Thailand's troubled waters
Sitting in a canoe slowly gliding towards them, the towering sea caves that rise out of the Andaman Sea in Phang Nga Bay Marine National Park near Phuket make a majestic sight. From a distance, these marvels could not look more peaceful and inviting - huge limestone outcrops rising hundreds of feet into the sky and surrounded by a placid deep green sea. It is easy to see why they have become such a popular tourist attraction.
But as the canoe draws closer, the tranquillity is abruptly interrupted. Bare-chested men in long-tail fishing boats hover at the small entrances to the caves. Signs in Thai and English warn that entry to the caves is prohibited.
Prohibited, that is, if the sea cave canoe operator you are travelling with has not previously paid a 100 baht (HK$21.40) entrance fee per person. The rules are simple, pay up and you can glide in. If not, go away. The boys in the long-tails enforce the restrictions.
The signs and the guards have been posted by the exclusive holder of the concession to collect birds' nests from the caves, P P Cabana Co. The company, which paid 27 million baht (about HK$5.8 million) for the concession, claims tourists are driving away the birds and effecting business. Birds' nests, an expensive delicacy, are big business in southern Thailand, with companies paying huge amounts to the government for the right to harvest them. Most of the nests are exported in what is a multi-million-dollar business. One of the biggest markets is in Hong Kong.
Panwong Hirunchay, operations manager for one of Phuket's sea canoe companies, Sea Canoe Limited, refused to pay to enter the caves. Nor did he want to go away. His daily expeditions to the island, guiding canoe-loads of tourists to the popular hongs, as the sea caves are known, had deteriorated into a long game of cat and mouse with the caves' guardians. If the guards did not happen to be around, Mr Panwong would slip his canoes in and on to the majestic lagoons, surrounded by steep walls of rock, which await the visitor deep inside the caves. If the guards were there, often enough, tirades of abuse would be exchanged.
Last month, Mr Panwong, 39, after an altercation with the guards, was given one of those finger-wagging 'we-are-going-to-get-you' warnings that are never taken lightly in Thailand. At about 10am on October 27, he was in the back of a pick-up being rushed to hospital with bullet wounds in his leg, arm and abdomen. He remains in intensive care at Bangkok Phuket Hospital in the island's provincial capital Phuket Town, under 24-hour police guard.