing and consequential news and other media from Thailand's islands and coastal areas.

Greetings island lovers and welcome back to your free monthly news review from Thailand’s islands and coastal areas — and sometimes beyond.

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Catch of the month

Net fishing in a drizzle in the Son River of Krabi, one of the Andaman coastal provinces where the southwest monsoon has been rather forceful of late.

Weather and shipwrecks

• Relatively severe flooding in Phuket this past Sunday left some 740 households damaged or otherwise affected in Thalang and Kathu districts. The airport did not flood, but 17 flights were forced to divert — with some landing as far away as Bangkok and Penang — after encountering zero visibility upon approach into HKT during roughly two hours of absolutely torrential morning rain.

• Powerful storms also hit parts of the Upper Gulf, including in Chonburi where two small fishing boats capsized off Jomtien and Laem Chabang.

• In response to several recent drownings and rescues of tourists off beaches in Phang Nga and Phuket, where red warning flags indicate conditions too rough for swimming, a prominent Phuket lifeguard has made a public call for “intensive campaigns to educate tourists of the dangers of rip currents and strong waves during the southwest monsoon,” reports The Phuket News. At any time of year, visitors should also avoid snorkeling outside designated areas in Phuket and all other islands and coastal areas with much tourist boat traffic.

Travel and food

Kayak camping the entire 600 km Andaman coast of Thailand (Ian Taylor Photography sharing a monumental Thai coastal journey.)

China’s lust for durian is creating fortunes in Southeast Asia (The New York Times reports that “The acreage of durian orchards in Thailand has doubled over the past decade”.)

A journey through time: The grand villa of Deves Palace (Thai PBS on what appears to be a magnificent 19th-century Royal palace in Chanthaburi that was recently opened to the public for the first time.)

Phu Phrabat poised for world heritage status (Bangkok Post on the ancient Dvaravati ruins within striking natural surrounds that form my personal favorite of all Thailand’s historical parks, even if it is far upcountry in Udon Thani.)

Asean Heritage Park status sought for Bangpu (Bangkok Post on what some might see as a long shot, though I suppose it’s good to promote how a small tidal mangrove forest can exist on the Samut Prakan coast in metro Bangkok.)

The surprising history of pad Thai (Smithsonian with some insightful quotes from a star Bangkok chef of Thai Chinese heritage.)

Eat, kick back and travel (Thai PBS runs down major festivals in the coming months in Thailand, including two of the best up in Loei and Ubon Ratchathani.

Tourism

Thailand seeing signs of ‘White Lotus’ travel bump (Bloomberg via Bangkok Post explains how filming locations like Fisherman’s Village night market and Taling Ngam Beach on Ko Samui will likely be mobbed once the HBO show is released next year, with interest already climbing after the production wrapped up filming on Samui as well as in Phuket and Bangkok.)

July: Hopefully the month of visa clarification in Thailand (Pattaya Mail with a realistic breakdown of the visa and entry rule changes that Thailand announced last month, as officials work through the details.)

Thailand scraps proposed tourism fee (CNA on the death a proposal from the previous government, just as the current government goes ahead full throttle with pushing tourism in an otherwise gloomy economy.)

Thailand’s ‘zero-dollar’ tour packages weigh on travel sector despite crackdown (SCMP explains an exploitative form of tourism.)

Transport

Phuket bans heavy trucks during weekday rush hours from Monday (Bangkok Post on a step in the right direction for easing the traffic jams.)

Tourism-deprived South Thailand provinces expect better days with improved road, air access (Thai Newsroom on some big plans to expand and renovate Narathiwat Airport and build a new bridge over the Kolok River, which forms the border with Malaysia down in deep southernmost Thailand.)

How to fix Makkasan Station, Bangkok’s failed air city terminal (Future Southeast Asia on what might need to happen in order to maximize this cavernous and central — yet largely empty — metro station on the Airport Rail Link line.)

Southeast Asian airlines spend big to cash in on return of travelers (Nikkei Asia with a paywalled article about the fluid regional airline market.)

Barges blessed for Chao Phraya event (Bangkok Post on how 52 of the elaborate Royal barges have been readied for one of Thailand’s signature boat processions, celebrating King Rama X’s 72nd birthday on and around July 28th.)

Kings of the road no more (Thai PBS compares notes with the Philippines and Malaysia on how traditional forms of transport, like the tuk tuk and the jeepney, are surviving [or not] in an era when some urban planners see them as obstructions.)

Environment

World Oceans Day marred by worst coral bleaching to date (Thai PBS interviews an expert from Thailand’s DMCR before adding a second article on the bleaching situation at Ko Phi Phi Leh right now, “where it has affected almost 100% of the corals and sea anemone, with the situation deteriorating further.”)

Bangkok to grow another million trees (Bangkok Post, adding that the tree situation is also looking good on Bang Kachao, or ‘Bangkok’s Green Lung’, now that it’s finally been granted a special environmental status.

Wildlife

• Blue bottle jellyfish warnings have been issued for Phuket’s west coast as well as Ko Racha and parts of Krabi. Indeed, it’s that time of year so do start looking out for these and other jelly stingers throughout coastal Thailand.

• Another dead dugong washed up, this time with a tail tangled in fishing debris on the busy Ao Nang Beach in Krabi. It’s been a terrible year so far for Thailand’s endangered dugongs, with only 36 left in Trang province. Most of them appeared together recently off Ko Mook in what the DNP called “the biggest herd of dugongs ever spotted in the area,” as reported in The Straits Times.

• Phuket’s big storm affected not only the people but also the sea turtles, with multiple reports of multiple species being rescued from fishing debris around the island’s wind-whipped west coast. Over in the calmer Mid Southern Gulf, a hawskbill sea turtle nested on Ko Samui’s Thong Nhan Beach.

• In some of the most tragic news of the last month, a fire at Bangkok’s famous Chatuchak Market killed roughly 1,000 would-be pets on June 11th. Word is that a live animal section will never reopen in the market.

• An elephant at the Royal Elephant Kraal in Ayutthaya gave birth to an extremely rare ‘miracle’ pair of male-and-female twin calfs in a dramatic birth that was partly captured on video.

Society

Thailand’s Senate overwhelmingly approves a landmark bill to legalize same-sex marriages (AP on how Thailand is one page in the Royal Gazette away from becoming the third Asian country, after Taiwan and Nepal, to take this brave step, which came just as the country was celebrating the Pride festival.)

Move to gut fisheries law could sink Thai exports and poor fishermen, critics warn (Thai PBS)

In other news

Saudi parasailing tourist rescued from Kamala tree (The Phuket News)

Portion of Phang Nga mountain collapses in public park following minor earthquake (The Phuket Express on the damage in Phang Nga town.)

Officers face action over lost vessels (Bangkok Post with the latest on the case of the missing oil transport boats which disappeared from Sattahip on June 11th.)

Thailand vows to avoid ‘The Beach’ mistake with Jurassic World 4 (Khaosod English on the major film production now underway in parts of Trang, Krabi and Phang Nga provinces.)

I leave you with…

The inspiring, if exhausting, story of Natalie Dau, a 52-year-old Singaporean ultra-runner who recently completed a 1,000-km run from Thailand to Singapore in just 12 days while sleeping a mere 2-3 hours per night — and raising US $37,000 for a charity while she was at it. She “had to clock at least 84km a day - the equivalent of two marathons - to achieve her goal”, reports the BBC.

You know, I’ve always wanted to do something exactly like Natalie’s run, except I’d keep the running to maybe 5 km a day, with some slow walking, always sticking to the beaches of course while taking a leisurely wade here and there, with frequent stops to unfurl the hammock or meet beach dogs. Yes, 12 months ought to do it for me, though I’m sure the 12-day approach has its own rewards. 🌴

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