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For three weeks in July and July, the fate of 12 boys and their football coach made Tham Luang caves in Thailand the most discussed topic on the planet.
Five months later, the place is one of the most visited of northern Thailand.
In July, an operation of pumping water from the cave caused the flooding of neighboring fields of orchards and vegetables.
Archawin Mopoaku, a member of the Akha ethnic group, one of three inhabitants of this mountainous region, had the habit of planting pineapples. But he did not complain. Instead, he left farming for a while and proposed cutting bamboos to facilitate the entry of soldiers into the cave.
Today, the Archawin pineapple fields remain intact. And next to them, on the dirt road that leads to the caves, he sells tourists oranges from his orchard – an activity that brought him much more than he earned with pineapples.
"Before the rescue, the situation was very calm," he said. "From time to time, strangers have come to explore the caves, but after the rescue, there are many more people coming in, and the mountaineers like me are hearing."
The same goes for flower vendors approaching customers. at the beginning of the road, peddlers who sell pork and especially sellers of lottery tickets.
A ranger sits on a plastic chair under the canopy, recording in a notebook the number of visitors. It was easy before. It was usually between 10 and 20 a day. Today, there are more than 6 thousand.
Most consist of Thais, coming from all over the country to see where the ransom took place.
"Today, no other tourist attraction in the region can compete with Tham Luang," said Damron Puttan, a businessman and television star visiting the area. He was in Europe when the boys were arrested and was impressed by the attention that the case has received on the mainland.
"Before the rescue, I had never heard of these caves," says Vanisa Achakulvisut. "But after the announcement of the Wild Boars football team, I had to see it for myself."
Curiosity is not the only attraction of the crowds The mountain range above the caves has been named in honor of Nang No, a princess mythical who has committed suicide after a forbidden love story. looks like the image of the sleeping princess.
The caves are considered places of great mystical power in Thailand. A long time ago there is an altar in Nang No near the entrance to the cave, where people can leave offerings to his mind. But the miraculous rescue has increased its fame as a supplier of good fortune.
Every visitor I saw in this area wore flowers and made a brief prayer at the altar. The place has become a selling point for lottery tickets and the most popular numbers end with 13 – the number of people saved from the cave.
There is now another shrine on site: a 3-meter bronze statue of Saman Gunan, the Thai diver who died during the rescue.
The work was placed in front of a new museum, so empty, erected in the once muddy parking lot where the news of the ransom was pbaded on.
The boys and coach Ekkapol Chantawong, who helped them to withstand the 17-day waiting for them to meditate, were also present during their second visit to the cave since the rescue.
Some of the rescuers were also present, such as the Finnish Mikko Paasi, the American Josh Morris – who has a rock climbing school in Chiang Mai and served as an intermediary between foreign divers and fishermen. Thai government officials – and Vern Unsworth, the British cave explorer who has known Tham Luang for several years and was one of the first to arrive at the scene after the disappearance of the boys.
It was a touching meeting. The boys, who looked healthy and happy, kissed their saviors.
The Thai government still treats them with great zeal. They are advised by social workers who accompany them in all public appearances. Any request for interviews with the group is rigorously badyzed by two committees.
Their families were also instructed not to speak to the press without permission.
"For me, it's still very exciting," explained Britain's Vern Unsworth, examining the new network that forbade access to the cave. "Some people think that saving 13 out of 13 was such a miracle."
He says no one should blame the boys and the coach for entering the cave. He said: "I think the world was expecting a bad result, but we never gave up, and that they just had bad luck." It could have been me. "Vern had planned to visit the caves the next day, the water rises very fast, after abundant and unusual rains, trapping the boys and the technician and forcing them to seek refuge in the cave.
The experiment did she changed their lives? "They make an awesome group," says Vern. "They have kept their feet on the ground, and they are being treated very well, they would not say that they have a normal life – they do the rounds of the world, but they return to school. "
The boss of the team, Nopparat Kanthawong, said that he was training a lot after school and before They have regained their lost weight even though they are still rebuilding their muscle strength. tried to help them, we looked at the young people being trained by a Manchester City team in their field in the mountains.
There are at least three films on rescue during production. The recording of the first, called The Cave, has just completed. Vern and other divers hope that the caves and the museum will be used to educate the public about local geology, flora and fauna.
 / i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84c8c8a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2018/5/0/pQsR2hRuquu6jBHCrY7Q/-closed-create-create-bbc.jpg "L'entrée du complexe de la grotte Tham Luang est maintenant fermée - Photo: BBC")
the cave complex Tham Luang is now Closed – Photo: BBC
For the Mae Sai District Head, Somsak Kanakham, additional resources and business opportunities generated by the cave tourist boom are welcome.
But he is worried about maintaining the flow and says the region needs infrastructure investments to accommodate this wave of visitors.
In the long term, he hopes to receive advice on how to develop other potential tourist attractions in this green and mountainous region. At some point, all the excitement generated by this extraordinary rescue will begin to diminish, perhaps also to reduce the number of visitors.
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