Island Wrap #82: Deep South floods, shark bite at Khao Lak, Ko Chang 'ghost ship' fire, dugongs in a critical state, and more

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

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Catch of the month

Watching the gulls along the shores of Samut Songkhram.

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Deep South floods

The southeastern monsoon continued a year of extreme weather in Thailand as floods devastated parts of Nakhon Si Thammarat, Phatthalung, Songkhla, Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, a province enduring its “worst flooding in twenty years.” The death toll stands at 29 and more than 30,000 have been displaced in Thailand’s far south, along with many more on the Malaysian side of the border.

Flooding reached the major city of Hat Yai and disrupted train services to the border, though northbound trains to Hat Yai are running again. Several hospitals were forced to close in Pattani; a destructive landslide hit the mountain tourism town of Betong; rubber farmers face “damages worth 20 billion baht”; and a glut of hotel and tour bookings have been cancelled during a typically busy time of year. Wildlife has also been affected, with a video of a massive python struggling amid the floodwaters on a Pattani street going viral on social media. With reservoirs at capacity and more rain expected, some areas may face flooding “into the New Year.”

Most of Thailand is now into the dry and cooler season, making it easy to overlook the rain and rough seas that are typical along the Southern Gulf coast at this time of year. Boat tours were recently restricted out of Ko Samui, where a Russian actress / social-media influencer tragically drowned when a five-meter wave swept her from her yoga mat at a rocky viewpoint near Bophut.

No shipwrecks were reported off the Southern Gulf as many small boat captains wisely stay ashore. However, an 83-year-old French tourist is presumed drowned after the longtail boat he was riding in capsized amid strong winds and currents near the dam at Khao Sok National Park’s popular Chiew Lan Lake.

Travel and food

It’s high season in Thailand. Avoid the crowds by visiting these lesser-known destinations (CNN Travel includes the family beach town of Khanom along the coast near Ko Samui and marvelous Ko Kood in the Eastern Gulf on a good list of alternative spots found in several different regions.)

I’ve lived in Thailand for 12 years and these are my 6 favorite islands in the country (Travel + Leisure with some reasonable selections from a magazine that recently named Thailand its “Destination of the Year.”)

The seagulls of Bang Pu (Bangkok Post with a charming video report on a coastal spot where many Bangkokians go to catch a sea breeze and the sunset while watching the seagulls and mudskippers.)

Tak Bai border crossing: Thailand to Malaysia (Thai Train Guide with a useful post on a boat crossing that gets very little use from non-local travelers.)

Thailand receives first ever 3-star Michelin restaurant at awards ceremony in Bangkok (BK with congratulations to Sorn restaurant in Bangkok, one of 156 in Thailand — including several in Phuket and Chonburi — that received Michelin stars as part of the 2025 Bib Gourmand list announced last month.)

UNESCO lists tom yum kung as humanity’s intangible cultural heritage (Bangkok Post on a milestone for Thailand’s spicy and aromatic prawn soup, which joins a traditional garment submitted jointly by Thailand and four other Southeast Asian countries on this year’s list of cultural treasures.)

Tourism

Thailand’s starring role in ‘The White Lotus’ is about to pay off (The Los Angeles Times on how the forthcoming season of the HBO series is driving significant interest to Ko Samui, the primary filming location — and how Thailand has made itself a go-to destination for global film crews. In related news, a Thai actress won an international Emmy for her performance in the Netflix series, ‘Hunger.’)

Main stage: Why music festivals are flocking to Thailand (Thailand Now spotlights the country’s growing presence in the music world. And in related news, top-tier international artists including Lil Wayne and A$AP Rocky recently performed at the “world’s largest hip hop festival,” Rolling Loud, in Pattaya.)

Hostels demand new regulations for sector amid slump (Bangkok Post reports that one corner of the tourism industry has not recovered well from the pandemic.)

Build: Bali construction ban not on the cards for Phuket (The Phuket News breaks down staggering villa construction statistics for an island whose development boom was also covered recently by Bangkok Post and The Nation.)

Transport

The 140-million-baht Pakmeng Terminal Andaman Sea Gateway pier in Trang is deteriorating (Thai Enquirer via X on how a pier that received a pricey makeover, despite servicing little more than a few tour boats and a ferry to the small island of Ko Ngai, is already falling into disrepair after opening in 2021.)

Songkhla mulling tunnel, bridge options for lake (Bangkok Post on tentative plans for a new road link between Songkhla town and Singhanakorn district in the Songkhla Lake region, where a separate bridge project that would service Phatthalung further north has been under consideration since 2022.)

Bangkok bus service to Phnom Penh, Siem Reap resumes Friday (Bangkok Post on the international bus to Cambodia that’s perhaps the final spoke in Southeast Asia’s transport wheel to be reinstated following a 2020 shutdown.)

Governor proposes monorail to quell traffic woes (The Phuket News wonders if Phuket will ever actually build some kind of metro system, be it the oft-discussed ‘light rail’ or this more recent idea to make it a monorail.)

Air taxi trail launched in Bangkok (Cities Today explains how the drone-like passenger vehicle is also planned for “further flight tests … on the islands of Phuket and Koh Samui by 2025.”)

Environment

Adapting cities to climate change (Bangkok Post with an opinion piece stating that Thailand’s “current efforts to address heatwaves, flooding, and coastal erosion are sadly fragmented and inadequate.”)

Wildlife

• Degrading seagrass continues to devastate the endangered dugongs of Trang and Krabi provinces. Six more dugong deaths in recent days, including one found off Phuket with a plastic bag in its stomach, brought the grim toll to over 40 deaths so far this year — out of a population that was only around 200 a couple of years ago. Efforts are underway to grow new food sources around Phuket, where dugongs have increasingly been turning up after fleeing the badly degraded seagrass bed that was long their primary habitat near Ko Libong. As quoted in a solid Bangkok Post report on the situation, a leading marine scientist warns that if the current death rate persists, dugongs in Thailand’s Andaman Sea are “expected to disappear completely in the next 4-5 years.”

• A bull shark is suspected of biting a German tourist off the popular Nong Thong Beach in the Khao Lak area, sending her to hospital for treatment of what appears to be a fairly nasty wound in a blurred photo posted on X. Shark attacks are extremely rare in Thailand, but bull shark bites did occur off Phuket in 2022 and Khao Lak in ‘20, making this the third bite in four years.

• A large olive’s ridley sea turtle is undergoing treatment in Phuket after beaching with one flipper missing and another badly damaged.

• Staying with Phuket, tourists got a fright when a cobra was spotted swimming in the sea off Kata Beach and a three-meter python appeared in the water off Kamala Beach, in two separate sightings last month. Both snakes were quickly apprehended by lifeguards, with no injuries reported.

• In deepest Yala province, camera-trap images posted on X show a wild tiger that’s thought to have devoured a villager’s pet monkey before disappearing back into the jungle of Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary near Malaysia.

Society

Myanmar releases Thai fishermen and seized fishing boat (Thai PBS with the latest on an incident that caused a fisherman to drown when a Myanmar naval boat opened fire on a Thai fishing vessel that had allegedly strayed into Myanmar territorial waters some 20 km from Ko Phayam. Thailand’s defense minister protested the attack and seizure of the boat and its crew, calling it an “overreaction.” Though all four of the Thai citizens who were taken into custody have been released along with the boat, the fate of 31 crew of Myanmar nationality remains unknown.)

Thailand’s booming cannabis sector caught in political wrangling (Nikkei Asia with a pay-walled piece on the country’s ongoing legalization saga.)

What are Thailand’s colourful spirit houses — and how are they set up? From Bangkok’s famous Erawan Shrine to humble rural outposts (SCMP on how “Thais believe that physical ownership of land is not enough to guarantee a happy and secure existence. To bring this about requires the assistance of the spirit of the land, known as Phra Phum.”)

In other news

Fire guts ghost ship hotel on Koh Chang (The Pattaya News with recent photos of the boat-themed block of rooms that had sat derelict and unused for many years before a fire gutted it this week. The cause of the fire remains unknown. For background on this odd structure that had become an offbeat attraction in a remote corner of the island, give this article from I am Koh Chang a look.)

German developer among 16 charged in Samui property fraud case (Khaosod English on legal action taken over eight villas set high up in the Lamai hills that were allegedly constructed without the proper permits.)

Fisherman honored as hero for rescuing two young boys from drowning in Trang (The Pattaya News explains how a local relied on his longtail boat and swimming prowess to reach the boys who were struggling with strong currents off Tasae Beach near Ko Sukorn.)

12-year-old hero rescues teenage girl from Chao Phraya River (Khaosod English on the youngster who reacted quickly after seeing a girl jump from the Krung Thep Bridge in Bangkok.)

I leave you with…

A reminder that this coming December 26th will mark 20 years since a tsunami took thousands of lives along Thailand’s Andaman coast and many more from Indonesia to Sri Lanka and beyond. According to The Guardian’s review of a new National Geographic documentary, titled ‘Tsunami: Race Against Time’, the final episode “centres on the triaging and treating of hundreds of injured people on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi amid complete devastation – a process led by a gregarious local restaurateur – who was so helpful and decisive that it was wrongly assumed she had some relevant training – and a British psychiatrist whose medical knowledge made him the nearest thing to an emergency-room physician.” 🌴

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