Kawthoung
       
Kawtoung is the gate way of Mergui archipelago and located at the southern edge of Myanmar. The town was build by British and named Victoria Point. There is a river name Perchan separate Kawthoung and Ranong of Thailand. Most of tourists come from Ranong to Kawthoung by crossing to the river with small long tail boat  to enter to Myanmar's virgin archipelago and some are come directly from Thailand's most famous topical paradise city Phuket with liveabord boats and sailing boats.

The colorful people are living on that small town, among of them Burmese, Thai, Malay, Indian and Chinese are prominent.  

Nowadays, foreign people can use their passport to enter Kawthaung through Ranong. It is one of the gateways people from Phuket use for their visa extension. Local Thai people can use their local border pass book to visit Kawthoung. People with passports can go to Myeik and Dawei.

Lampi Island

Lampi island is the most famous island of Mergui archipelago. North to south the island is twenty nautical miles long and from east to west at its largest extremity is ten nautical miles wide. Lampi is an island of outstanding natural beauty and has been made designated as a National Park by the government. There are endless white sandy beaches along its coast, some of which stretch for two kilometers or more.

The island’s interior is a carpet of thick rainforest and to all intents and purposes is impenetrable. There are two tidal rivers on the west coast that are accessible by a small boat or sea canoe and can only be navigated at high tide. The southern of the two rivers is worth exploring as it has some of the oldest mangrove on the face of the planet. Some of the trees stand between twenty five to thirty meters tall. The wildlife and fauna is plentiful here. Many kinds of bird can be seen including various types of Kingfisher, Hornbill, Pacific Reef Egret, White Breasted Sea Eagle and Heron.

There are two passages in this island,one is at the north western edge of island call as salet galet and another one is in the south call as Magyon galet. Sea gypsies (Morken in themself) used to settle there as the shelter place to refuge from south west monsoon in rainy season.  But nowadays, some of sea gypsies and Burmese finisher men build a village in Magyon galet.

The Sisters ( Langan)

The sisters is the name of a group of small islands at the north of Limpi. Sea gypsies(Morken) call it as Langan, mean the fingers in their language. Clear water, beautiful coral and very nice location is the land mark of the sisters. There are three small beautiful sea gypsies and Burmese villages on the separate islands.

 

Elphinstone ( Doune)

 Another base settlement island of sea gypsies (morken). It is not so far from Mergui city. There have two small sea gypsies villages and one quite big enough Burmese and Kayin village. One pearl from also found in the island.

 

Pulau Beda ( Nyaung Wee), Gt.swinton ( Kyun pi lar), Loughbrough ( Jarlan) and Macloed ( Khat yin khwa)

 

Well known islands in the mergui archipelago. The islands own white sandy beaches, beautiful tidal rivers, mangrove forest, vivid green tropical rain forest, crystal clear water and nice coral reef.  Sea gypsies use to settle Pulau Beda and Loughbrough islands and there is a beautiful Burmese resort on the Macleod Island.