The motherlode of Thai islands
A Table of Contents and more on the Thai Island Directory.
Thank you for reading Thai Island Quest.
Tomorrow, the online and email publication of the Thai Island Directory begins.
Today, I’d like to tell you more about my process for writing what is certainly going to be an entire book when it’s done. It will also be, I believe, the most complete single guide to Thailand’s islands and shorelines ever written in English.
In the section on Trat province, the meat of which arrives in the first week of January to ring in 2023, you’ll first encounter a unique writing system that I’ve developed to maintain brevity while also including a good amount of useful info about every province, marine park, island group, island, and the notable mainland areas found in all regions of coastal Thailand.
For example, the Ko Chang (Trat) entry, which is one of the longer entries for a single island, covers barely over a page. Small islands, like Ko Wai, take up a quarter of a page or less. The Directory is going to be short then, right? Haha no.
While the tightly condensed info for individual areas is one key ingredient in the Directory, another is the comprehensive attempt to include every Thai island and hundreds of coastal mainland areas in one cohesive guide.
Owing to this comprehensiveness, despite the brevity of the language, the entire Directory is going to be pretty long. If I ever decide to publish a print version, it should fit into a solid coffee table book, or perhaps a pair of thick magazine-type volumes. In its entirety, it will land with a thud rather than a tap.
Below you’ll find my working table of contents for the Thai Island Directory, currently with eight chapters broken into 30 or so sections, some of which can seem like entire chapters unto themselves. Usually, but not always, one section covers all of the islands and coastal areas found in a single province.
When I’m all done, a version of the following contents will be presented as a menu of links to each and every section of the Directory. Once the whole thing is complete, all of it will be available for you to view online any time you wish here at Thai Island Quest, or to access as a PDF ebook that will take some additional time to put together.
Then, at least 800 islands and some 2,800 km of coastline will be at your fingertips.
Contents
Intro to the Thai Island Directory
Chapter 1: Overview of the Thai islands and shorelines
Charting Thailand’s mainland coasts
Environmental concerns of coastal Thailand
Chapter 2: The Eastern Gulf of Thailand
Intro to the Eastern Gulf (publishing Wed. Dec. 28, 2022)
Trat, Mu Ko Chang & Trat panhandle (publishing Fri. Dec. 30, 2022)
Chanthaburi, Chao Lao & Laem Singh (publishing Wed. Jan. 4, 2023)
Rayong, Mu Ko Samet & Laem Mae Phim (publishing Sun. Jan. 8)
Chapter 3: The Upper Gulf of Thailand (Bay of Bangkok)
Intro to the Upper Gulf
Chonburi, Ko Si Chang, Pattaya & Sattahip
Bangkok & the Samut provincial coasts
Phetchaburi & Cha-am
Prachuap Khiri Khan & Hua Hin
Chapter 4: The Mid Southern Gulf of Thailand
Intro to the Mid Southern Gulf
Chumphon & Mu Ko Chumphon
Surat Thani, Mu Ko Samui & Mu Ko Ang Thong
Nakhon Si Thammarat, Khanom & Laem Talamphuk
Chapter 5: The Deep Southern Gulf of Thailand
Intro to the Deep Southern Gulf
Songkhla, Phatthalung & Talay Sap
Pattani & Narathiwat
Chapter 6: The Northern Thai Andaman Sea
Intro to the Northern Andaman
Ranong & Mu Ko Phayam
Phang Nga, Mu Ko Similan & Mu Ko Surin
Chapter 7: The Central Thai Andaman Sea
Intro to the Central Andaman
Ao Phang Nga
Phuket
Krabi, Mu Ko Phi Phi & Mu Ko Lanta
Chapter 8: The Southern Thai Andaman Sea
Intro to the Southern Andaman
Trang, Mu Ko Trang & Mu Ko Phetra
Satun, Ko Tarutao & Mu Ko Adang
Still with me?
Brilliant!
At first, I intended to dump an entire chapter on readers once a week. For your sake and mine, due to length, I’m adjusting the plan to instead release the Directory in chunks of around 1,200 to 3,000 words, typically on Sunday and Wednesday. For more info on this plan aimed at not exhausting you, nor myself, see my update from December 29th: ‘Dishing out the Thai Island Directory.’
All of the sections in a given chapter will arrive in your inbox sequentially, one after the next, until that chapter is complete.
However, to add an element of surprise I will bounce you to a different part of the country after each chapter. So instead of moving straight from the Eastern Gulf to the neighboring Upper Gulf, maybe the next chapter will be the Southern Andaman or the Mid Southern Gulf. (Even I’m not sure yet!) With eight extensive chapters for me to share, you will not know what’s coming next.
Many slices to dish out
As promised earlier, the entire chapter covering the Eastern Gulf will be available to both free and paying subscribers, and it is being released in two or three postings per week into mid January. Most of the additional six chapters will only be accessible to paying subscribers.
Free subs are getting way more postings than I initially advertised, offering a chance to give the Directory a good, solid look before deciding if gaining access to this entire book’s worth of coverage, and more, is worth the cost of a $5 USD / month paid subscription to Thai Island Quest.
Those of you who are already paying subscribers, meanwhile, will still end up getting more than the four paid posts that I guarantee each month.
For both paying and free subs, the one catch with this whole colossal project is that I’m not going to have time to publish much of anything else over the next few months. I will get month-end Island Wraps out, but a resumption of the usual in-depth articles on specific islands and coastal areas will likely have to wait until the online version of the Thai Island Directory is finished.
Once it is done, expect me to resume the classic photo-heavy articles and some new types of coverage, such as island summaries, charity / business profiles, ‘most extraordinary’ lists, and maybe even an imaginary island or two.
So, the Thai Island Directory is now in progress — and you’re getting a front-row seat to its authorship in real time. I like to think of its gradual publication by e-newsletter as the beta version. In that spirit, I welcome any feedback and/or corrections that readers wish to send in. Comments are always open. 🌴
Thank you for reading Thai Island Quest, an independent, reader-supported e-newsletter sharing the beauty, challenges and distinctive identities of Thailand’s islands and coastal areas. Yes, all of them.
Copyright: David Luekens 2022-23.
All text, photos and any other intellectual property appearing in this e-newsletter, and in the Thai Island Directory, may not be copied, re-published, re-sold or re-purposed without the written consent of the author. Plagiarism is theft.
looking forward to reading this, hopefully i will be able to beyond the initial section...