Koh Panyi Sea Gypsy Floating Village
Koh Panyi sea gypsy fishing village in Phang Nga Province. Photo: Allerina & Glen MacLarty / flickr.
Once a settlement for nomadic Malay fisherman, Koh Panyi is a floating village built on stilts. The mosque and the graveyard are the only places which are built on the ground.
It is a small fishing village in Phang Nga province inhabited by approximately 2000 people, mainly muslims. However, right now, Koh Panyi is plenty of people living and working from outside, many of them coming from the Norteastern Isan region of Thailand.
What to do in Koh Panyi? A number of overpriced seafood restaurants are present on the island as well as a market with variety of souvenirs, postcards, clothes and toilet articles as well as a few stores. Outside of the restaurants there is not much to see in this small floating village.
Nowadays Koh Panyi sees an increasing number of visitors who arrive by boat and consequently it has become a mix of tourist-oriented businesses.
To get Koh Panyi there are boats from Dan Sulakakorn Port in Phang Nga.
-Thailand News (TN)
