
A Beach Nobody Can Touch - rmason
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/the_beach_nobody_can_touch
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RestlessMind
There should be a two-pronged effort to tackle over-tourism.

1\. For ultra-popular attractions (Venice, Maya Bay...), keep jacking up the
prices until the tourist flow trickles down to what can be sustained at those
places. In case that sounds elitist, have supplemental measures like first-
come first-served permits (like the ones at Half Dome, Yosemite) or procedural
barriers which only the most committed ones would jump through.

2\. Popularize hitherto unknown destinations. I am sure there are tons of gems
in "the middle of nowhere". Spread the tourism everywhere around the globe,
which will be appreciated by regions looking for economic boosts. Maybe, there
are even known techniques like opening up non-stop flights from hotspot
tourist sources (Beijing? Shanghai? Delhi?) or filming popular movies at such
locations (like The Beach from TFA).

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titzer
Please do not do #2.

Rather, unknown destinations need to remain unknown. (by this, I mean secret
trails, waterfalls, beaches, etc). I think locals should take steps to protect
them, including removing trail markers and trash, and refusing to talk about
them. Erase trip reports from the internet, and actively fight to keep them
secret and protected. Problem is, any possible "cool thing" is economically
exploitable--and the economy absolutely _will_ exploit it in the end.

For #1, you realize that the same problem applies right? Economic incentives
are all completely against this.

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hyperbovine
Security through obscurity, feels like it has been tried before...

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alex_duf
In this very case that might be enough to delay damage a bit

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peteretep
> Some of them told us they had come to Thailand just to visit Maya Bay and
> did not realise it was closed.

There are 100 reasons to visit Thailand, and this is a shitty one. It's a nice
beach, but there's plenty of nicer ones not even that far away from it

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siquick
I'm on the neighbouring island, Koh Lanta and there is a genuine, positive
local push for better ecological policies. The country reached a tipping point
with the Maya Bay incident and there's a realisation now that the country will
head to financial disaster if they don't keep their prized assets safe.

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madaxe_again
My mother stopped by Maya bay yesterday on her boat, and had this to say:

——

I was there yesterday, and was devastated to see that the new rules re
beach/boat access are being broken. Several longtails/speedboats had tied to
the buoyed demarcation line... which has been moved closer to the beach btw,
and were inside the exclusion zone. Also, tour boats that were on mooring
balls were belching filthy diesel exhaust fumes, leaving an oily film floating
on the water. Add to that the plastic debris floating around, and it’s as
disappointing as it has been for the 8 years I’ve known it. 2 boats actually
landed on the beach, with the passengers walking around on the sand/in the
water. Where were the rangers? Their boat was there, but not a ranger to be
seen. They’re usually very quick to appear, to ask for the National Park
payment. I’m happy to pay, although I have questioned before why the rubbish
is in overflowing sacks on the small adjoining beach on Maya Bay. I think this
is just a PR stunt, not a real effort. Come on Phuket/Krabi, you could do so
much better.

——

So, the ground truth seems to be that this is little more than a PR effort.
For my part, I’ve seen the rangers just burning and/or just heaping up trash a
few meters inland from the beach on multiple “pristine” islands.

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iheartpotatoes
All people want to do is go there to take selfies because there isn't enough
beach or time to relax and enjoy... so, why can't we make non-natural things
more interesting, and make nature super uncool so that people avoid it? a man
can dream.

I'm glad they were able to nurse the coral back in a decade, but it just seems
cynical to invest so much into 300 feet of beach and the comodifiy it. But if
that is the only way to preserve it... It's like the hunter paradox: they
claim hunting funds conservation. Or like the clearing the forest to keep it
from burning paradox. Which forest rangers support. Maybe this is what
sustainability looks like: having to just clean up after shitty humans day in,
day out.

Did anyone else find the UI scroll reveals incredibly annoying?

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Mashimo
>value instanceof LokationsRessourceGruppe

I actually liked the implementation in this case. Felt a bit more interactive.

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SomebodyIsWrong
Same here. I think most of it is that I've gotten somewhat used to the weird
reveals and stuff- it's more of a tool than anything to me now, and this one
was well done, as was the Reuters article [0] that introduced me to it.

[0][https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-
spyi...](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-
raven/)

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dcustodio
I was in Thailand last November and I spent some days in Krabi. It's so overly
touristic that in most "paradisiac" beaches you cannot even take a decent nap
with all the noisy long-tail boats going back and forth. Even though I
contributed for the overexploration, I wasn't ready for this. I wouldn't be
surprised if they start restricting access to other places like Railay.

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jwmoz
How was Ao Nang? Is it bearable? (last time I went was 5 years ago).

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dcustodio
I stayed a few nights in Ao Nang and even though is quite packed you can still
find places to eat without reserving beforehand. I used it more as a base to
visit the surroundings, as the beach there doesn't look that inviting with all
the boats and the occasional sewer. I was expecting it to be more "Thai",
instead as I walked down the street I heard the same radio hits I hear in
Europe. But that's just my expectations hitting the globalization wall. On a
positive note I really liked northern Thailand, the days I spent in Chiang Mai
were definitely the best days of the trip.

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kaybe
I was shocked when I got a Thai massage there some years back and the woman
asked me where I was from. 'Germany.' 'And you speak ENGLISH?!?!' That was
very telling about the kind of people they usually get I think.

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kijin
Those sharks look like the perfect deterrence against anyone who tries to
sneak inside by swimming underneath the demarcation line. Good job, nature! :)

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elyobo
Sadly (in this case) blacktip reef sharks are "Timid and skittish, the
blacktip reef shark is difficult to approach and seldom poses a danger to
humans unless roused by food."[1]. Happily that means you can swim near them
safely, they hang out in Ao Leuk (I think?) on Koh Tao as well.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacktip_reef_shark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacktip_reef_shark)

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NeedMoreTea
There's a huge irony in seeing a Hollywood movie about a deserted, tourist
free beach. Then booking a package holiday to it, expecting the same, and
dropping your crap on the beach anyway. Still, everywhere will be the same
soon at this rate. Ruined.

I'm glad I experienced a few locations before they became commercialised and
before I stopped flying.

~~~
smcl
Honestly it's completely understandable to be upset at large numbers of
tourists (particularly if they do things like drop litter) but I can't help
feeling this comment is lacking a little bit of self awareness

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NeedMoreTea
Not sure I see what you're getting at. I'm old enough that many places that
are now heaving major destinations, with extensive damage, weren't terribly
commercialised or even especially popular.

If I wanted an isolated, pristine beach I wouldn't pick one made globally
famous. I'd actively avoid it.

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jwmoz
I went all around there in 2005 and it was incredible. Especially the Krabi
region and the nearby island (Koh Poda).

I resisted Krabi again 10 years later and was horrified. There was a McDonalds
and Starbucks etc. Koh Poda was full of boats, dirty water and worst of all a
literal rubbish dump of plastic further into the island. The Thais do not take
care of the wonderful land they have.

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alex_duf
The Thais or the masses of careless tourists?

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mosselman
I have never been there, but in my general experience, locals set the
expectation for what happens with trash and nature. If there is no local
interest in preserving nature, tourists won't take care of it either.

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yarrel
That web page hijacking the scrollbar is clever but frustrating.

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teekert
When I was there (2008) we could still visit (we didn't) the locals told us
that it was a complete mess before but the tsunami actually cleaned the whole
bay. In 2008 it was supposedly quite clean and nice there.

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netsharc
Hearing about the litter makes me aggressive, you go there to enjoy the beauty
of nature and then you decide to make it a bit uglier and poison the
environment?

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titzer
Anger is just a stage. Carry some small trash bags and pick up a little. Hand
some bags out. If you see someone litter, go pick it up _yourself_ and then
look them right in their face and _smile_ , say nothing and move on.

I've found that people are reluctant to litter on a clean beach yet
unthinkingly do it if the beach is already visibly trashy. So the strategy is
to get a beach clean enough where it is obviously not OK to trash it. People
will get it.

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taurath
Having visited just the year before they closed it - I felt like the beach
itself was pretty clean. The woods right at the beach line though had some
tourist trash. Apparently the worry is the coral is mostly dead and it will
imbalance the rest of the ecology. It was beautiful when I visited and
definitely far from being “trashed”. I don’t know a lot about ecological
conservation, so maybe there’s lots of signs I didn’t notice!

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hyperbovine
Coral everywhere is dead or dying, I have not visited a site in the past ten
years that does not have an alarming amount of that going. Something I never,
ever would have believed as a youth really is going to happen, coral will be
gone in our lifetimes :-|

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anonymous344
Thailand tourist places are full of mafia-style price controls (in phuket
atleast it was mafia, so it's still in pattaya). They should be turned off and
just suck up and go to do real work. All the moneys (which is big!) coming to
tourist attractions goes to few large pockets, and not giving dam about the
environment, education, health-care, people and so on.

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southphillyman
I went there in Sept 2017 and there were only a handful of people on the
beach. I'm not sure how you restrict these places when you can pay a sailor
$50 USD to take you to all of these places for the day. Overcrowded beaches
are not a bad thing just have some sort of maintenance budget

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scirocco
Good article on this subject (the example is Tulum, Mexico)

[https://www.thecut.com/2019/02/who-killed-
tulum.html](https://www.thecut.com/2019/02/who-killed-tulum.html)

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sexy_seedbox
Waiting for thisbeachdoesnotexist.com

