The Ocean's Greatest Treasures,
Free to See
Hundreds
Species
Over forty
Years of Collection
Worldwide
Waters represented
Free
Free Admission
A collection you can walk through
The exhibition sits on the Andaman coast in Phang Nga, an hour north of Phuket. It gathers shells from these waters and from oceans around the world — the ordinary and the improbable side by side, kept because someone thought they were worth keeping. There is no ticket desk. You walk in, and you look.
Forty years of looking down
It began in 1985 with a push cart on the Patong beachfront, bought with a pawned gold necklace and money borrowed from an elder sister. A shop followed in Chalong two years later, then four decades of trading, travelling and keeping back the shells that were too good to sell. The exhibition is what that habit turned into.
Read the founder's story →Come and see
Open Monday to Saturday, 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM, with last entry half an hour before closing. Admission is free and always has been — it is the first thing we offer, and nothing is for sale in the exhibition itself.
Plan your visit →More from the shore
We write about the coast the collection came from — its seasons, its communities, and the creatures that made these shells.
Read our stories →