'It's brought a lot of hope': Thai cave reopens after football team rescue
At 10.30am on Friday, a chattering procession of monks, Thai government officials, forest rangers and selfie stickwielding tourists walked into the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex in northern Thailand.
There wasn’t much to see beyond a vast, dimly lit cavern with large stalactites drooping from its ceiling, but for these pilgrims the moment represented something spectacular, as it was the first time the caves had been opened to the public since last year’s dramatic rescue of 12 boys and their football coach.
About 7,000 people were involved in the rescue operation, which captivated the world for the 17 days that the boys from the Wild Boars football team were trapped in June and July 2018.
Vernon Unsworth, a 64-year-old diver from Hertfordshire whose knowledge of the cave complex was instrumental in the mission to save the footballers, was present for the reopening.
“It was the biggest rescue ever mounted,” said Unsworth. “Hope” was the buzzword of the day, he added. “None of us ever gave up. Once there’s hope you just keep going. I think what’s happened since is a good thing for the area, a good thing for the people. It’s brought a lot of hope.”
Sai Kham Boo, 47, from Myanmar, was still wearing his cycling helmet as he waited for the cave gate to be unlocked on Friday. “I cycled 10km here to try to be the first to enter the cave,” he said. “I followed the news and was so excited when they came out of the cave. Now I’m so excited to go inside.”
Unsworth, who is based near the cave in Chiang Rai province, has seen Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non national park, previously a little-visited scenic getaway, become a tourist hotspot since the rescue.
Forestry officials said that prior to the rescue, 40,000 tourists visited the area each year, but more than 1 million had come since the park reopened on 16 November. Friday was the first time tourists were allowed inside the cave complex since the rescue.
The peacefully leafy park was a far cry from the muddy work zone it resembled during the summer of 2018. Massive public interest in the project instigated the area’s transformation after the coach and the last of the boys emerged from the dark on 10 July that year.
The lush, hilly area around the cave entrance was cleaned up and upgraded to national park status before the reopening. Near the cave entrance, a small museum opened in September telling the story of the rescue via cardboard cutout depictions of those involved, including Unsworth and the Thai prime minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha.
A statue of Saman Kunan, the Thai ex-navy Seal diver who died while trying to rescue the boys, stands outside the museum. “It’s important that we don’t forget Sam,” Unsworth said. “He gave his life. If there is a hero, then he’s the hero.”
The atmosphere alongside the roads approaching the cave complex bubbled with positivity on Friday. Tham Luang T-shirts flew off their hangers. Two women, who did not want to be named but said they were both mothers of boys who were rescued from the cave, were selling the clothes in the same area where they tried to come to terms with potentially losing their children last summer.
The boys’ families will benefit from a deal they have signed with Netflix, to tell their story exclusively for a film about the rescue. The Cave, another film about the mission, premiered in Seoul in October. Books about the
rescue have also been released, further cementing Tham Luang’s status as something of a valuable brand.
Chongklai Voraphongston, the deputy director general of Thailand’s department of national parks, wildlife and plant conservation, concurred as he addressed the media on a platform overlooking the cavern. “Tourists who visit this place think it’s very important,” he said. “They want to learn and experience this wonderful story.”