Swiftlet massacre in Phatthalung, losing a beloved Ko Phi Phi islander and more
Island Wrap #55: Travel & Environment edition for September 13-26, 2021
Welcome to the Island Wrap, a bi-weekly summary of what’s happening around coastal Thailand. This issue covers a brazen massacre of swiftlets, a type of bird that’s highly valued for its edible nests. You’ll also learn about a rescue from a fiery wreck, a rare whale sighting, two tragic deaths on Ko Phi Phi — and much more.
If you missed it on Saturday, the Island Wrap pandemic edition will catch you up on the coronavirus situation along with related travel restrictions and delays on an expansion of international tourism reopening in Thailand.
Many thanks to everyone who upgraded their subscriptions since I launched the paid version of Thai Island Times last week, and to those who had already done so. If you’re on the free list, you can still lock in a full year of the complete Thai island and coastal coverage for $5 monthly or $50 annually, but only if you upgrade by October 1st. After that day, the price will be $6 / $60. If you’re not sure, feel free to read this for details about both the paid and free versions of the newsletter
The first-ever article for paying subscribers features 22 photos, a mermaid story and many other insights about Ko Lao Liang, a pair of karst islands that I think ranks among the most dazzling in all of Thailand. It’s part of Mu Ko Phetra Marine Park, whose namesake island I covered in a free article that explains some of the background on the controversial swiftlet nest industry.
Over on Couchfish, Stuart virtually entered Malaysia and featured what he sees as “the prettiest beach in Southeast Asia” on the island of Perhentian Kecil. He also dug up an illuminating Tourism Authority of Thailand memo that addressed a long list of problems related to tourism back in 1993; and he shared thoughts on the recent demise of Lonely Planet’s long-running online travel forum, Thorn Tree.
Pick of the Wrap
If you have an interest in Thailand and don’t live in a cave with no internet access, then our friend Richard Barrow probably needs no introduction. An educator, writer and unofficial advocate for Thailand’s expat community, Richard has hundreds of thousands of followers across his various Twitter accounts and pages on Facebook, Instagram and his own website. He’s also taken many terrific photos of Thai islands. Most recently, Richard launched Letters from Thailand, a weekly newsletter sharing articles and insights about current events, travel, life and whatever else he wants to spotlight about Thailand. It’s free and well worth a sign up.
Weather and shipwrecks
Tropical Storm Dianmu dropped steady rain over much of Thailand during the weekend, flooding parts of many provinces, halting rail services in the Northeast and enabling a pair of crocodiles to escape from a farm near the coast in Trat province. While the sneaky crocs have been captured, flood warnings remain in effect for parts of the North, Northeast, East and the Chao Phraya River basin.
The only recent sea rescue I’ve heard of comes from the deep southern Gulf, where a Narathiwat-based trawler caught fire during refueling at sea some 60 km off the Pattani coast on September 13th. The 12 crew members were able to get the blaze under control, but not before it destroyed most of the deck and interior, including the engines. A Navy patrol boat eventually came to the rescue.
Swiftlet massacre
Prized as a ‘super food’ in Thailand, China and beyond, nests formed from the saliva of swiftlets are so valuable that the nesting caves are guarded with firearms in many parts of the Thai South. Now police in Phatthalung are investigating a nest heist that left at least 1.5 million swiftlets dead and caused an estimated 5 billion baht ($150 million USD) in damage to the nesting habitats.
The story begins with a recent auction that resulted in Siam Nest Company agreeing to pay Phatthalung province 400 million baht ($12 million USD) for a concession to extract swiftlet nests from 107 caves on seven islands in southern Songkhla Lake, also known as Talay Sap. When workers arrived to collect the nests from September 9th through 17th, they found few nests alongside evidence of bonfires that had chased all of the birds away. Sadly, many of the chicks did not make it out.
Numerous pieces of evidence — including ropes, bottles and shoes — were found at the scenes, and officers from the Dept. of Special Investigation (DSI), which is Thailand’s equivalent of the FBI, soon arrived on islands like Ko Thepada to look for clues. “The person behind this crime is believed to be a former local politician,” reports The Nation. More comprehensive reporting by Thairath hints that perpetrators could not have pulled the heist off without the help of some Siam Nest staff, and the DSI is attempting to analyze DNA samples from 70 security guards.
Siam Nest is reportedly unable to come up with its next installment payment towards the concession after collecting only 233 kg of nests, a pittance compared to the 2,076 kg harvested at roughly the same time last year. With nests fetching anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 baht per kg, depending on quality, the thieves appear to have made off with tens of millions of baht worth of merchandise.
The crime is renewing calls to better regulate or ban wild swiftlet nest extraction in Thailand. Writing for Bangkok Post, Anchalee Kongkrut points out how this was not the first nest-related massacre in the Talay Sap area:
“The most outrageous case was a 1992 massacre committed by bird’s nest cave security guards in Phatthalung province. In this incident, the guards shot dead 10 suspected thieves whose bodies were found floating in the sea. Two years later, a security guard hired by the same company shot dead two other suspected thieves. A gruesome story about a prized soup, isn’t it?”
Wildlife and environment
If you plan to go swimming in the Thai Gulf any time soon, I strongly suggest keeping vinegar on hand to treat any jellyfish stings. Sightings of potentially lethal species, including the highly venomous box jellyfish, were recently reported to the DMCR in several parts of the upper and eastern Gulf. But the threat covers the entire Gulf, and, as evidenced by a tragic fatality last month, it is real.
Divers affiliated with Monsoon Garbage have been seeking help with the removal of discarded fishing nets from reefs at Phuket’s Hat Nai Yang and Kata Beach, where they sadly found a dead black-tip reef shark tangled up. Perhaps the DMCR divers who extracted yet another sizable ‘ghost net’ from a reef at Pattani province’s Ko Lao Pi will head over to the Andaman coast to lend a hand.
The DMCR reported positive results at a coral rehabilitation site at Ko Khai in northern Chumphon province, where staghorn coral is growing out of recycled bottles embedded in concrete discs. Though novel, this ‘bottle coral’ is not as eye-catching as the Harley Davidson and other submerged vehicle frames that are now being cleaned up as the Khao Lak Underwater Museum prepares to reopen.
We’re now in the thick of Bryde’s whale watching season in the upper Gulf, and the team from Wild Encounters Thailand reported the appearance of two previously unseen calfs on September 24th. Offspring of the mama whales known as Mae Wandee and Mae Patthaya, the newborns raised the number of known Bryde’s whale births in Thailand to eight so far this year.
Bryde’s whales, or wan bruda in Thai, are common in the upper Gulf and seen with some frequency further south in the Gulf, but sightings are extremely rare in the Thai Andaman Sea. That’s why many people were shocked to see footage of a 30-meter Bryde’s whale surfacing west of Ko Lanta earlier this month. It sadly appeared to have a large rope stuck around its mouth, and researchers have thus-far been unable to locate the whale to try and remove this painful hindrance.
A green sea turtle left wide tracks and a nest on a stretch of sand in Thai Mueang, an area north of Phuket that’s one of the most active sea-turtle nesting areas in Thailand. The 42 eggs were laid below the high-tide line, prompting researchers to move them to a facility for incubation. A second sea turtle nest at Ko Mai Thon, southeast of Phuket, has been surrounded by an enclosure to keep the eggs safe.
In a rescue captured on video, an Urak Lawoi man from Ko Phi Phi gave a young hawksbill sea turtle a second chance at life after finding it tangled up in a floating mess of fishing debris on September 13th. The next day, locals in Thai Mueang came to the aid of a 35-kg hawksbill that had beached. Unfortunately, it will have to live out the rest of its life in a marine facility due to a badly wounded and infected front fin that needed to be amputated. Perhaps it will get one of the prosthetic fins that Thai marine researchers have been developing in Phuket.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but please don’t be like the lamebrains who have been packaging live tortoises and shipping them by post.
If you’e in the mood to do some good for captive wildlife, consider pitching in to save Sudarat the elephant from being forced to leave her healthy life at Samui Elephant Haven to be thrown back into the sort of inhumane tourism work that she was rescued from before the pandemic. You can watch her strut below.
It would be a shame if Sudarat were forced back into performing tricks and carting tourists around one of Thailand’s many less-than-humane “elephant camps.”
Social media corner
How about some photos of Ko Tao from the air? That’s the focus at Koh Tao Drone, a Facebook page from Ko Tao-based photographer Huw Penson. His work goes beyond the typical drone stuff to offer aerial vantages of unusual subjects, such as coral rehabilitation sites, night divers and coconut farms. I’m fond of this shot of Shark Island, which Huw refers to as his favorite dive site.
Food and travel
Carrying on the legacy — Thana Boonlert for Bangkok Post:
Journey into three eateries where dishes like Teochew braised duck, guay jab and yen-ta-fo are perfected by multiple generations of Chinese-Thai families in Bangkok and near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River in Pak Nam.
25 tourist attractions in Thailand that you’ve probably never seen — Sanook (Thai language):
Following the Thai-language travel media is a great way to find sites that don’t make it onto the foreign tourism radar, and this article is a perfect case in point. Featured coastal spots include the circular sandbar known as Ko Pha west of Ko Kho Khao; a half-submerged Buddha image in Trat; and marvelous coral at a pair of little-known dive sites in Satun and Pattani. Another recent Sanook article spotlights a cave and waterfall in Pu Yu, the southwestern-most district in Thailand.
Escape Bangkok and meet fine birds all over Thailand — Coke Smith for Coconuts Bangkok:
Peep close-ups of a spot-winged grosbeak, olive-backed sunbird, brown-winged kingfisher and many other pretty birds photographed in various parts of Thailand, including Phetchaburi and Phang Nga Bay.
Changing tides — Tales of the Orient by Simon Ostheimer:
Learn about some of the ways that the victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami have been memorialized in Khao Lak, which was the worst-hit area in Thailand.
Ranong, off the beaten track beach destination in Thailand — Jordi Pla for InThailand.Travel:
This photo-stacked guide has details on hot springs, beaches, islands, seafood and other delights in an Andaman-coast province that often gets overlooked.
Phuket Vegetarian Festival: Nine things you need to know — Lana Willocks for GoPhuket:
Yes, it’s that time of year again. A festival that receives more attention for spirit possession and jarring body piercings than meatless food is set to run from October 6th to 14th — and Phuket resident Lana shares the historical and cultural background along with plenty of eye-popping photos. (Please note that this year’s Vegetarian Festival will be scaled back due to the coronavirus situation.)
Video corner
Ko Lidi is one island — a pair of twin islands actually — that I have not yet visited but did mention in my recent article about Mu Ko Phetra Marine Park down in the far southern stretch of the Thai Andaman. My research brought me to this video filmed at both ground level and high above the emerald water. It certainly got my feet itching to give Ko Lidi a look in person, just as soon as I can.
(Source: Anuar Abdullah)
In other news
Details of some 100 million visitors to Thailand exposed online: research firm — AFP via SCMP:
The Thai government might want to get its woeful cybersecurity sorted before pitching Thailand as a long-term destination for the wealthy.
By land or sea: Thailand perseveres with the Kra Canal — Shaun Cameron for The Interpreter:
Last week’s Island Wrap mentioned a different story on this subject, but this longer read offers more depth on an idea that’s been floating around for centuries. While a canal is a long shot, a “land bridge” may well materialize.
Moken fear a sea grab in the Myeik Archipelago — Hein Thar and Ben Durant for Frontier Myanmar:
“Babu said that if the [traditionally nomadic] Moken were prohibited from catching squid in the area they would move to Thailand, where other members of the group lead a precarious existence as illegal migrants and are regularly exploited as laborers in the commercial fishing industry.”
Abandoned James Bond 007 tourist attraction was a waste of 30 million baht — Thairath (Thai language):
Residents of Krasom on the coast of Phang Nga Bay are upset about a government-funded museum that’s been collecting dust for the better part of a decade. Completed in 2014 beside a mangrove forest, the site was supposed to attract crowds of tourists to exhibits focusing on The Man With the Golden Gun, a James Bond film that was partly filmed in Phang Nga Bay in the early 1970s. Further south in Phang Nga Bay, locals are also crying foul over the abandoned stilted buildings that they say should never have been built at the otherwise uninhabited islet of Ko Khai Nui.
Hat Yai Monorail — James Clark for Future Southeast Asia:
Check out the plans for a monorail line in the South’s largest city.
A 45,000-seat stadium in Chaiya? — Around Surat Thani Update (social media):
View the mockup photos of an “international standard” football stadium that authorities in Surat Thani province want to build from 2023-27 in Chaiya, a relatively quiet coastal area located 40 km north of the provincial capital. If built at this scale, it would become the largest stadium in Thailand outside of Bangkok.
A mysterious lump found on Phuket’s Mai Khao Beach is believed to be whale vomit worth millions — Thairath (Thai language):
Yongyuth Limsuebchue, 66, was out for a jog when he stumbled upon a 19-kg chunk of what appears to be ambergris, the semi-hardened vomit of sperm whales that’s prized for its applications in the fragrance and cosmetics industries. If it’s genuine, the Phuket resident could soon become a very rich man.
Expat Phi Phi GM found dead — The Phuket News:
Many people are grieving the tragic death of Florian Hallerman, a 56-year-old Austrian who managed Zeavola Resort at the quiet northern tip of Ko Phi Phi Don. He is thought to have slipped and fallen down a steep hill while hiking in the hills near Ao Plaew. “Respected and loved by his many friends, local residents and guests for many years, Florian was also a great champion of environmental issues,” wrote members of the Phuket Hotels Association.
Before finding Florian’s body, a search team also discovered the “mysterious corpse” of a man with Asian features in a forest near Monkey Beach. That body, which has yet to be identified as far as I know, had no visible wounds and appeared to have been deceased for three days. May both souls rest in peace. 🌴
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Good read; thank you! I can't help but be a little suspicious of Siam Nest Company...
Great scoop on the nok