Bang Tao Beach

This guide to Bang Tao Beach in Phuket goes back to 1984, when businessman Ho Kwon Ping went looking for land for a company chalet and instead found a wasteland of abandoned tin mines that the United Nations had written off as unfit for development. You'll hear how he bought it anyway, and how his co-founder Claire Chiang later admitted they hadn't done their homework. The guide follows the years of treating acidic soil and planting thousands of trees that turned the old mine pits into something new. Best heard walking the sand while picturing the moonscape it used to be.