Four years after Thailand’s Tham Luang Cave rescue, sleepy park readies for return of tourists

Four years ago, it was a muddy, chaotic and emotionally fraught scene outside the Tham Luang Cave, where thousands of people, from volunteers to parents to cave divers from around the world, gathered with one goal: to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped deep inside.

Over an 18-day ordeal, much of the world’s attention was fixed on the cave, with many fearing the worst. But against incredible odds, the entire team was brought out alive.

The miraculous rescue has since become the focus of documentary films and Hollywood blockbusters, as well as more than a dozen books, and today, the scene outside the cave is a construction zone as the national park readies for an expected rush of tourists who want to see the site for themselves.

Gone are the tented areas where family members anxiously awaited word on the children’s fate, and torn down are the shelters where divers recovered from arduous forays into the cave. In their stead, workers are building a visitor’s centre, tourist facilities and a large replica of the surrounding mountains.

Long a sleepy and little-visited national park, Tham Luang has been put on the map by the astounding extrication of the Wild Boars soccer team.

“I never expected it to change this much, because before the boys got stuck in the cave, no one knew about Tham Luang,” said Naphason Chaiya, 54, the chief of nearby Baan Jong village. “Even our own people in neighbouring districts didn’t know about the cave.”

In a first wave of improvements, roads were repaved and new hotels, stores and coffee shops sprang up.

In honor of Saman Gunan, a volunteer diver and former Thai Navy SEAL who died during the effort, a statue of him, with 13 wild boars at his feet, was erected at the Tham Luang Khun Nam Nang Non National Park headquarters.

Soon after the rescue, so many tourists began coming that traffic was sometimes backed up more than 1km into Baan Jong, a collection of houses, shops, food stalls and open-air restaurants clustered along the main street. To the dismay of local merchants, however, the tourist boom was cut short in 2020 by the arrival of Covid-19.

But now, with the virus receding and the release of two major new film productions, many residents are hopeful that Tham Luang will again be a magnet for visitors when the rainy season ends and the cave reopens in October.

In late July, Amazon Prime released Thirteen Lives, a dramatic retelling of the rescue directed by Ron Howard. In August, Lionsgate released Cave Rescue. And last week, Netflix released Thai Cave Rescue, a six-part series told from the boys’ perspective.

“I am optimistic,” said Pansak Pongvatnanusorn, who built the Teva Valley Resort 5km from the cave in 2019 and kept it open during the pandemic. “The cave is bringing in more tourism and a better economy to the town itself. I see many new projects, new businesses, new restaurants and cafes.”

 

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES