Oh! Coral! I am but a fool...Chinese tourists behaving badly in Thai national park

[rooster59]

Oh! Coral! I am but a fool...Chinese tourists behaving badly in Thai national park

Image: Thairath

KRABI:-- Three Chinese tourists should have been loving the coral, instead they were treating coral cruel, a bit like Neil Sedaka's 1958 classic.

But a Thai man was on hand at the Koh Thap National Park earlier in the week to video the latest movie of tourists behaving badly, reports Tharath.

One man and two girls were collecting bits of the coral reef when the tide was out. And then, despite being approached by two Thai men, were obviously planning on taking the souvenirs of Thailand back to Tiananmen.

The video taker told them it was wrong in English but they didn't understand the language or the concept of destruction to the environment. Another man had a go to no avail. So the tourists were shamed on social media via the Pantip page of user ZenTriO.

Reporters contacted park officials to advise them of the video and an investigation is now underway to catch those who treated coral cruel "when there would never ever be another."

Source: Thairath

-- 2016-05-07

[2fishin2]

The coral could have been already dead.

Thai reporting leaves a lot to the imagination.

Thais never do anything wrong.

Longtail drivers never drop an anchor on coral.

[daveAustin]

Hang em.

[Bob12345]

The coral could have been already dead.

Thai reporting leaves a lot to the imagination.

Thais never do anything wrong.

Longtail drivers never drop an anchor on coral.

Maybe the Thais are afraid that after destroying 99% of the nature here the Chinese will take care of the last 1%.

They asked for low quality Chinese tourists, now they got them.

[Cuchulainn]

Yeah and the Thais are squeaky clean.

[SOTIRIOS]

.....bits of coral.....implying loose....is it illegal now to collect shells as well....

....wt* do tourists get for their money now anyway......

...except being stalked by locals......

****

...human rights violations....land encroachment....all manner of corruption and scam....drugs and prostitutes everywhere you turn...

...this is what they want to b*tch about.....???

....situation getting worse.....

....wow....

Edited May 7, 2016 by SOTIRIOS

[Catoni]

The coral could have been already dead.

Thai reporting leaves a lot to the imagination.

Thais never do anything wrong.

Longtail drivers never drop an anchor on coral.

Good question..... was the coral just loose dead coral... or alive? Big difference.

We have quarries 20 miles from us in the Niagara Region of Canada, and there are all kinds of fossil coral you can get there... fossil coral extending back 380 million years ago...when this area was a shallow tropical sea,,

[Tomtomtom69]

.....bits of coral.....implying loose....is it illegal now to collect shells as well....

....wt* do tourists get for their money now anyway......

...except being stalked by locals......

****

...human rights violations....land encroachment....all manner of corruption and scam....drugs and prostitutes everywhere you turn...

...this is what they want to b*tch about.....???

....situation getting worse.....

....wow....

"Human rights violations". What are you referring to? I don't think anyone in Thailand is systematically being discriminated against. I've never seen or heard of a group of Thais driving or walking past a person of another ethnic group/nationality and calling them racist or hateful slurs. Even Muslims are able to walk down the streets in their own garb and never once have I seen anyone call them any sort of name. Occasionally in very out of the way places someone might whisper to their friends "farang" or something, but is that a "human rights violation"? Hardly.

And before you start coming up with hill tribes and the like, blah blah blah sorry I don't see it. I employ such people. They are hard working and the police and army leave them alone. They could round them up and deport them back to Myanmar very easily as they are illegals with no legal paperwork whatsoever. But they don't. The only thing they aren't allowed to do is travel outside of their district. But since they aren't in the country legally they really have no right to freedom of movement anyway, not until they get a passport and visa like the rest of us.

What else. Slave fishing boats? OK, maybe. But an informed British guy who knows the inside outs of the fishing industry here tells me that the "slavery" problem is exaggerated and that there is absolutely no slavery at the seafood processing factories.

I agree with you on the other problems though.

But still, what are you getting at? Thailand has it's fair share of problems, but what do you think it should wait to fix corruption and land encroachment, something which could take I dunno, 20-30 years? while in the meantime letting Chinese and other foreign tourists get away with what they want? So the national parks authority isn't allowed to enforce it's own laws, just because other agencies are corrupt to the core? It's shameful that these tourists have so little regard for the environment, that they would even consider doing this. I have never in my life even thought about taking coral home, much less digging it up out of the water, save for tiny fragments of dead coral ALREADY washed up on the beach and mixed in with the sand, but as I am not 10 years old anymore and grew up next to the beach, coral is nothing special for me. I realise many Chinese come to Thailand who have never seen water before and can't swim and think nothing of taking home the weirdest "souvenirs" but really, destroying the natural environment? Have these people ever been taught any morals?

[johnny49r]

This is newsworthy but the article begs the question, when exactly did Thais begin respecting their environment?

And stating that Chinese behave badly is redundant.

My two cents: coral that washes up on the beach is already dead and maybe the idiots that collect it are doing a good thing.

My panties get in a bunch when I hear of people breaking off pieces of living coral for souvenirs. People who do this need to be removed from the gene pool.

[bikerman]

Will be all gone in few days as will be sold to Chinese tourists

[12DrinkMore]

This is newsworthy but the article begs the question, when exactly did Thais begin respecting their environment?

And stating that Chinese behave badly is redundant.

My two cents: coral that washes up on the beach is already dead and maybe the idiots that collect it are doing a good thing.

My panties get in a bunch when I hear of people breaking off pieces of living coral for souvenirs. People who do this need to be removed from the gene pool.

The issue is that when an enterprising local sees tourists collecting dead bits of coral he see a market. So off he goes and digs up the live and more decorative coral to sell.

Same problem with elephant tusks.

The only way to stop the destruction and killing is an outright ban on possession, regardless of where and how obtained.

[Krataiboy]

Oh, Thairath - congrats on coming up with one of the worst pun headlines ever. And heaven knows what any reader under 70 will make of it!

[ezzra]

There's no one else who's doing a better job destroying Thailand natural treasures than

the Thais themselves.....

[lovelomsak]

Perhaps the Thai's collect the coral on the beach and sell it to tourists. Do not want tourists to get it for free.

[gandalf12]

.....bits of coral.....implying loose....is it illegal now to collect shells as well....

....wt* do tourists get for their money now anyway......

...except being stalked by locals......

****

...human rights violations....land encroachment....all manner of corruption and scam....drugs and prostitutes everywhere you turn...

...this is what they want to b*tch about.....???

....situation getting worse.....

....wow....

".is it illegal now to collect shells as well.." in Saudi it is

[shirtless]

Its lucky all those good Thai folks were there to point out this poor form and of course Thais never damage anything and respect nature.

[Merylhighground]

I once had an amazing few days with Chinese lass in Ko Chang back in my younger days.

They can ruin all the coral they like if they keep sending their filthy young women over.....

[dunroaming]

You are not allowed to take coral from the beaches in Thailand, dead or alive (the coral not you). After the tsunami we were approached constantly with impressive pieces of coral. Very tempting and people were buying them only to have them confiscated at Phuket airport and were given pretty serious fines. I am sure the confiscated coral made it's way back to the Thai sales people to re-sell to the next lot of tourists. Thai enterprise at it's best!

[tx22cb]

The coral could have been already dead.

Thai reporting leaves a lot to the imagination.

Thais never do anything wrong.

Longtail drivers never drop an anchor on coral.

Even dead coral structures provide somewhat sheltered habitats for small marine creatures, so should not be chipped away/carried off.

And for the Thai bashers - try doing this in Australia and see what happens.

[stevenl]

Yeah and the Thais are squeaky clean.

So?

[tandor]

Hang em.

..corral them.

[honcho]

Yeah and the Thais are squeaky clean.

yeah but 2 wrongs don't make a right.... never too late to stop destroying nature

[Mrjlh]

If not mistaken "dead coral" is white not brown in color. Picture appears to be brown coral.

[Mrjlh]

If not mistaken "dead coral" is white not brown in color. Picture appears to be brown coral.