Kamala Seawater Made Me & Gf Itchy

[phuketfrank3]

I wonder if anybody else has encountered similar problems?

Me and the gf like a nice swim, we hadn't been for a couple of weeks so we headed down to Kamala beach. Everything seemed pleasant enough, but after we'd been swimming for a little while, I noticed that my skin was feeling itchy and prickly. "Dammit what's wrong with me?" I thought - mentioned it to my gf, she said she was feeling the same sensation. We got out and headed home soon afterwards.

It hasn't lead to a rash of any kind, had a good shower when I got back home, no health problems - I'm just wondering what caused it? Neither me or gf had experienced anything like it before - it affected the whole body.

It was rather like the feeling you get when you've been using bleach.

We were swimming quite early for us, about 0830 in the morning. Has put me off swimming in the sea a bit.

[amyb]

i would guess possibly bits and pieces of jelly fish...had the same at nai harn over the weekend...

[stevenl]

I was about to say sealice, but that would not be all over your body, just local.

[ozzydom]

Kamala crabs at work again.

[bunta71]

I usually swim every day at Kamala. I have been experiencing the same. For me it seems like many bites from some weak jelly fish. Doesn't hurt as intensely as previous jelly fish bites, but is pretty annoying. A few days ago there was a Japanese lady that had the same thing going on yet seemed to really affect her seriously. Major welts and blisters. I was going to ask or start a thread referring to this and the OP beat me to it. Any other beaches where this does not occur??

[stevenl]

I usually swim every day at Kamala. I have been experiencing the same. For me it seems like many bites from some weak jelly fish. Doesn't hurt as intensely as previous jelly fish bites, but is pretty annoying.

That sounds like sealice.

[Totster]

I had the same experience on Ao Nang - I thought it was due to algae. Didn't feel it after the first couple of days, maybe it was washed away. It was only a very minor irritation anyway.

Totster

[madmitch]

Sealice apparently particularly bad at Karon today. I didn't have a swim myself.

[bunta71]

I usually swim every day at Kamala. I have been experiencing the same. For me it seems like many bites from some weak jelly fish. Doesn't hurt as intensely as previous jelly fish bites, but is pretty annoying.

That sounds like sealice.

Lousy answer...Rice from the sea.

[kirmizi]

I've experienced the same thing many times. After much reading online, it appears it's caused by jellyfish larvae. Apparently, they contain mature stinging cells, but only in very small numbers. They're also too small to see.

[phuketfrank3]

I will give Surin a try, see if the same happens there. Bunta described it better than me, it wasn't like every square centimeter of my skin was affected, just that I felt a large number of "stinging" pains around my body. My first thought was that some local Thai company was dumping unknown chemicals into the sea to save themselves a few baht ..... perhaps I'm being a little too cynical!

[phuketrichard]

kamala beach has a resident population of what one might refer to as sea lice. They live in the sand.

When a storm starts to roll in it upsets the ground and they seem to come out. So if ur overly skin sensitve only swim on bright clear sky days when the sea is like glass.

Edited January 30, 2011 by phuketrichard