BelgianBoy Posted September 16, 2002 Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 A small contribution from me to the new forum?.. The Phuket Seashell Museum 12/2 Moo 2 Viset Road Rawai Beach Phuket 83130 Thailand Tel : 076 / 38 12 66 Fax : 076 / 38 17 77 Open daily from 8 AM ? 7 PM Entrance fee : 200 Bhat ( indicated for both farang AND Thai ) It can be found very easily as it is on the main road from Chalong bay to Rawai beach, south-east on the island, but away from the main tourist areas. It claims to be the world largest seashell museum, and it is rightly quite so, I have seen most other seashell musea in the world ,being an avid seashell collector myself. It is quite a new building, opened a few years ago by HRH The King, quite large, and very well laid out to present all possible shells in their appropriate families. All is well air-conditioned, brightly lit, all good explenations in both Thai and English, and a normal visitor will spend about an hour downstairs in the museum and about half of that on the groundfloor in the various souvenirs shops. Needless to say, I nearly spend 3 hours downstairs only, much to the ? polite ? despair of my GF. I owns the biggest Andaman gold pearl in the world ( 140 Karat ) as well as some very rare specimen of seashells, if you are in Phuket and want to do something else than the beach and bars, this is certainly a must do ! Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MooNoi Posted September 16, 2002 Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 BB, Nothing personal, but you do know that colleting sea shells is really environmentally irresponsible, don't you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted September 16, 2002 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 Fly, Not really....... if you move in the collectors circles, you would know that 90-95 % of all shells are brough up by fishermen and that those shells are already empty. Also, never walked along a beach and picked up a shell ? I do understand your point of view, but it is certainly not like collecting coral, which has to be cut of alive. Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALHOLK Posted September 16, 2002 Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 Hi! I read (or heard) that collecting shells in the waters outside Pattaya has been outlawed. Apparently all collectors aren't so responsible as take only empty shell. regards ALHOLK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racha Posted September 16, 2002 Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 ''Not really....... if you move in the collectors circles, you would know that 90-95 % of all shells are brough up by fishermen and that those shells are already empty'' BB Sorry mate you are wrong on this, Lots of the shells that are available in Phuket have been taken live from the sea bed, I know this for a fact as I seen it with my own eyes and the culprits are the sea gypsies, they have taken nearly all the large clams from around Phuket and the islands, They gather shells that are alive not dead, these live shells are the ones that they sell not the dead one's, Dead shells like a cowrie shell that wash up on the shore have normally been dead a while and there surface is in bad shape for selling but if found alive they are in a perfect state to be boiled, polished and sold I am not saying that dead shells are not found by fisherman either just that the biggest majority are taken very much alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BelgianBoy Posted September 17, 2002 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2002 Guys, Let me start by saying that I have absolutely no idea how shells are collected in Thailand. I'm a long member of the Belgian Association for Conchyliology, and studies are made with associations in other countries on how shells are collected, that is where I have my data from. Also the world largest exhibition is held here in Antwerp in may each year bringing more than 35 different countries together. In previous times shells were brought up for food and for money, that cannot be changed. I just wanted to contribute by saying that there is a great little museum out there ! Cheers ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lazyphil Posted September 17, 2002 Report Share Posted September 17, 2002 Yes we went a few years back, really enjoyed it too. Fly, is it enviromently friendly flying in gas guzzling jet aeroplanes to arrive in los. Of course it isn't. Just stay put in your home country if you worry so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted September 17, 2002 Report Share Posted September 17, 2002 Racha, BB, thanks for your contribution to this new site. Hope it never fossilizes, LOL! Don't they have a big shell site, in Krabi too? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brink15 Posted September 20, 2002 Report Share Posted September 20, 2002 BB et al, I have to strongly second Racha's statement. Why? Because we are both scuba instructors and live, have lived in the Phuket area. Many of those pretty shells are collected live, meaning the maker has not yet left its home. In the Caribbean many people collect live black coral. Does that make it right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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