Paul Johnson is the owner of Ilala Yacht Charters which offers adventure sailing, kayaking and diving holidays into the Mergui Archipelago. All photographs courtesy of Ilala Yacht Charters.
Imagine a charter destination that has more than eight hundred tropical
islands spread over fourteen thousand square miles of Indian Ocean. Imagine
mountainous, jungle covered islands that teem with wildlife, spectacular
waterfalls that tumble directly onto white sandy beaches fringed by pristine
coral reefs. Imagine no tourists and indigenous hunter-gatherer tribes with
an exotic culture who live nomadic lives aboard their tiny boats. This place
really does exist – it is the Mergui Archipelago off the south-west
coast of Myanmar.
That they exist in such an incredibly unspoilt state is entirely due to
historical accident. For 50 years following the independence of Myanmar in
1947, isolationist policies served to keep foreigners out. Since 1997 access
into the Merg... (more)
Administered by India, the 300 or so Andaman Islands are the highest peaks of
a submerged mountain range that stretches from Sumatra in the south to the
Irawaddy delta in the north. The Andaman Islands have everything you could
desire from an adventurous eco-tourism charter destination. There are
literally hundreds of deserted islands to explore, each one seemingly more
spectacular than ... (more)
Paul Johnson is the owner of Ilala Yacht Charters which offers adventure sailing, kayaking and diving holidays into the Mergui Archipelago. All photographs courtesy of Ilala Yacht Charters.
Keith Bergelt
Gaurav Mantri
Aditya Banerjee
John Karamitsos
Kaj van de Loo
Bob Little
Alois Reitbauer
Chris Schin
Richard Gordon
Anil Parambath
