I got into a car and was whisked off two and half hours drive to the relatively untouched Andaman Coast, to film eco-tourist activities led by Andaman Discoveries.

Over the next three days I covered a Burmese school where volunteers are posted by Andaman Discoveries as supply teachers to teach English to very enthusiastic young students, a soap making workshop belonging to villagers from a community that was devasted by the Tsunami - they now offer “homestays’ and activities for eco-tourists like soap making and organic gardening in order to supplement the village income. All of these were interesting, but a longboat ride followed by a guided visit to meet the Moken villagers on the island of Tung Dap was a most unique experience. I have met different communities far and wide in the course of my filming assignments, but rarely have I experienced such a feeling of instant inclusion. The visiting group I was filming (two American students from UCLA) was warmly welcomed and received by the usually very private Sea gypsy community; the Andaman guide sensitively bridged the communication gaps, so did the AD two-way phrasebooks. The students were given an insight into every part of one of the family’s lives, They were shown around the house, they learnt how to cook simple but mouth-watering recipes, make lobster nets, ate lunch with the family and played with the friendly fully grown family pet otter. It was inspiring to see how quickly the students assimilated into this very different society from their own and how genuinely interested their hosts seemed in them. Visits to Tung Dap are limited in numbers and frequency in order to protect the community from erosion by a mass of trampling visitors. It was apparent everywhere that the sensitive manner in which Andaman Discoveries and all the communities it works with approaches all the activities they organise retains a true taste of adventure without losing what is special and attractive in the first place.

The only let down was filming through the rain, which only let up briefly for two of the three shooting days, that along with the power cuts and subsequent flooding, but if I hadn’t been filming it wouldn’t have mattered. At the end of the shoot, navigating through heavily flooded roads, I was driven back to Phuket airport. As I joined the throngs of T-shirted tourists in the departure hall I wondered how they had spent their trip…