Island Wrap #83: Remembering the Tsunami, details on 'Destination Thailand Visa', wild elephants in the news, 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
Tsunami remembrance
This past December 26th marked 20 years since the Indian Ocean Tsunami claimed some 8,400 lives along Thailand’s Andaman coast and over 220,000 more in other countries. Ceremonies and candlelight vigils paid respects to victims in hard-hit places like Ko Phi Phi, Phuket, and Ban Nam Khem, a town near Khao Lak that now hosts Thailand’s best-known Tsunami Memorial and Museum.
Thai PBS recalls its first news report on the Tsunami, “Giant Waves hit Phuket,” at 8:20 A.M. that day. Al Jazeera reconnects with a survivor from Takua Pa who, as a young boy, spent three days adrift on a log after being swept out to sea. Reuters profiles a former fisherman who has devoted his life to maintaining Ban Nam Khem’s tsunami risk mitigation system, while AFP looks at the tsunami detection buoys set up to provide adequate warning if history ever repeats itself.
AP and CNA both focus on the traditionally nomadic Moken sea dwellers, whose communities on islands like Ko Phra Thong and Ko Surin were splintered as their cultural assimilation into Thai society — due in part to the work of well-meaning charities — accelerated after the Tsunami. And in one of the more touching stories, AFP interviews a Frenchwoman who considered suicide after her daughter was lost in the Tsunami on Ko Phi Phi Don, but eventually found “a certain peace” thanks in part to the charity school that she later founded on the island.
Weather and shipwrecks
Flooding continued in parts of the South last month, temporarily halting train services and forcing the closure of the main highway in southern Chumphon province. Flash floods reached the capital of Nakhon Si Thammarat, a province where residents of nearly every district experienced flooding to some extent.
The islands were also hit. Two construction workers went missing in a landslide on Ko Samui, and torrential rain runoff from the mountains of northern Ko Phangan swept an empty pickup truck into the sea off Thong Nai Pan. Also at Phangan, a South Korean tourist tragically drowned when the longtail boat they were riding in capsized. Twelve others were rescued after the accident, which occurred in rough seas only 40 meters off Hat Rin as the boat attempted a run to nearby Hat Yuan.
Travel and food
Thousands flock to Koh Kradan for long new year holidays (The Nation on how interest in this dazzling Trang island remains high after the website World Beach Guide named it “best beach in the world” for a second straight year.)
Phang Nga Bay area: An insider’s slow travel guide to this gorgeous Thai island (Travel + Leisure explores Ko Phanak, Ko Panyi and other northwestern parts of Thailand’s most impressive bay.)
The best islands in Thailand to visit (Condé Nast Traveler with a list that would be more accurately titled ‘the most popular islands in Thailand,’ although I do appreciate the inclusion of Ko Si Chang, Ko Yao and Ko Kood.)
Locals call for more inclusivity in Songkhla’s bid for World Heritage status (Prachatai on concerns about a “monolithic preservation plan” for the historical city’s picturesque old town community, which is officially under UNESCO consideration to become Thailand’s next World Heritage site.)
On the practice of travel: Heaven, Hell, and all in between (Couchfish returns from a hiatus with a look at the “hundreds or thousands of individual practices that come together to form a cohesive blob that is that person’s travel practice.”)
Tourism
Thailand aims to attract 40 million tourists by 2025 (Khaosod English on how, having drawn over 35 million inbound tourists in 2024, the TAT has an “aggressive tourism strategy” to shatter the 2019 record of 39.8 million.)
Thai e-visa launches worldwide on 1 January 2025 (Government-run TAT News on how the e-visa system, which was already in place in many countries, is being expanded to all 94 Thai embassies and consulates as queuing up outside embassies like the one in Vientiane, Laos, becomes a thing of the past.)
“This is not just for digital nomads” (Dateline Bangkok interviews a top Ministry of Foreign Affairs official who offers more details on the five-year Destination Thailand Visa that was launched last year. He reveals that 11,000 DTVs have been issued so far, adding that it is possible for DTV holders with proof of 500,000 THB in funds to repeatedly get six-month extensions enabling them to stay in Thailand indefinitely, although the final decisions are up to Immigration officers.)
Phuket vs. Bali: Two recovery models, one hospitality success story (Skift breaks down strengths and weaknesses of two hugely popular islands. In related news, The Nation reports that room rates are increasing as Phuket hotels take advantage of surging demand, while C9 Hotelworks calls Phuket’s repeal of an 80-meter development height limit a “game-changer.” Meanwhile, according to The Phuket News, residents of Cherng Talay oppose a seven-story hotel project for “bringing tourist traffic to small streets far too small to accommodate it.”
Illegal tour guide problem worsens (Bangkok Post explains, “New concerns cropped up on social media this week as an illegal Russian tour guide was caught leading a tour group in the Similan Islands, using a Thai guide as a sitting nominee, while being unable to compel customers to follow national park rules.”)
Transport
Troubled times for Thailand’s transport sector (Bangkok Post reviews a year that included a devastating bus fire, yet more problems with the seemingly never-ending construction work on the Rama II highway near Bangkok, and more.)
Environment
Marine life under threat (Bangkok Post with an opinion piece on how the government’s recent passage of the controversial Fisheries Act relaxes rules by permitting, among other things, “the use of gigantic nets spanning kilometres operated at night with fine-meshed nets.”)
Land reclamation for ‘Pearl Necklace’: 9 islands in the Gulf of Thailand, is it worth it? (Isra News with a slew of concerns about tentative plans for what would be the most expensive project in modern Thai history.)
Mass coral bleaching: Divers in Thailand try to heal reef damage (Al Jazeera with a video update on how reefs near Ko Lanta are recovering after record-high sea temperatures caused significant bleaching last year.)
Thailand’s cleanest and most polluted beaches unveiled (Bangkok Post with results from a Pollution Control Dept. study that ranks Songkhla’s Samila Beach as having the cleanest water out of 210 surveyed beaches.)
Southeast Asia’s environmental defenders on the front line (Dialogue Earth on some of the threats faced by activists in Thailand and four other countries.)
Officials investigate forest encroachment at Freedom Beach (The Phuket News)
Wildlife
Natural Resources and Environment authorities have come up with a “raft of new measures” to assist the endangered dugongs that are struggling to survive, including seagrass restoration, new protection zones in Phuket and Phang Nga, and sea enclosures like one off Ko Mook in Trang “to be used as a rehabilitation shelter in which sick and weak dugongs can recover.”
Residents rescued a thresher shark — highly unusual to find in shallow water — after it was found beached on Ko Phi Phi.
60 Minutes has a 22-minute video report on the state of Thailand’s 4,000 wild elephants, whose population has grown by 8% per year and led to an increase in cases of human - elephant conflict, prompting plans to “use birth control shots on wild elephants to limit their populations.” In related news, a Thai tourist did not survive a wild elephant attack at the popular Phu Kradueng National Park, which was temporarily closed afterwards, and a Spanish tourist died after being “knocked over” while bathing a captive elephant at a camp on Ko Yao Yai. In some lighter news, wild elephants stopped passing trucks in Chachoengsao to charge them a “tax” of freshly cut sugarcane and tapioca.
Society
Why are Thailand, Cambodia clashing over Koh Kood island? (DW with some background on opposing territorial claims, although “clashing” is a use of hyperbole in my opinion; and, according to my own count, Ko Kood is only the sixth largest island in Thailand, not the fourth largest as stated in the article.)
Same-sex couples in Thailand can register marriage from Jan 23rd (Thai PBS)
Thai media struggle to survive in the age of digital disruption (Thai PBS)
In other news
Phuket airport explains away its misuse of Singapore photo (Bangkok Post)
Russian tourist’s risky swim to Ko Laan ends in rescue (Khaosod English on the latest failed attempt to swim from Pattaya to its primary island 6 km offshore. In the same area, reports Bangkok Post, “a Saudi Arabian woman was rescued after five hours at sea following a jet ski accident.”
I leave you with…
Full footage of the nearly seven-minute fireworks display that followed the countdown along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok. Happy New Year all! 🌴
Thank you for reading Thai Island Quest. For the love of the islands.
Packed with great and interesting info. Many thanks.
Happy New Year David, wishing you happiness, health, prosperity and joy this year and always!
the vid on Lanta coral bleaching made me very sad, especially as the report talked of Kantiang Bay, where i first got famous on the island at Why Not Bar...
so many memories of what people told me/showed me of the tsunami, such as a guard at Tropica in Patong who told me he was on duty that morning, trying to outrun the wave and finally just grabbing on to a lampost for dear life... or my next door neighbor telling me that the biggest wave came within 10 meters of the back of our rowhouses ---Lanta was lucky in that it was somewhat sheltered from the worst because of its proximity to Sumatra, since the quake/tsunami originated on other side, we were spared the worst, although a friend with a house on the water in Old Town showed me the high water mark IN his house... Lanta was quite fortunate in terms of loss of life, mostly fishermen out at sea, including my landlord's husband!