Ko Surin, Thailand (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.”

Salamak is a member of Thailand’s Moken ethnic group.

Also known as the “sea gypsies” or chao ley — Thai for “sea people” — the Moken lay claim to an astounding list of traits. They’re one of the only groups of humans who, traditionally, lived predominately at sea, in houseboats called kabang.

These skills were honed over centuries of nomadic living — sailing, hunting and gathering among the islands of Myanmar’s Mergui Archipelago and Thailand’s upper Andaman Sea coast.

Tsunami forces Moken onto solid land