10/10/2026
Bang Saray in the 1960s 🎣
One of the oldest known published photographs of Bang Saray captures a remarkable moment from the village’s early big-game fishing era.
Standing beside the enormous marlin are M.R. Phongamorn Krisadakorn, known as “Stig,” and his wife Khunying Urai. Stig helped establish the Bang Saray Big Game Fishing Resort (also known later as The Bang Saray Beach Club) in the mid-1960s, at a time when this small seaside village was becoming known as one of Thailand’s centres for sport fishing.
Back then, Bang Saray attracted fishermen from Bangkok and overseas in search of marlin, sailfish, sharks and other game fish. International fishing tournaments followed, and the resort became a meeting place where anglers, expatriates and Thai society mixed after long days at sea.
The photograph also preserves something much bigger than the catch itself: a glimpse of Bang Saray before most of the development we know today, with a simple wooden pier, open Gulf and fishing culture at the centre of local life.
More than sixty years later, Bang Saray has changed, but parts of that quieter coastal character can still be felt.
*Photo source: historical image published by The BigChilli in its feature on Bang Saray’s big-game fishing history.
