Similan Guide - News & Infos aus Südostasien und den Similan Inseln

I spent a beautiful evening at a place called Phaotoke Laoderm (www.phatokelaoderm.com) and enjoyed a nice Lao show (traditional dancing performances and music) together with some Lao meal (sticky rice, sea weed, chicken, keang som paa, naam pic with lots of vegs…).

The meal was great and very tasty and served around 7.30 pm on a big bamboo table like furniture called phatoke. The beerlao was served cold and with some ice cubes…

The performance consists of some classical royal dance pieces, such as the Hanuman monkey dance, and some very rural dances. They also showed some Hmong dance.
The costumes very very colorful and the performers had some great fun to show their skills to the rather small audience.

The Phatoke Lauderm is located within the Senglao hotel complex on the basement. The Hall is very nicely decorated and the staff is friendly, plentiful and very service minded. The place opened a month ago.

The price of 15 $ is for the entrance and for the meal. Drinks are extra.

During my last stay in Vientiane I read an interesting article about Lao Mountain
coffee and the Jhai Coffee Farmers Cooperative in Stay another day.

Lao Mountain Coffee (www.laomountaincoffee.com) is a Vientiane based coffee roasting company. They roast some specialty grade coffee from Laos famous coffee growing area in the South, the Bolaven Plateau.

In fact they are the only Fair Trade and organic coffee roasting company in Laos and one of only a few in South East Asia. They have developed a close relationship with the Fair Trade certified farmer group, the Jhai Coffee Farmers Cooperative (www.jhaicafe.com),
which resides in Champasak province. The Cooperative runs a tiny little office in Pakse town.
Day trips can be arranged to visit the small farms around Pakse town.

Steve Feldschneider (info@laomountain.com), the owner, invited me to visit Lao Mountain coffee, which is located in Ban Nongbone in Vientiane capital and only 200 meters away from the That Luang Stupa.

Upon my arrival at the Lao style Villa a nice breeze of freshly roasted and grounded coffee leaded me directly to the heart of the Lao Mountain Coffee company.

Steve welcomed me and gave me a brief overview of Laos coffee producing history. He also explained me about the roasting process and their special way to produce small amounts of coffee on order. Using small amounts of coffee at a time gives them the possibility to control the grade of roasting and the mixture of different coffee beans to a much better extend than in an ordinary coffee roasting company.

The fact that he has such well known names amongst his clients as Residence Phou Vao, Maison Souvannaphoum in Luang Prabang or the world famous Oriental hotel in Bangkok proves his roasting philosophy true.

Towards the end of my visit Steve told me about the cupping process. Cupping is the art of coffee tasting. Coffee consists of more than 800 different aromatic compounds, so coffee cupping is one of the most complex sensory experiences one can do.

Coffee beans from different growing areas, unwashed and washed, roasted and grounded are provided along with a professional instruction about coffee cupping.

Of course , there are also some cafe tables in the lush garden around the Villa, where a freshly roasted and grounded coffee can be tasted after a visit in the nearby That Luang Stupa.

The coffee cupping experience can be arranged for visitor upon prior notice. The program consists of the coffee cupping experience, the tour through the Villa’s compound, including the roasting and manufacturing areas of the company.
The program costs 150′000 Kip per person, including a fresh roasted and grounded pack of coffee, worth 5 $. Visitor can also get some hands on roasting and grounding experience.

Although the price of the coffee cupping program is a bit high - there is lots of fresh coffee and unique experiences involved, which one hardly can get elsewhere and for less money.

Needless to say that once Steve found out that I have a favour for Italian style coffee he offered me a special blend, which he prepared by himself. Well…

Another story from Laos…

The Ancient town of Luang Prabang, which lies in the center of Laos, has been described as one of the most beautiful and preserved towns in Southeast Asia. In 1512 King Visounarat got Buddha image - the Pha Bang - as a gift from the Khmer monarchy, that is where the town became known as Luang (Great or Royal) Phabang (Prabang). Luang Prabang was the capital of Lane Xang (Laos) for many years until King Phothisarat moved the royal seat to Vientiane in 1545.
There are 34 Buddhist temples among colonial French and Chinese architecture, all nicely located within surrounding green mountains.
The Mekong River, which frames the western border of the town, is still used as transportation link within Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and other important cities along the Mekong River.
Its cultural traditions, rituals and artwork, which includes temple murals, woodcarving and pottery, make Luang Prabang an attractive cultural tourism destination and an ecotourism hub for the whole region, which allows visitors to do hiking, tracking, elephant trekking, kayaking and other adventurous activities in a spectacular natural environment with possibilities which cope for a wide range of interests. The town of Luang Prabang was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995 due to its cultural and natural features. Luang Prabang is accessible by air directly from Bangkok, Vientiane and Chiang Mai, but also overland travel is an option from all directions. There is also a regular boat service on the Mekong River available.
Most of the visitors to Luang Prabang enjoy its cultural and historical heritage, stay in nice renovated guesthouses and small lodges for 20 to 30$ per night. However, there are also quite a few backpackers with an interest in Luang Prabang’s culture as well, but the will also enjoy some more adventurous excursions and day trips to the countryside of the ancient town. Laos is strongly promoted as an ecotourism destination in Asia, whit a lot of interesting national and international ecotourism projects and developments going on. A quick search in Google for “ecotourism” brought up a 150’000 hits and 108’000 hits for “sustainable tourism”.
The amount of visitors tripled within the last 10 years from around 400’000 in 1996 to about 1, 3 Mio in 2006 according to the Lao National Tourism Administration. About 1 Mio of the customers are Asians, where the visitor numbers from Thailand (600’000) is the biggest, followed by Vietnam (170’000) and China with 50’000 visitors in a year. China has now allowed its citizens to travel more freely to Laos. Therefore, Chinese tourists numbers to Laos are expected to rise and will probably account for 25% of the total number of visitors to Laos in the future. Europeans or Westerners account for about 200’000 tourists.

The pressures on Laos to modernize and develop its tourist infrastructure is rapidly increasing, there is a big demand to cater for an increasing amount of package tourism, which will have a significant impact on the development of Luang Prabang.

Therefore, the inscription of Luang Prabang on the World Heritage List in 1995 happened just at the right time, to preserve the town of Luang Prabang. With new roads being build from Vientiane and the Chinese border, the small town of Luang Prabang was about to rapidly expand and transform it - not an entirely positive development.
There is now a strict zoning law, which ensures that the character of the town is preserved by restricting advertising billboards and decreeing that no out-of-character buildings can be constructed, which means, that no photo-finishing shops or fast-food outlets can be opened in the old town. Big tourist buses are not allowed within the old quarter of the town. Luang Prabang promotes eco-friendly tourism in different ways, such as reinforcing the visitors to walk or ride a bicycle to explore Luang Prabang, closing roads to make space for the morning and night markets, and setting and enforcing speed limits within the whole town (quite unique in Asia). There are very good maps available, which make it a pleasure to walk around to visit the different attractions of the towns. All attractions are also well explained in Laotian, French and English language. There are many good web sites and books, with a lot of useful information on Luang Prabang available, so that the visitors can inform themselves easily. In the town are also some very good local tour guides available, so the cultural interested tourists can get there information from locals as well.
In the UNESCO plan, there are three zones: the old quarter, a peripheral zone, and natural zones along the Mekong River. The main problem is now how to maintain Luang Prabang as a World Heritage Site and accommodate the fast growing number of tourists that will be attracted.
The Luang Prabang authorities are handling increased tourism well so far. The plan is not to build new hotels, but rather modify existing mansions for use as hotels. The whole area has a lot of natural attractions within a short distance, such as caves, waterfalls, jungle and rivers and the plan of the Laos authorities is, to further develop sustainable tourism by involving local communities in the over all tourism development of the area, but also to direct some of the tourist to the neighboring attractions to take some pressure of Luang Prabang.
My recommendation is, to raise some of the entrance fees of the attractions for foreign visitors, which may take a little bit pressure of the attractions by reducing the amount of visitors to them. With the so collected money the local authorities would have the choice to renovate some public buildings, such as schools and government buildings, which will further improve the image of the town. Then, there are a few hotel developments well underway about 5 to 10 km outside of the town. I suggest providing some shuttle bus or other public transport to accommodate for the visitors need to go out to town, to prevent them of using private taxis and motorbikes. Then, I think, that the roads of the old quarter should and could be closed during the day time for private traffic to implement a pedestrian zone.
Laos has done a lot to improve its tourism facilities and to make it easier to obtain Visas for tourists, therefore tourism will further grow. Especially, when the fast growing and powerful neighbor China starts to travel, I think, tourism in Laos and basically in the whole region will change dramatically.

Vize-Admiral Supoj Prueksa, Kommandeur der Dritten Flotte, sagte, dass am Freitag in der Nacht ein Schiff der Royal Thai Navy zur Rettung von 125 gestrandeten Touristen an die Similan Inseln ausgelaufen sei. Sie konnten aufgrund des schlechten Wetters nicht zurück zur Küste. Weitere Marine Schiffe, Hubschrauber und medizinischen Teams seien rund um die Uhr im Standby-Modus für weitere Rettungsaktion.

Die Versenkung der 10 ausser Dienst gestellten Militärflugzeug – auch bekannt als das Korallenriff-Geschwader – wird bis zum November verschoben.

Als Begründung wurden die starken Winde und die grossen Wellen angegeben, die mit dem Monsun gekommen sind. Es ist jetzt zu gefährlich, um die Flugzeuge zu versenken.

In der Zwischenzeit werden die vier Douglas C-47 Dakota Skytrain Militär Flugzeug und die sechs Sikorsky S-58T Hubschrauber in der Layan Bay gelagert bis das Wetter sich verbessert.

Die Verschiebung des Projektes folgt auch im Interessen der Taucher, da die Flugzeugwracks für Taucher gefährlich sein könnten, wenn sie nicht richtig an den Meeresgrund befestigt werden.

In Erwiderung auf die Sicherheit Bedenken, erklärte Pragon Geatgun, der Vizepräsident der Thailändischen Tauchgesellschaft (TDA), dass die Flugzeuge an grosse Betonsteine angekettet würden.

Die Flugzeuge müssen sorgfältig versenkt werden, weil sie alt und sehr leicht sind und daher schnell bersten können unterdem enormen Gewicht der Befestigungsteine.

Im Moment steht der neue Termin für die Versenkung der Flugzeuge noch nicht fest. Eines ist aber jetzt schon klar, die Coral Reef Squadron wird nur der erste Schritt sein im Hinblick auf die Bildung von künstlichen Riffs in der Andaman See.

The Similan Marine National Park was designated under the Royal Thai National Park act 1961 by the Royal Forest Department as the 43rd National Park of Thailand.
The Park was founded to protect the tropical marine ecosystem, with its diverse fish and reef life. These marine habitats are very important to many people in Thailand as they provide for cash crop fisheries and other benefits, such as dive tourism, ecotourism and education related activities.
In 1993 the National Park Division of the Royal Forestry department was reorganized and the Marine Park Division was formed and all significant marine and costal ecosystems were included in the new division.
This Marine Park Division is now responsible for the management of the 21 marine national parks in Thailand.
The goals of the Marine Park Division are to manage the marine protected areas according to the National Park act, to revise and update the management strategies, to provide recreation, education and research in a sustainable manner within the marine park.
Tourists and Tour Operators are required to pay an Entrance Fee, which is used to install mooring lines and maintain the Parks buildings and infrastructure.
The Marine Park published a booklet in Thai and English with maps and the location of the moorings as well as an explanation on how to use them…
All boats entering the Park need a license.
Right now the Park is considering implementing a policy that all boats need to install proper marine toilets and waste water tanks.
However, there should be some diving limitations in place to protect the under water world from the increasing pressure and degeneration from the dive tourism.

The Marine Park Division is quite successful in protecting the marine protected areas within the Thai waters, but sometimes they react more than they actually act on some issues. However the biggest thread for the marine parks is not the tourism industry but comes from the fisheries industry, because they often enter the park to fish within its boundaries. Unfortunately these fishing boats are heavily armed so that the park rangers often need to call the Royal Thai Navy in to stop these illegal activities from happen.

There are two good manuals about the marine park available:
Marine Park Manual about the Andaman Sea
Marine Park Manual about Ecotourism in Thai seas

What are the Similan Marine National Parks achievements towards being a successful tourist attraction.

1 - The Similan Marine National Park as many other National Park areas in the world is not very easy accessible, that is because the customers need to book with a boat operator to overcome the 60km boat ride from the harbor on the mainland to the Park. The Marine Park itself does not provide any transportation. There is a Marine Park entrance fee, which has to be paid to the operator. However the diving and snorkeling customers are more than willing to overcome these two minor negative issues and visit the park anyway.

2 - As most of the customers get picked up directly from the boat operators at their respective hotels, there is not really a need of a big car park at the jetty. Anyway there is space available and parking is at the unmanaged car park is for free. Unfortunately, there is no special parking space for disabled people available.

3 - The National Park has three visitor centers in place, two of them directly on the islands (Meang island and Similan island) and one (the Headquarter) well hidden (probably not by intention!) to the public near the entrance to the jetty. The wooden buildings fit well into the parks natural environment and are easy accessible also to disabled people. They provide a wide range of information about the wild life, the park and the diving in Thai as well as in English.

4 - The National Park uses for its signs and information the internationally widely used pictograms or Thai and English information texts.

5 - There are shops located within the three visitor centers. They sell nautical maps, some puppets and some interesting books, but most of them in Thai. The most interesting shop of them is in the one located next to the Headquarter, which is a shame, as rarely ever a tourist will find that shop. Without having some real figures available, I think, that the shops certainly could need some improvement in the over all amount of product available but also in the variety. The shop in the Headquarter area could need some more attraction and for sure better signs so that it can be more easily located.

6 - The National Park has on both Meang and the Similan islands each a restaurant with traditional Thai kitchen ready to serve the tourist and visitors needs from 8.00 am until 8.00 pm. The restaurants serving different menus, of course also sea food, but they aren’t really themed towards sea life or the ocean.

7 - There are clean toilets on the islands available. As I mentioned earlier there is also some progress going on, that all the boats entering the Similan Marine National Park need to install marine toilets and wastewater tanks to protect the environment of the park.

8 - With the increasing amount of customers the park management began to realize, that they will have a serous waste problem in the near future on the islands, therefore they started to install litter bins at the main sites. However some more remote attractions on the island still do not have some bins in place. As people getting more environmentally aware there is not too much littering going on. Rats, which get attracted by the waste is another problem on the islands. Luckily there are some big lizards and snakes around to catch up with the increasing rat population. In my opinion, the park management should put some more effort into this problem and try to find a solution, like more litter bins and maybe remove the waste more regularly to get less attention by the rats.

9 - As there are many small rocks, powdery white sand and lovely palm trees all around the islands spending their shadow freely, seating in the sand under a tree is easy and almost everywhere possible. Of course the restaurants and the visitor centers do have some more common seating available as well.

10 - Most of the facilities in the Marine National Park can also be used without any problem by people with disabilities, except the pushchairs on the powdery sand. As the Thais are very helpful, friendly and flexible people, I am sure that there will be some helping hands available and some special arrangements can be made in such an occasion.

11 - The Similan Marine National Park has some tents and bungalows at reasonable rates available, but most of the diving customers will stay overnight on a live aboard anyway. If a customers wants to book an accommodation on the island directly without a locale agent or dive operator involved in can get a little bit tricky, because the booking office staff is not very literate in the English language.

12 - As diving at the Similan islands is a great experience and an overnight stay on the islands is very adventurous and romantic, people keep returning to the park. In general the customers get a very good value from the dive operators on the live aboard as well as on the day trip boats. The over all customers’ service in Thailand is very high, maybe less in European standard, but more in politeness, friendliness and the serving and supporting attitude of the locals towards the guests. I’ll think the tourists still get very good Value for Money in Thailand in general and in the Similan Marine National Park specifically.

With an abundance of 11 islands, marine life, 3 wrecks, great weather, great visibility and a huge amount of coral reef in Thailand, the Similan islands are the Top destination in Thailand’s dive travel niche market.

There are an estimated 10 million active divers in the world. The Similan Marine National Park, Thailand’s most popular dive destination attracted about 150’000 to 200’000 divers & skin divers per season.
There are currently about 100 dive & snorkel operators with a license to operate within the Similan Marine National Park. 70% of the dive tourism to the Similan Marine National Park is focused in Khao Lak, Phang Nga.

According to Rodale’s Scuba Diving Magazine the most important considerations for dive tourists choosing a dive destination is the quality of diving and the cost. A similar survey conducted by the same Magazine found that the most important factor for choosing a dive operator was the operator’s reputation.

The most common reason given by divers and skin divers to the Similan Marin National Park for their visit is to enjoy the beauty of marine life and the islands.

The following dive facilities are available in Khao Lak: Day trip boats, live-aboard, snorkel day trip boats, snorkel live-aboard, and dive training.

The Similan Marine National Park is an attractive dive destination, because it provides healthy marine environment, variety of different dive sites (about 40 different wreck, coral reef and rocky sites), good visibility, marine life and good facilities (dive operators, guesthouses, hotels, restaurants, transportation).

One potential barrier to dive tourism in Thailand is the threat of coral bleaching, coral mortality and rising water temperatures. There should be some diving limitations in place to protect the under water world. Tourist and Operators are required to pay an Entrance Fee which is then used to install mooring lines and maintain the Parks buildings and infrastructure.

With its already well-established tourism market, Thailand has much of the infrastructure required for dive tourism in place to take advantage of this niche market.

The world famous Similan Islands Marine National Park which consists of nine very beautiful islands, beaches and a world famous underwater scenery.

The dive sites of the Similans belong to the Top Ten Dive Sites worldwide. Lots of divers and skin divers visit the Park everyday to enjoy the fantastic underwater world.

I believe the Similan Island Marine National Park has all the picturesque scenery, beautiful Rock formations, nice palm trees and an abundant marine life to be one of the Top Ten Dive Attractions in the World. Nature at its best!

Endlich sind sie da, die lange angekündigten und von der Royal Thai Airforce ausgemusterten Flugzeuge. Nachdem der Konvoi schlussendlich den Tcha Tchai Checkpoint im Norden von Phuket passiert hatte, setzte er sich Richtung Ao Makham (Phuket Deep Sea Port) in Bewegung. Im Deep Sea Port werden die Flugzeuge nochmals gereinigt, bevor sie ihrer neuen Verwendung als künstliches Riff zugeführt werden und den Fischen als neues zu Hause dienen können.

Die Flugzeuge werden in einem konzentrischen Muster mit zwei Hubschraubern in der Mitte in einer Tiefe von etwa 15 bis 20 Meter versenkt. Die Helikopter ihrerseits werden von einem Kreis aus Flugzeugen und Hubschrauberwracks umgeben. Die gesamte „Coral Reef Squadron“ wird etwa 2500 Quadratmeter auf dem Meeresgrund einnehmen.

Die Flügel der Flugzeugs sowie die Rotoren der Hubschrauber wurden abgeschnitten. Alle gefährlichen und / oder toxischen Bestandteile wurden entfernt, bevor die Flugzeuge nach Phuket transportiert wurden, somit ist auch gewährleistet, dass die Taucher ein entsprechend „entschärftes“ Wracktauch-Abenteuer geniessen können.
Zudem werden die Flugzeuge auf dem Meeresgrund mit grossen Betonblöcken gegen ein mögliches weiteres Abrutschen zusätzlich gesichert.

Die TAT (Tourist Association of Thailand) sagt, dass nach Abschluss des Projekts davon ausgegangen wird, dass etwa 200 Taucher pro Jahr zu den neuen Wracks pilgern werden, was ein Einkommen von 140 Millionen Baht generieren soll.