The gateway to the Mergui Archipelago — 800 islands, Moken sea nomads, coral reefs, and coastline largely untouched since the colonial era
Myeik (formerly Mergui) is a small port city at Myanmar's southern tip, the jumping-off point for the Mergui Archipelago — some 800 islands strewn across the Andaman Sea in one of Southeast Asia's last genuinely remote coastal wildernesses. The archipelago is home to the Moken, semi-nomadic sea people who have lived on their wooden kabang boats between the islands for centuries, diving for sea cucumbers and fish and moving with the monsoon seasons. Most of the archipelago was closed to visitors until the 1990s and remains lightly visited. Myeik itself is a gracious colonial town of teak mansi…
Myeik was the southernmost port of the Ayutthaya kingdom and later the Burmese kingdoms, trading in tin, tortoiseshell, and forest products. The British East India Company established a factory here in 1613, and the Mergui Massacre of 1687 — when the Siamese king massacred European traders — marked a turning point in Anglo-Siamese relations. The British annexed it formally in 1826 after the First Anglo-Burmese War. The town's colonial-era architecture — including the distinctive Anglican Christ Church — reflects this long trading history.