After centuries of nomadic living, Thailand's 'sea people' adapt to life on land

Members of Thailand's Moken ethnic group -- known locally as "sea people" -- are famed for their ability to stay underwater for long periods of time. Pre-pandemic, they earned money by helping out on boats or doing odd jobs at the national park, but these jobs are gone now. Here's how they're surviving.

(CNN) — These days, Salamak Klathalay, like most of us, lives in a house, on land. But this is a relatively new experience for the 78-year-old. "As a kid, I lived on a boat part of the year and on land part of the year," Salamak tells me from his home on Ko Surin, an island-bound national park in Thailand's south. "We would go to land during the monsoon season to look for tubers. After that, we would go back to our boats."