Tourists flee Thai islands as Tropical Storm Pabuk looms

Tens of thousands of tourists have fled the Thai resort islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao in a mass exodus ahead of Tropical Storm Pabuk which is set to bring heavy rains, wind and seven-meter waves, officials said Thursday.

The islands, hugely popular with holiday-makers especially during the peak Christmas and New Year season, have emptied out since Wednesday as tourists packed onto ferries bound for the southern Thai mainland, with swimming banned and boats set to suspend services.

Pabuk, Thailand's first tropical storm in the area outside of the monsoon season for around 30 years, is poised to batter Koh Phangan and Koh Tao as well as Koh Samui on Friday night, before cutting into the mainland.

No official evacuation order has been given but tourists are leaving in droves.

"I think the islands are almost empty... between 30,000 to 50,000 have left since the New Year's Eve countdown parties," Krikkrai Songthanee, Koh Phangnan district chief, told AFP.

The acting mayor of Koh Tao, one of Southeast Asia's finest diving spots, said boats to Chumphon on the mainland were crammed with tourists, but several thousand guests were still on the island likely to brave the storm.

Pabuk was packing winds of 104 kilometers per hour (65 mph) but was unlikely to intensify into a full blown typhoon, according to forecasters.

"But we expect waves as high as five or seven meters near the eye of the storm. Normally in the Gulf of Thailand there are only two metre high waves," Phuwieng Prakammaintara, director general at the Thai Meteorological Department, told reporters.

.

.

"It's difficult to predict the severity of the storm so people should comply with authorities' recommendations."

On Koh Samui, the closest of the trio of islands, a Russian man drowned on Wednesday after his family ignored warnings not to go into the sea.

"A family of three went swimming but the strong current caught a 56-year-old man who drowned," Police Captain Boonnam Srinarat of Samui Police told AFP.

"Island officials announced the warning and put up the red 'danger' flags... but maybe the family did not think the situation was that serious."

Authorities on the island said they were preparing shelters for any tourists who decide to wait out the storm.

Pabuk, which means a giant catfish in Lao, is also expected to dump heavy rain across the south, including tourist hotspots in the Andaman Sea such as Krabi and the southernmost provinces bordering Malaysia of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.

Source - TheJakartaPost

Indonesia - Two decades for broken coral reefs to recover

The Environment and Forestry Ministry has announced that broken coral reefs covering 1,020 square meters near Pari Island of Thousand Island regency, which were damaged after cargo ship Ghanda Nusantara 15 rammed into them on Saturday night, will take over 20 years to recover.

Iksan, a ministry official who conducted a survey at the site of the incident, told The Jakarta Post recently that the majority of the damaged area consisted of hard coral — also known as stony coral — which takes a long time to grow.

“It takes 20 years or more for such kinds of coral reefs to recover to their normal condition, before the incident took place,” Iksan said, adding that the ministry would study the results over the next several days to determine total losses from the incident.

The ship’s owner, as regulated in Law. No 32/2009 on environmental management and protection, will have to pay for the losses, with the money being used for restoration of the coral reefs.

.

.

Article 2 of the law states that every person or institution proven to have damaged environment is obliged to pay a certain amount of compensation.

The Thousand Island Police said separately that the ship, owned by the Transportation Ministry, reportedly rammed into the coral reefs near the island at around 7:15 p.m. on Saturday.

The ship, intended to sail from Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan to Tidung Island of Thousand Islands regency, was stuck near Pari Island due to bad weather. It was swept away by strong waves and finally left stranded atop the pristine coral reefs.

“Six crew members aboard have been evacuated by Pari Island residents, with help from officials from the fire and rescue agency,” said Thousand Islands Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Viktor Siagian. The ship’s crew were then brought to the police to be questioned.

Local residents urged the government to quickly move the vessel from the site to avoid further damage to the coral reefs.

.

FOR THE BEST GLOBAL HOTEL & FLIGHT BOOKINGS

.
One of the local residents, Ahmad Taufik, 36, said the coral reefs played a significant role in boosting the island’s tourism. Pari Island is among the top tourist destinations in Thousand Islands regency, along with Tidung and Bidadari Islands.

Ahmad added that coral reef damage from ships occasionally occurred in the island’s waters. He, together with other residents concerned with marine protection, would replant the coral reefs using compensation from the owners of the ships that caused the environmental damage.

“At least one similar incident happens in the island’s waters every year, but the ships that caused the damage have never been as big as the [Ghanda Nusantara] ship,” Ahmad told the Post via phone. The Ghanda Nusantara has a weight of around 92 gross tons.

Environmental group Greenpeace urged the government to finish the valuation soon to figure out how much the ship’s owners had to pay.

It could be a great loss, said Greenpeace Southeast Asia oceans campaigner Arifsyah Nasution, reflecting on a similar incident that had occurred last year in Raja Ampat waters in Papua.

“Seeing the case at Raja Ampat, each square meter of damage had to be compensated with up to US$1,200,” he said.

On March 4, British cruise ship Caledonian Sky ran aground in Raja Ampat waters, West Papua, destroying nearly 13,000 sqm of coral reef.

Source - TheJakartaPost

Top 10 destinations on the rise revealed

An Idyllic tropical lagoon full of clear turquoise water and perfect white sand beaches on Ishigaki island, Okinawa, Japan.

Travel planning and booking website TripAdvisor recently released its list of the world's top destinations on the rise based on its algorithm and comparisons to last year's data.

As reported by kompas.com, the top ten list is as follows:

Ishigaki, Japan

Kapaa, Hawaii, United States

Nairobi, Kenya

Halifax, Canada

Gdansk, Poland

San Jose, Costa Rica

Riga, Latvia

Rovinj, Croatia

Nerja, Spain

Number 10 we not promoted

Ishigaki, which tops the list, is particularly interesting since it beat out the world's popular tourist hot spot Hawaii. 

An island in Japan with a population of around 50,000 people, Ishigaki is actually known as the Hawaii of Japan because of its abundance of white sand beaches, crystal clear sea water, mangrove forests and breathtaking diving spots.

In 2016, this place was said to have welcomed up to 8.77 million tourists, an increase of 10.5 percent over the previous year. It is predicted to greet even more tourists this year.

Another interesting place on the list is Kenya's capital city, Nairobi. Many travelers are said to be very keen on visiting this destination, with one TripAdvisor user praising it as a modern city, full of spirit, blessed with fantastic wild nature but also home to glamorous nightlife.

Source - TheJakartaPost