Myanmar’s Myeik (Mergui) Archipelago

We spend a few days in Myanmar's unspoiled Myeik Archipelago

Posted on December 16, 2018

Myanmar's Myeik (Mergui) Archipelago - Let your mind go wild for a moment and just imagine this… You are transposed to a location on planet earth described as: “Nature’s unexplored lost kingdom where nobody knows all the species that live in the dense jungle and in the turquoise waters. A pristine paradise of primal seclusion which is irresistibly lovely, and one of the last few paradises on earth. Here everything is alive, even the shells are crawling”.

Wake up and stop dreaming. Its real! You are in Myanmar’s Myeik Archipelago!

This is the place for adventure dreamers to make their dreams come true. This is a place for explorers. A place for those who are yearning for destinations that still remain untouched, immaculate, and unspoiled by mass tourism. This is a place where tourism is a brand-new terminology.

Known as the Myeik or Mergui Archipelago, this name is as confusing as the country’s name. In their effort to erase some of the remaining reminders of their former colonial rulers, the military government changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar, together with many other colonial-era names, including the Mergui Archipelago which became the Myeik Archipelago. While both the colonial name and the Myanmar names are still used interchangeably, it is more correct to refer to it as the Myeik Archipelago.

The Myeik Archipelago is an immense area that covers approximately 36,000 square kilometres (13,900 square miles) and lies in the Andaman Sea off the Tanintharyi Region’s coast in the extreme south of Myanmar.

The Tanintharyi Region encompasses the long narrow southern part of the country known as the Kra Isthmus. It borders the Andaman Sea to the west, and the 1,700 km (1,056 mi) long Tenasserim mountain range, beyond which lies Thailand, to the east. To the north is Myanmar’s Mon State, and to the south is Thailand and the idyllic Thai islands of Surin and Similan.

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Globerovers Magazine July 2018