Taliban trolling, rape and death threats haunt taekwondo champion

“Wh***”, “Prostitute”, “Sl**”. Taekwondo champion Marzieh Hamidi has come to expect this kind of language, waiting to greet her whenever she opens social media, after two years of advocating for the rights of Afghan women and criticising the country’s misogynist Taliban regime.

When she competed at this summer’s Paris Olympics as part of the international refugee team, Hamidi spoke about her dream of winning a medal “for all Afghan women” and of her pain at seeing her country taken over by an Islamist militant group that has imposed restrictions on almost every aspect of women’s lives.

The Taliban published its first detailed set of written laws last week, featuring a legal requirement for women to cover their entire bodies, including faces, when stepping out of the home. Women are also banned from reading, singing, or speaking in public.

Hamidi expected the usual response from Taliban supporters when she criticised these laws in a media interview. What she did not foresee was the new torrent of abuse she received for suggesting that the country’s successful men’s cricket team should do more to condemn the abuse of women in Afghanistan, after captain Rashid Khan was pictured meeting with members of the powerful Taliban-linked Haqqani family.

The backlash was immediate. “They are sending me pictures of their private parts, threatening to hunt me down and rape me. They say they are waiting in bed for me and send me emoji of a pregnant lady. In one of the photos, where I am wearing a top, they tell me they will cut my nipples and other body parts.”

Hamidi took issue with members of the Afghan cricket team meeting with and being congratulated by Taliban leaders after their strong performance at the T20 World Cup in June this year. It isn’t the first time members of the team or the country’s cricketing board have met with Taliban officials, with senior players previously responding to the backlash by saying they “don’t want politics brought into sports”.

Photos have shown Khan in the company of Anas Haqqani – a leader in the hardline Islamist government and brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, a senior Taliban minister who is subject to a $10m (£7.6m) bounty from the US State Department. The Independent has approached Khan’s representatives for comment.

Fans of Khan and the Afghan cricket team started flooding Hamidi’s inbox with “d*** pics”, she tells The Independent over a video call from France, where she was granted asylum after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. “I usually don’t check my DMs, they are filled with trashy messages from Taliban supporters.”

The Independent has seen examples of the death and rape threats made to Hamidi, including graphic images, and many warn her to “never speak again”. “But I am used to these d*** pics ever since I started talking about freeing Afghan women from the Taliban’s clutches. I receive them frequently, but the tipping point was more than a thousand threat calls from unknown numbers after the interview ,” she says.

“I could not touch or use my phone. I disconnected a call and then another came and another, all telling me how dare I say anything about Rashid Khan and the Taliban,” she says.

At 22, Hamidi describes herself as the Taliban’s nightmare personified; a confident and independent woman, donning colourful clothes, leaving her hair uncovered and – most importantly – making her voice heard.

She started the hashtag #LetUsExist in solidarity with her friends and sisters back home last week after the Taliban issued its decree banning women’s voices from being heard outside their homes, the latest in a long series of dystopian rules.

She estimates that when she woke up on Sunday, there were close to 3,000 calls and messages from unknown numbers on her phone. Hamidi says she went to the police and handed over the device, and an investigation was launched on Tuesday over any death threats received from cricket fans in France, as well as the leaking of her private phone number.

“I had to get a new number and the police have given me a bodyguard now, in case of any physical attack on me in France,” she says, adding that her family have been physically targeted in Germany. An unknown man stopped Hamidi’s father this week and asked her why he had allowed his daughter to “wear such clothes” and “talk about Afghanistan”. Her mother and sister made rushed calls and asked her if she wanted to “continue doing this”.

“This [suits] the terrorists in Afghanistan, the Taliban. They want to see me silenced and dead. I will never stop talking about how they have written off women from Afghanistan, declared them missing and voiceless,” Hamidi says. “They are nobody to tell me how to dress and how to talk.”

Meet the Japanese bodybuilder who claims to only sleep 30mins a night

A bodybuilder in Japan claims that he’s the happiest he has ever been after discovering his superhuman power: thriving on just 30 minutes of deep sleep a day.

Daisuke Hori, 40, who lives in Shibuya, Tokyo, tells The Independent he has been sleeping no more than half an hour every night for the last 15 years.

The father of an eight-year-old claims his lack of sleep means he misses out on nothing in life – maintaining a packed routine that would exhaust even the most ambitious multitasker. His daily schedule includes an array of activities ranging from working and doing household chores to exercising and surfing.

He also manages investments, plays musical instruments, and cares for his child and pet.

Speaking to The Independent, he explains: “I train my body 13 times per week, work over 10 hours a day, and take no days off. The schedule varies greatly from day to day, but one thing never changes—my 30 minutes of sleep.”

Even Hori admits that his extreme lifestyle might not work for everyone. Most doctors and scientific studies recommend seven to nine hours of nightly sleep.

But for those who can get by on less sleep in a healthy manner, he suggests, the results can be transformative. “My goal has already come true: freedom of movement, freedom in health, loved ones around me, plenty of time, and the ability to try anything,” he says. “I truly believe no one else is as happy as I am. It was not until I became a short sleeper that I found this happiness. If more people could live without worrying about sleep, I think the world would be a more peaceful place.”

The bodybuilder, who has a very active Instagram account and a YouTube channel dedicated to short sleeping, says he trains as a hobby and competes in bodybuilding competitions every year. He recently competed in the “Best Body Japan” event. “I go to the gym twice a day for at most 90 minutes at a time,” says Hori, who regularly posts shirtless pictures showing off the results of his labours.

Hori says he has also trained his wife to cut down her sleep time from seven hours a night to just two. His son had been sleeping three hours a day since he was born, but now sleeps for four to five hours.

It all began after Hori realised that he wanted more time in life and was inspired by a person who was a short sleeper.

“I simply wanted more time,” he says. “There was a person around me who slept for a short amount of time and that person said that he had become a short sleeper. I thought if someone else could do it, I could too.”

At age 25, Hori embarked on what would become a seven-year journey of trial and error, training his body and mind to function on increasingly reduced amounts of sleep. The process, he says, was not easy. But now, with years of practice, he claims he can do more in a day than most people manage in a week – with energy to spare.

Hori is training other people to sleep less and says most people can learn to sleep just three to four hours within six months by training under a professional. He says he has helped around 2,100 to 2,200 people who want to change their lifestyle and become short sleepers.

“Sleep is like a muscle, and it is important to gradually train it,” he says. “Think of it as similar to studying or training. Sleep is also physical. If you follow the rules, you can make it shorter.”

Hori cautions, however, that it is a drastic lifestyle change and not everyone needs to survive on less sleep.

“Sleeping for 30 minutes is an extreme idea. Not many people need that much time and freedom. The desire to sleep is strong, so I do not recommend fighting it. What is important is to devise activities that avoid the desire for sleep,“ he says.

Hori’s trick to staying awake is basically to not bore the brain by doing the same activity over time. “Do not do the same work for a long time, don’t stay in the same position for a long time, avoid using the same part of the brain for long periods of time,” he says. “In other words, make changes regularly.”

He eats a low carbohydrate diet and is mindful of blood sugar levels as a sudden rise can make one feel sleepy or drowsy.

A typical day in Hori’s life featured on the Yomiuri TV show Will You Go With Me? The reality show’s cameras followed Hori for three days.

Studies done over the years have warned against sleeping less than six hours, giving plenty of evidence that a lack of sleep has an adverse effect on health.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, an American non-profit founded in 1990, adults between the ages of 18 and 64 should aim for seven to nine hours of sleep. Those older than 65 may need seven to eight hours.

It notes that some people can function well “on the lower end of the range and others will need every minute of the upper limit”.

An hour or two more or less is not a problem but “straying too far from the recommended amount could lead to a variety of health issues” such as reduced immunity, high blood pressure, and depression.

Sleep medicine specialist Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer says sleep is crucial for every organ in the body, including the brain, as it helps the body restore nutrients, clear toxins, and recharge for the next day.

Missing as little as 1.5 hours of sleep can lead to short-term issues like decreased alertness, memory problems, mood swings, and a reluctance to engage in daily activities.

Asked if his routine might be doing him harm, Hori insists he wouldn’t want to change anything about how he is living his life now.

“I have a lot of fun working out, surfing, spending time with family and friends, and discovering new hobbies and landscapes, so I have no intention of cutting back on my time [awake],” he says.

Huge crowd of 100,000 attends Pope Francis’s last mass in Indonesia

An unexpectedly large crowd of some 100,000 people crammed into two sports stadiums and the surrounding car park on Thursday to witness the final Mass led by Pope Francis in Indonesia before he departed for Papua New Guinea, one of the highlights of his 11-day Asia tour.

A sea of people – thousands more than expected – gathered to take part in the grand Mass, which spanned across two stadiums typically only filled by the likes of rockstars and presidents in the predominantly Muslim country.

It was a fitting finale to the 87-year-old pope’s four-day tour of Indonesia, the first stop on an ambitious trip through Southeast Asia and Oceania – the longest and furthest trip of his papacy, undertaken despite his myriad health challenges.

Following the farewell ceremony on Friday, the pope took a six-hour flight to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, but otherwise had no official engagements in his diary for the day, giving him a short break after a packed programme in Jakarta.

The Vatican had originally expected the Mass to draw some 60,000 people, and organisers predicted 80,000. But the Vatican spokesperson quoted local organisers as saying more than 100,000 had attended.

Pictures showed Catholic nuns wearing their habits, students and the elderly filling up the stadium while many became overwhelmed with emotions and were seen crying. The pope waves from his car towards the worshippers.

“Don’t tire of dreaming and of building a civilization of peace,” Francis urged them in an ad-libbed homily. “Be builders of hope. Be builders of peace.”

While in Indonesia, Francis sought to encourage the country’s 8.9 million Catholics, who make up just 3 per cent of the population of 275 million, while also seeking to boost interfaith ties with the country boasting the world’s largest Muslim population.

“I feel very lucky compared to other people who can’t come here or even had the intention to come here,” said Vienna Frances Florensius Basol, who came with her husband and a group of 40 people from Sabah, Malaysia, but couldn’t get into the stadium.

“Even though we are outside with other Indonesians, seeing the screen, I think I am lucky enough,” she said from a parking lot where a giant TV screen was erected for anyone who didn’t have tickets for the service.

“The Pope‘s presence is like Jesus’ presence,” a transgender woman Mami Yuli, wearing a sparkly dress and feathered headress, one of the thousands of Indonesian Christians who gathered to hear the Pope‘s rousing homily told Reuters.

“Given his important message of tolerance, we hope the church and the people can judge us positively,” she added, speaking of the group that faces discrimination from religious conservatives.

“We endure a lot of pressure and that limits our movement as transwomen in Indonesia.”

In the highlight of the visit, Francis and the grand imam of Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, Southeast Asia’s largest, signed a joint declaration pledging to work to end religiously inspired violence and protect the environment.

The pope who opted to travel in the Vatican embassy’s Innova car was given a custom-made bulletproof tactical vehicle with a detachable roof for the Mass. The open-roof car was customised to the pope’s mobility needs, with the addition of a folding ladder, the rear step for the Pope’s guard and the roof for protection from rain.

In Papua New Guinea, Francis’ agenda is aligned with more of his social justice priorities and will visit a remote part of the South Pacific island nation where Christianity is a recent addition to traditional spiritual beliefs developed over millennia.

In the country of 10 million people, most of whom are subsistence farmers and trappings of modernity are scarce.

There is no running water for the more than 120,000 people who live in the diocese, according to a church website. Electricity is a luxury for the few who can afford solar panels or portable generators.

John Lavu, the choir conductor at St Charles Luwanga parish in the capital, Port Moresby, said the visit would help him grow stronger in his Catholic faith.

“I have lived this faith all my life, but the coming of the Holy Father, the head of the church, to Papua New Guinea and to be a witness of his coming to us is going to be very important for me in my life as a Catholic,” he said on the eve of Francis’ arrival.

Francis will be traveling to remote Vanimo to check in on some Catholic missionaries from his native Argentina who are trying to spread the Catholic faith to a largely tribal people who also practice pagan and Indigenous traditions.

However, the poor nation is strategically important in the Pacific region.

The country, the South Pacific’s most populous after Australia, has more than 800 Indigenous languages and has been riven by tribal conflicts over land for centuries, with conflicts becoming more and more lethal in recent decades.

History’s first Latin American pope will likely refer to the need to find harmony among tribal groups while visiting, the Vatican said. Another possible theme is the country’s fragile ecosystem, its rich natural resources at risk of exploitation and the threat posed by climate change.

The Papua New Guinean government has blamed extraordinary rainfall for a massive landslide in May that buried a village in Enga province.

The government said more than 2,000 people were killed, while the United Nations estimated the death toll at 670.

Francis becomes only the second pope to visit Papua New Guinea, after St John Paul II touched down in 1984 during one of his lengthy, globetrotting voyages.

Then, John Paul paid tribute to the Catholic missionaries who had already been trying for a century to bring the faith to the country.

Papua New Guinea is a Commonwealth nation that was a colony of nearby Australia until independence in 1975.

In the longest and farthest voyage of his papacy, Francis will also visit East Timor and Singapore before returning to the Vatican on 13 September.

Additional reporting by AP

TikTokers told to stay away from site of Kuala Lumpur sinkhole tragedy

Authorities in Malaysia have warned people against making TikTok videos near a sinkhole in Kuala Lumpur that swallowed an Indian tourist last month.

Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, 48, fell into the 8m-deep sinkhole on 23 August as she was walking to a temple in the city’s Masjid India district. A search and rescue operation to find her was officially called off over the weekend.

Kuala Lumpur police chief Rusdi Mohd Isa said officers have been deployed at the site where the ground opened up last month in the popular tourist shopping area.

“We don’t want the public visiting the sinkhole site to make TikTok content. Please stay away from the area,” he was quoted by Bernama news agency as saying.

A second sinkhole appeared on Wednesday just 50 metres from where the woman disappeared, sparking public safety concerns.

“The site is under police surveillance and we urge people not to endanger themselves,” the police chief said.

A search launched that same day for Gali was called off nine days later after the government reviewed the reports of the agencies involved in the rescue operation.

The search team used high-pressure jets of water to cut through debris to find the victim. While the Kuala Lumpur City Hall had placed over 100 sandbags around the exposed sewer lines to protect them from the disruptive flow of rainwater, the existing issues were dangerous enough already for the divers.

Police said Gali came to Malaysia with her husband and friends two months ago for a vacation. The accident occurred just a day before they were due to return home.

Kuala Lumpur’s mayor Maimunah Mohd Sharif has reassured the public of the city’s safety, stating that daily routines should continue unless evidence suggests otherwise. A task force has been established to assess the safety of structures around the sinkhole area.

“Throughout the incident, we did not direct any of the stalls to close, we only closed part of the area. People can still come and visit along the footpath,” she said.

Plane bound for UK forced to make emergency landing in Russia

An Air India flight en route from Delhi to Birmingham made a precautionary landing in Moscow after facing “technical problems” on Wednesday night.

The Air India Boeing 787-800 passenger plane to Britain made a safe emergency landing at the Russian capital’s Sheremetyevo airport, with all 258 passengers and 17 crew members unharmed. The incident occurred at around 9.35pm Moscow time.

“The aircraft’s crew requested an unscheduled landing at Sheremetyevo Airport due to technical problems,” the airport said in a statement. “Airport services promptly responded to the crew’s request and prepared to receive the aircraft according to the applicable emergency plan. The foreign crew received full assistance from the Russian airport and specialists under the applicable international convention.”

The scheduled departure time of the flight was set for 21.35 Moscow time (18.35GMT).

This was the third Air India flight in recent months to make an emergency landing due to technical problems.

A flight from Delhi to San Francisco in July carrying 225 passengers and 19 crew was forced to land in Siberia after a potential issue was found in the cargo hold area. In a statement, Air India said a team, including crew and security personnel, were on board a ferry flight sent to pick up stranded US-bound passengers from Russia. It had also set up a dedicated hotline for anyone wanting to reach out to the passengers.

Since Air India didn’t have a dedicated presence at the Krasnoyarsk airport, it had to rely on third-party services to assist the stranded passengers, leading to logistical problems, the Hindustan Times reported, quoting airline officials.

The airport had put the flight’s crew in hotels but the passengers were left in the international departure area, which angered some of those stranded, Reuters reported, citing social media posts of some of the passengers.

Another Air India aircraft flying the same route last year was grounded for a day due to a technical issue, requiring a replacement aircraft to be sent to retrieve the stranded passengers.

The pilots had received an indication of low oil pressure in one of the engines, forcing them to land at the remote Magadan airport in Russia. The 216 passengers and 16 flight crew had to be housed in makeshift accommodation at the airport until the replacement plane arrived.

Asteroid detected heading for Earth burns up in ‘spectacular fireball’

A tiny asteroid headed for the Earth has burned up in a “spectacular fireball” over the Philippines, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

The space rock, measuring only about a metre (3ft) in size, had eluded discovery and was spotted by research technologist Jacqueline Fazekas at Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey only on Wednesday morning.

Labelled as 2024 RW1, the asteroid was predicted to burn up in the atmosphere, posing no risk to people on the ground.

Several agencies and amateur space observers, including Nasa’s Planetary Defense coordination office, confirmed that the harmless asteroid burned up over the Philippines around midnight local time (4.40pm UTC Wednesday).

Such small sized asteroids strike Earth frequently but are rarely noticed before impact.

“Nearby tropical storm Yagi/Enteng will make fireball observations difficult,” ESA had said.

But clearer weather ensured people near the Luzon Island in the Philippines could spot the burning space rock, with many sharing photos and videos of the spectacular event on social media.

“This is just the ninth asteroid that humankind has ever spotted before impact,” the ESA posted on X. Planetary defence systems to detect and track near-Earth asteroids posing potential risk to the planet have become a priority in recent times.

Space agencies, including Nasa, are testing methods to tackle such life-threatening asteroids.

Nasa’s 2022 Dart mission crashed a rocket travelling at about 6.6kmps into the football stadium-sized asteroid Dimorphous to test the feasibility of deflecting such space rocks from their future Earth-bound trajectories.

China is also planning a mission to deflect an asteroid by 2030.

While large space rocks on trajectory towards Earth pose a serious threat to the planet, even smaller ones that elude detection can cause significant damage to life and property.

Over a decade ago, a 20m-meteor travelling at over 18kmps exploded over Russia’s Chelyabinsk city, causing a massive explosion with the energy of more than 30 atomic bombs.

The meteor’s airburst injured more than 1,500 people from shattered glass, leaving buildings damaged.

While scientists worldwide work to catalogue all asteroids over 1km in size, there is a chance a smaller one may slip through the net once in a while.

Nasa is planning to launch a new infrared telescope called the NEO Surveyor to look for such space rocks near Earth.

Maori chiefs crown queen for only second time in history

New Zealand’s Maori chiefs have anointed Nga Wai hono i te po as their new queen and eighth monarch, to succeed her father King Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII who passed away at 69 after a heart surgery.

Ms Nga Wai, 27, is only the second Maori queen after her grandmother Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

She was chosen as Kuini by a council of Maori chiefs at Turangawaewae Marae on North Island on Thursday, and hailed as a “new dawn”.

King Tuheitia was laid to rest at Mount Taupiri after lying in state for six days.

Ms Nga Wai, a University of Waikato graduate groomed to succeed her father, is set for a potentially lengthy reign.

“This is more than a generational shift,” New Zealand First MP Shane Jones said.

“She’ll be the face of renewal. Given the extent of Maori youth, I suspect she will personify their aspirations.”

The Maori crown is not automatically passed down. The late king leaves two sons behind, Te Ariki Tamaaroa Whatumoana Paki and Te Ariki Turuki Korotangi Paki, but neither was chosen as the successor.

Maori leaders and politicians agreed that Ms Nga Wai’s appointment was essential for the Kiingitanga – or Maori king movement – with her influence expected to be profound across New Zealand for many years to come.

The Kiingitanga was launched in 1858 to unite New Zealand’s indigenous tribes under one leader in a bid to strengthen their resistance against colonialism. The role of the Maori monarch, although largely ceremonial and without legal authority, holds significant influence as they are regarded as the paramount chief of several tribes.

Annette Sykes, a lawyer and Maori rights advocate, said the queen embodied the future she had been striving for. “She’s inspiring, the revitalisation and reclamation of our language has been a 40-year journey for most of us and she epitomises that, it is her first language, she speaks it with ease,” she said.

“Political, economic and social wellbeing for our people is at the heart of what she wants and in many ways she is like her grandmother, who was adored by the nation,” Ms Sykes was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

“We have all watched her grow up, she’s very humble, I have watched her mature into this woman who has this thirst for authentic knowledge and brings this into the modern world. She’s someone who wears Gucci and she wears moko kauae,” Ms Sykes added, referring to a traditional Maori chin tattoo.

“She is leading us into uncharted and turbulent waters, and she will do it with aplomb.”

Ms Nga Wai was enthroned at a ceremony on Thursday morning in the small town of Ngaruawahia. She was escorted to the throne by the Kiingitanga advisory council of 12 elders from various tribes who chose her as the queen.

“The Maori world has been yearning for younger leadership to guide us in the new world of AI, genetic modification, global warming and in a time of other social changes that question and threaten us and Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand,” Maori cultural advisor Karaitiana Taiuru told AFP news agency.

“It is certainly a break from traditional Maori leadership appointments which tend to succeed to the eldest child, usually a male.”

Ms Nga Wai, draped in a wreath of leaves, a cloak and a whalebone necklace, sat next to her father’s coffin as ceremonial rites were performed.

Since the new conservative government led by the National Party took over last October, the Kiingitanga has become more active in uniting the Maori against proposed policies seen as a setback for their rights.

The Maori are about 17 per cent of New Zealand’s population.

Ms Nga Wai, who has a Master’s degree in Maori cultural practices and traditions, began teaching kapa haka during her second and third years at the University of Waikato, New Zealand Herald reported. Kapa haka is a ceremonial dance of the Maori tribe.

In a university interview, she said kapa haka was a central part of her life. “I go home to my parents’ house and my little nephew is there and he’s trying to do the haka. So it is just everywhere. I’ve been brought up in it, I am it. A lot of people are kapa haka. It’s the embodiment of Maoritanga,” she said.

Thai woman rescued after falling into 2m-deep manhole

A harrowing ordeal unfolded in Thailand after a 54-year-old woman fell into a drainage manhole.

The incident occurred on 2 September in Samut Sakhon’s city centre when Wiparat Yonnawa stepped on a seemingly secure concrete cover, only to see it collapse under her feet, sending her two metres below ground into waist-deep water.

Trapped for nearly half an hour, Ms Wiparat’s desperate situation only came to an end when a passerby spotted her and alerted her daughter and authorities.

The incident came just days after a similar tragedy in Malaysia, where an Indian tourist, Vijaya Lakshmi Gali, 48, vanished into an 8m-deep sinkhole on 23 August while walking to a temple in Kuala Lumpur. Despite a nine-day search and rescue operation, authorities were unable to locate her.

Ms Wiparat’s daughter told Thaiger that she was unaware of the accident till a good Samaritan rang her doorbell to alert her. She rushed to the scene and sought assistance from a hospital rescue team.

Recounting her traumatic experience, Ms Wiparat told English daily The Nation that she was out shopping and had walked over the manhole cover, which is near her home, without incident only moments before it gave way beneath her feet.

Ms Wiparat reported feeling pain, helplessness, and fear of drowning. She said that if the water level had been higher, her situation could have been worse.

Arriving at the scene, the rescuers found Ms Wiparat submerged in the wastewater, sitting in a manhole about one metre in diameter and two metres deep.

She was unable to stand or climb out on her own due to extreme fatigue and shock, reported Thaiger. One rescuer entered the manhole and positioned a chair for Wiparat to sit on. A rope was secured to the chair, allowing the rescue team to safely pull Ms Wiparat out of the pit.

Ms Wiparat was taken to a local hospital for treatment of bruises and scratches. Her bruises were severe but did not result in internal bleeding, reports said.

Ms Wiparat, who was visited in hospital by the deputy mayor of Samut Sakhon, called on the city’s authorities to take measures to prevent similar accidents in the future.

In an interview with The Nation, she emphasised the potential severity of such incidents. “If a child had fallen in, they may not have survived. Proper signs or barriers should be put in place if there is any work being done that may pose a danger to the public.”

Sakchai Nimitpanya, the deputy mayor, suspected that municipal officials failed to secure the manhole cover properly after inspection or left it open for garbage removal. Municipal staff had been tasked with inspecting drainage manholes in preparation for high tide in the province, located along the Gulf of Thailand coast.