Why Mergui?

Seeing is believing: http://docs.google.com/Presentation?docid=ddnkrpz8_51gwpckndg

1. Mergui Archipelago – the world’s last tropical island frontier

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.

Throughout earth’s tropical belt there remains no other island group in such a state, virtually untouched and unchanged by man.

<http://www.phuketmagazine.com/html/Andaman%20Region/Mergui%20Archipelago/Mergui%20Archipelago.htm>

2. A Forgotten Wonder ... <www.paddlingpalau.com/forgottenwonder.html>

3. In quite possibly the clearest waters you can imagine. It boosts some of the best loveliest corals in the world and reef fishes are generally larger than those in the Similan Islands.

<http://www.worldwidediveandsail.com/liveaboard%2Bdiving/burma%2Bbanks%2Bmergui.htm>

4. Hornbill Discovery

We were very excited to discover the night roost of over 150 Plain-pouched Hornbills roosting on a small island near Lampi Island Marine National Park.

The Archipelago is roamed by one of the last truly nomadic sea gypsies in the world, the Moken, an animist tribe who live in family groups on dugout boats of very special design. They are said to be last survivors of the original people of Southeast Asia who took refuge on boats when the continent was submerged by 100 meters of water after the end of the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago.

<http://ecoswiss.org/Mergui%20Archipelago.html>

5. In the new millennium, divers have been given the opportunity to explore one of the last pristine environments on earth, the Mergui Archipelago. In a very short time, the Banks became recognized as the place for serious divers to observe sharks close-up and personal - something lacking in Thailand.

Grey reef sharks, powerful, beautiful and a little bit scary, known to be aggressive in some waters around the world, in Burma they are shy and often be rewarded with a close encounter, a thrilling experience.

<http://www.phuket.com/diving/sites/mergui.htm>

6. A Natural Beauty above and below the water ... <http://www.sunrise-divers.com/burma_banks.php>

7. If you want to see fish and invertebrates not found anywhere else on the face of the earth, and one of the last uninhabited archipelagos in the world, you've come to the right place.

<http://www.siamdivers.com/sites/mergui.ht>

8. The Marble Isles, as steep and stunning as their storied geological cousins in Guilin, China, and Halong Bay, Vietnam.

There, we will search for the hidden tidal lagoon on what was once called Elephant Island.

Should this lagoon live up to a nineteenth - century British civil servant’s glowing review (“A magic scene from a fairyland: a snow white ring, with an opening like the crater of a volcano, in the midst of a purple lake”)

There, curving out from a narrow cove, is a deep-green lagoon surrounded by a jagged ring of white cliffs. Scrambling down the gentle back slope of the ridge, I throw off my shirt and dive into the water, then swim slowly toward the center of the volcano like lake, listening to the birdcalls echo off three-hundred foot walls. Even though Frost is a few minutes behind me, even though I realize Burmese fishermen must know this place well, I feel as if I am the first person to discover it.

<http://www.seal-asia.com/press-coverage/seakayaking7-3.htm>