I have detected beaches in Hawaii and now Thailand for the past year. I am, in no way, an expert. But, I have learned that beaches differ. Study and learn your beach.
When I first stated metal detecting the beaches of Hawaii, I learned a lot from reading this forum, other web sites, books by Clive James Clynick (CJC), and help from another detectorist, islandchips.
I read all about towel lines, entry & exit points, scooping and checking the hole, filling your holes, picking up the trash, etc.
About the only things that are the same on Thai beaches and Hawaii beaches are that they both have sand and water. Beyond that, it is a different game altogether.
First off, Thailand's beaches are on the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Siam – not the ocean. Waves resemble those that a small boat would create on a lake.
Hawaii had large areas of dry sand, a small patch of wet sand, and the ocean. Some Hawaii beaches have calm water and other beaches have surf that ranged from 3 feet to 20 feet. Some beaches were primarily "tourist beaches" and other beaches were mainly for the "locals". Others are mixed. Waikiki and Ala Moana were touristy and Kailua and Sand Island were local. Hunting was basically the same, but the finds were different. More bottle caps and fishing equipment on the local beaches.
During low tide, Thailand beaches have a dry sand area, wet sand that slopes down towards the water, wet and flat trough area, sand bar, and then the water. The space between high tide and low tide will be a few hundred feet. The water at low tide just sort of creeps out for a few hours exposing the area that most folks use for swimming at times other than low tide and at high tide creeps back in.
Low tide itself will last about 2 hours but there is a window of about 1-2 hours on either side that is also good for hunting. You could hunt the same area at times other than low tide but there is really no point unless you enjoy being wet, hunting slowly, and not being able to see where you are digging. So, during high tide, I would just hunt the dry sand area and maybe a little wet sand.
Let me take you from the sidewalk out to the water and try to describe all that is in-between.
There are no distinct entry/exit points. The beaches are long and one can just walk down from the sidewalk and turn into the beach. Some areas do have small steps if there is a wall separating the sidewalk from the beach. There is usually an area approximately 10 feet between the sidewalk and the beach umbrellas that the vendors hang out. There may be a few chairs, a table, and a couple of coolers to sell cold drinks.
The next section of dry sand is the beach umbrella/beach chair area.
Chairs and umbrellas are set up for the tourists in the early morning and taken down in the early evening. These will be in sections of about 50 feet by 50 feet. And they will be side by side with fellow vendors. There will be occasional spaces of anywhere from 10 feet to 100 feet of just dry sand between umbrellas/beach chairs. These areas are used primarily by many of the local Thais who just lay out a mat and eat and drink.
Next up is the wet sand. During high tide this area will only be a few feet wide before you get to the water. At low tide this area will be much longer sloping downward and will be very hard packed sand. This sloped area yields very little and tons of trash accumulates on top.
Then comes the flattened wet sand area. This is the best place to hunt in the "wet" areas. Small troughs are formed here and items tend to accumulate. At low tide this is very distinguishable. The slope stops and it gets flat.
The trough area can be a foot or two wide or can go out to about 25 feet. Then you will possibly see a sand bar that can be 50 – 100 feet wide. The sand bar will slope up slightly, flatten out, and then slope slightly downward towards the water. I have had decent success hunting about the first 10-20 feet of the slope up area.
When you hit the slope down of the sand bar and then the water, you will be at the outer edge of the swimming area. During normal and high tide, hardly anyone goes out this far in the water and therefore, there is very little to find out here. In areas that are not marked for swimming, you may see jet skis and banana boats and hunting around these areas may yield a little. The actual area that the jet skis and banana boats zoom across the water is further out.
So that describes the area for the most part on most of the beaches I have been to so far (Jomtien, Pattaya, Phuket, Hua Hin, Samet Island).
Ideally, you would want to hunt the dry sand area very early in the morning before the umbrellas and chairs are set up and then go the flat, wet sand area during low tide. You will only have a small window each month to do this. The tides seem to "go low" one hour later every day.
What makes hunting the beaches in Thailand different than hunting the beaches of Hawaii?
I had visions of scooping up 22K gold on a daily basis when I first started hunting in Thailand. I have since learned that this is hardly the case for the following reasons.
Keep in mind that for each of these areas I could preface them by saying "for the most part". Meaning that my observations are just that – my observations and don’t pertain to each and every beach and may not apply to where you hunt in Thailand at all.
I have hunted at a long stretch of beach that is broken down to three beaches – Pattaya/Dongtan/Jomtien, and at Phuket, Koh Samet (Sai Kaew Beach), and Hua Hin primarily during low season. Thailand has two seasons for tourists – low and high. High season is from approximately October to February. This is when many tourists come to escape the cold of Europe, Canada, and America.
Here is my two cents and my comparison is to the beaches in Hawaii.
Tourists that come to Thailand are older and mostly male. I don’t have exact number – just what I have seen. There is also an abundance of Asian tourists (Chinese, Korean, Japanese) that tend to travel in packs and go on tour packages and rarely go to the beach.
Tourists that do go to the beach, go to sit, eat and drink in a beach chair under an umbrella. Vendors rake or smooth out these areas daily to make them more presentable.
There is no such thing as a "towel line" on Thai beaches – see last comment.
No one surfs, boogie boards, kayaks, paddle boards, throws Frisbees, plays catch, builds sandcastles, plays volleyball, or exerts energy while in the water or on the beach. Many tourists simply walk down to where the shore break is, and lie down in the water to cool off.
There are some banana boats and jet skis and this is about the extent of activity near the beach. I have seen paragliding (boat pulling a guy hanging on to a parachute) but these have been moved away from the beaches to further out in the water to avoid boats hitting swimmers and idiot paragliders slamming into someone on the beach.
Thais tend to sit on mats under trees or on the sidewalk and eat and drink. There are some that eat and drink on the beach chairs, but most Thais tend to bring their own food and drink and don’t bother to spend money with the local vendors. They may also just park their truck in the parking area and have their picnic there and never touch the sand.
Not many adults go in the water at all. They may leisurely stroll along the beach, but most seem content to eat and drink.
Kids go in the shallow water and ride the banana boats. Some tourists ride the jet skis but many have been turned off of late due to some major scams/ripoffs.
Tourists in Hawaii are there to get a tan. Thais avoid the sun and getting dark like the plague. So, they tend to remain in the shade of a tree or under the umbrellas. Tourists in Thailand also stay in the shade as it is too hot to lay in the sun.
Thais don’t put on suntan lotion. Some may put on sun-block but most will just wear long sleeve shirts and hats to cover up.
Getting to the dry sand area before the umbrellas and chairs are set up is ideal and it is also a lot cooler. You would have to do this from about 0500-0800.
There is local and expat competition on the beaches. Not many expats but a good number of local Thais that have older machines and swing their coils like pendulums rarely keeping the coil parallel to the ground. The Thais primarily search in the early morning and work along the tide line/shore break rarely going in the water and never going up by the beach chair/umbrella vendors. Thai detectorists that I have seen (about 15-20) NEVER fill their holes and NEVER remove trash. I don’t understand the latter as they will just have to dig it up again tomorrow and the next day and the next.
Smiling and chatting with the vendors helps. Sometimes they will even ask you to check their umbrella/chair areas after they have set up and have customers.
Expect to draw crowds of curious onlookers. Thais have no idea what a metal detector is and will stop, stare, and follow you around as you hunt. Smile a lot. I have never seen them approach a Thai detectorist to ask questions – only us foreigners. This makes no sense as they could ask questions in their own language instead of trying to talk with me using hand signals and broken English.
If there was a trash Olympics, Thailand would get the gold. Beer and soda bottle caps, pull tabs, batteries, plastic bags, metal shards, nails, screws, washers, energy drink and whiskey bottle caps, bottles, food and more are all over the beach. The vendors tidy their areas but they mostly just smooth the sand in front of their section and may just push the trash away from the umbrellas closer to the water. Thais will also not understand why you take the trash with you. They will think you are crazy for picking up the trash to throw away later. Some beaches are also polluted with raw sewage that flows daily onto the beach and into the water.
There are rarely any storms large enough to churn up the water and the waves are mostly ankle biters. So, there are no deep cuts and no deep troughs. We also don’t get the Atlantic coast nor'easters or the big winter surf like in Hawaii.
I have noticed that my finds have picked up markedly the longer I am here – though I still search for the elusive gold. Studying the tides, hitting the areas where water used to be at low tide, and getting to the "touristy' hangouts early in the morning has really helped. Hunting during or shortly after "high season" may be better also though it may be cost prohibitive (airfare, car, hotel).
I will continue to hunt and continue to study the patterns of the Thai tourist and Thai local to see if I can get better.
I guess the whole point of this long missive – is to study the beach(es) you are going to hunt and learn, learn, learn. Beaches are definitely not the same everywhere. Finds from my last 3-week hunt on Jomtien Beach.
I really regret not having met and hunted with you a few times while you lived here. It would appear you've got things really dialed in over there now. Very nice post.
Thanks for the great read
That is one nice post!!!Good luck on your quest, learning the beaches of Thailand that is ,and may more gold come your way!!!HH
