Myeik Archipelago

The archipelago scatters something like eight hundred islands down the Andaman coast south of Myeik, most of them uninhabited, forested to the waterline and fringed with beaches nobody uses. It was effectively closed for decades and remains lightly visited, so the reefs are in better condition than most in the region and the beaches are genuinely empty. The Moken, sea nomads who traditionally spent most of the year on boats, still live among the islands, though the way of life has changed a great deal in a generation.

History

The islands were probably first settled by Malay sailors, but stayed largely uninhabited until the 20th century; Malay and Chinese traders sheltered in their inner waters from the southwest monsoon, and the Moken found refuge among them. Accurate charts came only after 1824, when Captain Ross surveyed the outer islands in the late 1820s and Captain Lloyd the inner ones in the late 1830s (Wikipedia, Mergui Archipelago).

Highlights

• The empty beaches - long white strands on islands with no settlement at all.
• The reefs - coral in better condition than most of the Andaman coast, with good visibility.
• The Moken - sea-nomad communities living among the islands, now largely in fixed villages.
• The forest islands - limestone and granite islands wooded to the tideline, with hornbills and sea eagles.

When to go

November to April is the dry season and the only practical window; the southwest monsoon shuts the archipelago from May to October. February and March give the clearest water. Trips run to fixed departure dates.

Things to know

Access is expensive and restricted: permits are required and independent island-hopping is not possible, so this means a chartered boat or a liveaboard. Facilities on the islands are essentially nil. Visits to Moken communities vary enormously in how they are handled, and it is worth asking an operator directly how they arrange them.

Nearby

Myeik town is the main departure point and Kawthaung is at the southern tip of the country.

Key facts