Jellyfish in the water: Another reason to be careful at Thailand beaches

If you read my blog entries it may at times appear as though I am trying to convince people to not travel here but I want to make it very clear that this is not the case. I love it here. It changed my life for the better and I am thankful for the day that a friend recommended that I come here for an extended vacation which has turned into my home and a multiple-year dedicated effort on my part. If I have my way I will live here forever.

So please don't think I am Thai-bashing ok?

I just want people to know that this wonderful playground, as a lot of people see it as, has some very real dangers and I feel that a lot of people run over here thinking that the rules of the real world to not apply and that somehow they can do whatever they want without worry of consequence.

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It was many years ago but I was on a boat going somewhere in Hat Noppharat-Thara in Southern Thailand and I noticed several longtail boats that were moving along slowly with nets and were hoisting a massive amount of jellyfish into the boat. They didn't seem to really even need to aim the net, just put it in the water and they would pull out a bunch of them..

I've been SCUBA diving in this region and know that you will frequently see them, although if you were to see them in numbers like this you would be a fool to so much as get in the water.

I have been stung by jellyfish and it is not a pleasant thing to put into your day. I have been stung on the face by microscopic jellyfish that are called by some as "sea lice". This also really sucks.

But there is another type of jelly out there that is excruciatingly painful and if it is big enough, it can kill you.

That is the Portuguese Man-O-War and thankfully they are very rare in Thailand.

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They apparently caught the little bugger after it stung a tourist and lord only knows how that was possible. This took place in Phuket but it could have been anywhere since these guys are known to wander. I have never seen one in the wild but I do know that there are a lot of jellies in the water here and you frequently see them washed up on the beach.

Thankfully, it is quite rare for any of the really deadly jellyfish to roam near the coast, but that was what happened this time. The unidentified foreign tourist was stung by one of them and then informed the lifeguards of it. They did their jobs correctly and I wanted to point this out because a lot of times arrogant foreigners come over here and, I don't know why, just presume that Thai people doing their jobs don't know what they are doing.

They did everything correctly, including transporting him to a hospital immediately even though the tourist kind of insisted that he "didn't need it." A sting like this hurts a great deal, but often you will remain conscious and if you are feeling like being a tough guy you might just try to walk it off, and then fall asleep later and not wake up.

Something I learned if you are ever in a jellyfish situation is to NOT APPLY FRESH WATER or any other medications that you think might work to the affected area. Apply sea water for relief. Introduction of anything to the area that a jellyfish is not accustomed to, including and perhaps especially fresh water, will activate a defense mechanism on the tentacles that will make them more aggressively attack the person the tentacles are attached to. Also, the myth of peeing on someone to relieve the pain is a myth, and can actually make it a lot worse.

This particular tourist ended up being fine but officials warned that this is likely because the Man-O-War was very small and had not yet developed fully. A full size one is extremely unlikely to be in shore areas, but nothing is impossible, so just be careful out there folks and remember, those lifeguards ARE trained properly, and they actually could be the difference between life and death in a lot of situations.