Bill Gates’s Yacht Inspires Plans for Thai Island

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  06.01.07 | 4:01 PM ET

phuketboatPhoto of Phuket waters by yeowatzup via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Oh, to be Bill Gates’s yacht. The waters you’d sail. The navigational software that would chart your course. The luxury tourism developments you’d inspire. Developer Gulu Lalvani says a conversation he had with Gates in Phuket, Thailand earlier this year has inspired him to build a small island just off the Thailand coast in Phang Nga Bay. As Lalvani recalled, Gates told him: “If I could bring my yacht, I would come here every year.” The trouble is, Gates’s 54-meter yacht (a little larger than the pleasure craft pictured here) is too big for Phuket’s marina, which holds yachts up to 40 meters long.

Lalvani’s island would not only have berths accommodating much bigger boats, but it would include a five-star hotel and luxury condos.

He described it as “a mini-Palm Island, like in Dubai.”

But don’t try to reserve a berth just yet.

Reports the International Herald Tribune: “The project is still more of a concept than a reality, with Lalvani expecting to spend the next three years planning before the start of construction.”

Lalvani told Reuters he was bullish on post-tsunami tourism.

“First quarter arrivals and hotel occupancy were at an all time record,” he said. “2005 was a disaster but now every hotelier is over the moon. The tsunami’s a thing of the past, everyone’s forgotten about it.”

Well, not everyone everywhere.

Tags: Islands, Asia, Thailand, News and Briefs


2 Comments for Bill Gates’s Yacht Inspires Plans for Thai Island

George Banschbach 06.13.08 | 3:53 AM ET

You had a show on a huge sail boat that could be run by one person. This boat was huge.  My friends don’t believe me.  Do you have the details of the size and maybe a photo I could use to make them believe me.

Thank you.

Peter Pranya 08.15.08 | 5:20 AM ET

Totally agreed!! I’d just been to phuket early this year. The beach is charming and there’re a lot of great hotels in Phuket already now.

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