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• Andaman Region
  • Pha Nga
  • Phi Phi
  • Similans
  • Khao Lak
    • Attractions of Khao Lak
  • Kha Sok National Park
  • Trang Islands
  • Langkawi
  • Koh Lanta
  • Krabi
  • Mergui Archipelago
    • Touring the Mergui Archipelago with Jim Styers
    • Mergui Archipelago photo tour
    • The Moken

The Andaman coast of Thailand has scores of tropical islands, forming a fabulous marine playground that attracts countless thousands of visitors each year. But further up the coast, just across the border in Myanmar, one of the wonders of the natural world slumbers, almost undisturbed.

Here is an archipelago of 800 islands of stunning, tropical beauty that man has scarcely touched. Unlike the Thais, whose culture has tied them to water and the oceans for centuries, the Burmese people have shunned the ocean, and their inheritance of islands remains almost completely uninhabited, and in near-pristine condition.

Throughout earth’s tropical belt there remains no other island group in such a state, virtually untouched and unchanged by man. Exploding human populations have brought permanent change or serious desecration to all tropical regions, sparing almost no island that harbours forests, wildlife or other significant resources.

Here in Myanmar the lack of human interference is believed to have left some of the larger islands with the full range of animal life that is no longer found undisturbed on the Asian mainland, including elephants, tigers, deer, wild boar and many others. There is even talk of the near-extinct Sumatran rhino quietly grazing the dense forests on Lampi, one of the largest of the islands.

Myanmar’s archipelago has been protected by the same politics that have made this nation an international outcast and held the country in a time warp, unchanged and undeveloped through the last half century. Only in the past five years has Myanmar’s military government begun to realise the value of these islands, opening a small crack through which limited boatloads of divers and adventure-hungry visitors can enter. But the future promises an increasingly open policy and ever-growing numbers of tourists.

The big question on the minds of those lucky enough to have experienced this amazingly pristine world is how will the Burmese develop their natural treasure? Mass tourism and uncontrolled development of the kind epitomised by Pattaya and Patong Beach in Thailand could swiftly turn these uncut diamonds to shards of glass. Is there the wisdom and political will to protect the natural state of the islands while exploiting the wealth they promise impoverished Myanmar?


Other pages we offer on this topic:

Mergui Archipelago photo tour: This is a gallery of John Everingham’s photographs showing some of the islands of the Mergui Archipelago, and the sights one finds herein.

Touring the Mergui Archipelago with Jim Styers:

This is perhaps the only non-diving boat cruise into this natural wonder-world.

The Moken: traditional sea gypsies of tropical Asia still roam the Mergui Archipelago.

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