Travel Destination » Travel to Myanmar

MYANMAR
For many centuries since the birth of the industrial revolution — technology, commerce and politics have together formed an all but irresistible bulldozer, ploughing relentlessly through the world’s natural environments. But every so often, through odd quirks of fate, a few places are inadvertently overlooked. his is what has happened with the Mergui Archipelago, a large and very beautiful is land group off Myanmarls west coast. Not only have the islands escaped development by the modern world, they don’t even have a significant indigenous population. Despite being right in the geographical centre of Asia, surrounded by countries with the densest populations on the planet — India, China and Indonesia - few human beings have ever set foot on these islands. They offer a rare chance to see a natural environment untouched by mankind.

The Last Eden
It’s one thing to visit a remote tropical island – but something completely different to be the first person ever to leave your footprints in the sand Over the last few thousand years, since Homo sapiens have become the dominant species on the planet, mankind seems to have spread everywhere and travelled everywhere. These days even the polar ice caps, the highest peaks, the deepest jungles and the most barren deserts have felt the trudge of heavy boots or the roar of man-made machines. It’s almost unthinkable to turn to a map of Asia - the world’s most densely populated region - and contemplate a long chain of tropical islands, situated by a major land mass in the heart of the region, only to find out that virtually no-one lives there, very few have ever visited, and even the larger islands are designated “unknown and unexplored”. Yet there is just such a chain of islands. It’s called the Mergui Archipelago, and it stretches down the west coast of Myanmar. Amazingly, apart from a few ‘sea gypsies’, there’s not even an indigenous population. Through a few strange quirks of history, most of the Mergui Archipelago has been left to birds, beasts and plant life.

But now, as a result of the efforts of some entrepreneurs in Thailand, and the co-operation of the Government of Myanmar, these islands are open to limited commercial cruises from Phuket. Anyone lucky enough to get a berth on one of these cruises in the immediate future has the unique opportunity to go where few. if any, have ever gone before, and visit islands that man still hasn’t touched or despoiled an experience that will soon be impossible to replicate anywhere on this planet.

Mystery land
To date, little study or research has been done on the Mergui Archipelago, and it barely appears in the pages of history or geography books. It takes quite a bit of digging to get even the sketchiest information. However, it seems that ten thousand years ago, during the last great Ice Age. the Mergui islands were part of the mainland. Then the polar ice caps melted, the seas rose, and the islands were cut off — wit flora and fauna from the mainland presented intact. What remained of the adjacent mainland was a very narrow neck of land - the Isthmus of Kra, which joins Malaysia to Thailand - mom of it mountainous and covered is dense, malaria-infested jungle. The coastal strip opposite the Fchipelago was mainly mangrove swamp, and unattractive for either farming or settlement. Throuick the rise and fall of the various empires of Burma, Thailand and Malaysia, the area remained all buff unsettled and the islands of the archipelago untouched.

It was only the growth of commerce between the various empires of the region that led to aim significant settlement in the arcs As trade grew between the civilizations of India and Mesopotarnu to the west, and China, Vietnam and Thailand to the east, seafwers and merchants quickly found it convenient to make landfall (a the Isthmus of Kra then trans goods the short distance across the peninsula. Even so, battling act the rugged mountains, overcome heat, humidity, dense jungle, risk of malaria and occasional attacks, was no easy task. T town of Mergui was established on a small island in a river mouth, of the most convenient anchora on the west coast. Over the centuries the settlement grew into a prosperous port. and its fortunes were further bolstered he advent of European traders seeking lecess to the Far East. But eventually the ride turned for Mergui. The British, who became the dominant sea power and trading nation in the region in the early 19th century, chose to set up another port further south on Penang Island, and Mergui declined in importance. Then the adventure steam ships, which enabled an easy passage through the windless Straits of Malacca 2nd around the Malay peninsula, removed the need for the difficult transhipment Icross the mountainous Isthmus of Kra, and Iergui slipped into obscurity. Once again the west coast of the peninsula and the Iergui Archipelago were off the world map.

In 1948, the British granted independence to Burma; but in 1962, just as the rest of Asia began a period Of unsurpassed and development, a military junta power and established a dictatorship. They all but sealed Burma off from the outside world, and the few tourists who took advantage of the one-week visas usually explored (Yangon) Rangoon or headed north to Mandalay and the fabulous Plain Pagan. None turned south to the on ouched islands of Mergui – and even if they getting there at that time would have proven extremely difficult.

Emerging from obscurity
The opening of the Mergui Archipelago came about in an unusual way. In the late 1980s dive-based tourism started booming in Phuket. Some of the bigger operators invested in live-aboard dive boats and began exploring the potential of offshore sites like the Similan Islands and Richelieu Rocks. As they went further afield, theN encountered pristine sites with magnificent coral, abundant reef fish and even big pelagics. One of the major discoveries was the Burma Banks, a series of sea mountains some 60km northwest of Phuket. The mountains rise to within 12m of the surface — diveable depth – and although they are not rich in coral, they seem to be a heritable magnet for big pelagics. The site soon earned a world-wide reputation for “shark attraction” dives. Technically, the Burma Banks are in international waters, but they are close to the coast of Myanmar and the Burmese government claims possession of them. At first the government seemed to turn a blind eye to the dive cruises, and through the early 1990s more operators started visiting the Burma Banks. The islands of the Mergui Archipelago now looked invitingly close. If the Burma Banks had such an abundance of marine life, what, these operators wondered, would be found in the unknown and virtually untouched waters of Mergui?

One of the pioneers of scuba diving in Phuket, Matthew Hedrick, embarked on a long, patient process of negotiation in an attempt to get access to the archipelago and permission to run commercial cru Then, in 1995, the Burmese authorities a stop to the trips to the Burma Bank & hopes of access to the Mergui Archi faded. But, surprisingly Hedrick through, and in November 1996 the ernment of Myanmar granted permis for the first cruises into the area since W War H. The first legitimate cruise to Mergui Archipelago took place in Jan 1997. The doors at last were open.