MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO, BURMA
ASIA-INC Magazine - February 2001

RUGGED RAINFORESTS above sea level and spectacular coral reefs below are the hallmarks of many of the 800 isolated islands of the Mergui Archipelago in the Andaman Sea off Burma's southern coast. The largely uninhabited islands' soon to be the subject of a bid for World Heritage Site status, are on of the world's most ideal locations for sailing, diving and snorkeling. They are riddled with caves, coral reefs and reef tunnels, and studded with isolated bays and beaches.

The islands were cut off from the rest of the world for almost 50 years following Burma's independence from Britain in 1948 until several small Thailand-based diving holiday companies successfully lobbied the Rangoon government in 1997 to permit small-scale tourist visits. 

There is no land-based tourism-holiday diving parties live on board their charter boats. The only indigenous people of the Mergui are Moken, a sea gypsy tribe who weave their nomadic lives through the archipelago.

Island wildlife includes boar, civets, rare cat-like marbled tigers, monkeys, buffalo, and giant monitor lizards - and, say some reports, a few Asian rhinoceros. Pythons hang from giant trees in dense mangrove forests. Dazzling green parakeets flit through the forests; kites, sea eagles, hornbills and blue herons wheel overhead.

From the deck of your dive boat, you are surrounded by Mergui islands, many of them little more than atolls. Some are hilly and heavily forested granite islands, fringed with white sandy beaches. Others are limestone formations with foliage clinging tenaciously to sheer cliffs. 

The Mergui experience starts from the lively port town of Victoria Point in Burma, across the Pak Chan River from the Thai town of Ranong, about 150 kilometers north of Phuket.

Diving expeditions to the Mergui archipelago were pioneered four years ago by  SEAL. Seven days cruising through the islands aboard their yacht Crescent cost$1,627. For half that price and for the really adventurous SEAL offer seven day tours by kayak, over nighting at island safari camps.