Paradise revisited
South China Morning Post
(Hong Kong, 1998)

Burma has opened up the Mergui Archipelago to bring in the tourist dollar

It is not that they have been overlooked for all this years. In fact, the islands of Burma’s Mergui Archipelago have been viewed with wonder and envy by yachtsmen and travelers to Southeast Asia for decades.

The allure was easy to explain: they were off-limits to foreigners, who last set foot on them during World War II. A no-go area of 800 uninhabited, pristine islands spread over 30,000 square kilometers in the Andaman Sea. But now, things have changed.

With its impossible number of powder white beaches, prime tropical rainforests carpeting rugged interiors, fringing coral reefs, and a stunning abundance of wildlife, the Mergui Archipelago has been rediscovered after more than 50 years.

It took two years of on-off negotiations by a Thailand-based tourism company, but in the end, Burmese authorities rewarded persistence and gave permission for limited travel to the archipelago.

The company, SEAL, is now offering five-day cruises to the islands on board of its 51-foot ketch-rigged trimaran, Gaea. Except for small populations of Mawken or sea gypsies on some islands, most are uninhabited. The jungles are flush with wildlife: wild boar, civet cats, monkeys, buffalo, giant monitor lizards, elephants and rhinoceros. Coral reefs protect a rich array of marine life and offer vast possibilities for scuba diving. Dazzling green parakeets, kites, sea eagles, hornbills and blue herons invade silky blue skies in great numbers. The place is an embarrassment of natural riches.

From the decks of Gaea, you cannot view one island without seeing a half-dozen more. Some are hilly and heavily forested granite islands; others are limestone formations with sprouting of green climbing tenaciously to sheer cliffs, similar to the famous landmarks of Krabi and Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. More still are built up from metamorphosed sedimentary rocks – toppings of green on conical pinnacles. The islands hug the coast of Burma for 320 kilometers north to south and push out 50 kilometers into the Andaman Sea. This great swathe of wilderness, ironically, begins less than 150 kilometers from one of the most popular and developed tourist areas in Asia, Phuket.

Islands with names like Great Swinton, Loughborough, Sir E Owen, Elphinstone and Ross point at Burma’s colonial past and lend an inappropriate tinge of pomposity to an area of uninhabited natural beauty.

Apart from some flotsam and jetsam on a few beaches and some trees near the shore hacked down by sea gypsies or teak thieves, there is no sign of man. No trails cut out of the jungle. Not an empty plastic water bottle on the beach. On board the Gaea, you will be lucky to see two boats in a day and those would be fishing vessels of the Mawken. At night, anchored in beautiful coves, the only lights come from the canopy of stars above.

The Gaea takes a maximum of eight people a time for the five-day cruise. SEAL is so far the only company with permission to cruise the archipelago. The cruise starts from the surprisingly bustling border town of Kawthaung, just across the Pak Chan River from the provincial city of Ranong in Thailand. However, most people start their journey from Phuket, a five-hour road trip away. Kawthaung is the southern-most access point to the Mergui.

Tourism development has pushed its way slightly across the border from Thailand into Burma. The Andaman Club, a casino/resort, is currently extracting foreign exchange from Thai gamblers who can hop on a speed boat for the quick trip from Ranong. But that is where development starts and ends.

SEAL has permission to cruise the southern section of the Merguis as far as the hooked-shaped Lampi Island. Lampi is by far the biggest island in this southern group – about the same size as Phuket – and the one most likely pegged for future tourist development by the Burmese government.

About 2,000 sea gypsies are scattered throughout the archipelago. The village of Mah Jong Kyi on Pu Nala Island, just south of Lampi, was set up two years ago by the government to encourage them to give up their nomadic ways. The government supplies free fuel for fishing boats, education facilities and other incentives for the people to remain.

Director of SEAL, Graham Frost, said he hoped the company would get permission to extend its cruising area to include the entire archipelago by November. This would allow the company to travel as far as Mergui, a town at the northern end of the archipelago. It is also expected to receive permission for diving tours in the near future.