Koh Phangan Paradise – A brief report on the current island situation!

Well … first of all Becki is really sorry and can’t provide you with the latest news & gossip about Koh Phangan Paradise Island at the moment ;-(

Next … Becki got again a corrupted hard drive on the main server and therefore I urgently needed to upgrade to a new server with brand new hardware and hopefully this one will last a bit longer than 2 years 😉 The new server is called DS3000 and runs a SuSe Linux 64bit on it … the installation took me a couple of days but now the system is running nice and smooth.

Also got a couple of other projects running at the moment so Koh Phangan Island News unfortunately has to wait a bit at the moment! Sorry again 😉

So … what’s going on here on that lovely island hidden in the Gulf of Thailand? Well … first I think that this lovely Island called Koh Pha-Ngan is NOT hidden anywhere anymore as it is already recognized to be the worlds BIGGEST beach party by some newspapers overseas. Also the local newspapers like Bangkok Post in Thailand regular write about this hidden jewel at the moment. Well … in their eyes it’s no longer a hidden jewel but it’s becoming more and more a major problem of Thailand’s world wide reputation. How’s that?

Well … imagine you have one of the Thaksin Clan guys sitting in the TAT – Tourist Authority of Thailand – main headquarters in Suratthani. So … on one side the Thaksin Clan is trying to setup a ONLY high class tourism for Thailand and on the other side we got all these lunatics meeting up for a monthly full moon party celebration on Koh Phangan Island. Probably re-adjusting their mental systems with mind altering substances, dancing to some bizarre techno rhythms, drinking lots of buckets and maybe enjoying a nice blowjob from the local lady boys in the secret coconut gardens at Haad Rin beach.

So … those two versions of reality don’t go very well together, isn’t it? Therefore the Thaksin man from the TAT office in Suratthani recently pointed out loud that it would probably be a very good idea to just simply SHUT DOWN the monthly celebration of the full moon party at Koh Phangan Paradise Island. This would also eliminate Thailand’s world wide bad reputation!

Well … that’s hilarious 😉 What a strange point of view 😉 In the WAR AGAINST DRUGS about 1-2 years ago the Thaksin administration killed around 5000 Thai drug dealers, most of them of course NOT from Koh Phangan. Recently the Thaksin administration killed again a couple of hundreds Muslims in the high troubled southern region of Yala, Pattani and Sungei Golok.

Hey … couldn’t these acts of TERROR probably affect Thailand’s international reputation? Come on … wake up … use your brains 😉 Or do you really think it’s all about a bunch of tourists trying to have a good time on the worlds biggest beach party at Had Rin beach Koh Phangan? What’s your mission? What are you trying to accomplish? Another version of Nazi German? A New World Order? Novus Ordo Seclorum?

Anyway … recently also had a look at my server logs for kohphangannews.org and surprisingly found out that more and more visits are coming from the US Military 😉 That’s awesome …

But … no worries … the world famous full moon party is STILL alive and supposed to happen this month 18th September 2005! Prepare yourself 🙂

Also still on the island’s party menu is the Half Moon Party, Black Moon Party and always the After Party at ‘Baan Sabai’ in Baan Tai area. Entrance fee to purely satisfy you soul is 200 Baht at the moment except for the After Party at ‘Baan Sabai’ … that’s for FREE 😉 Also still waiting for another Moon Party event like Quarter Moon Party or probably No Moon Party???

Also don’t forget to join the ‘Green Cross Conservation Party’ and always ask yourself: AM I PART OF THE SOLUTION OR THE PROBLEM! If you think you are the problem then go there and participate. Get totally wasted, spend lots of money on buckets or whatsoever and just keep in mind that proceeds are donated to the cause.

Well … Becki is still trying to figure out in what way the proceeds are donated to the cause. Still waiting to see this promised beach cleaning machine in action … digging up the rubbish at Haadrin Beach which they put there a couple of years ago. This was really awesome I can tell you. After every Full Moon Party the locals just digged massive holes at the beach and threw all the rubbish in and finally cover it up again with white crystal sand 😉

Full of crystal sand is also the freshly build road from Baan Khay to Haad Rin beach. After a couple of months it’s finally done and so far Becki has done some test drives and it looks great and much safer than before. If you want to have a look how the road once looked like then don’t hesitate and watch the following movie:

Koh Phangan Island News – Voyage to Hadrin Beach

In times of USA overtaking the oil fields of Iraq and therefore resulting global high prices on petrol everything gets more and more expensive. Except the taxi prices from Haad Rin beach to Thongsala main town. There’s now a new taxi service running for 15 Baht per person. Actually nobody tells you about this amazing new service as they want you to spend the normal expected farang rate of 50 baht for the trip! Welcome to amazing Thailand 😉

The water situation on the island gets more and more CRITICAL! Even if we got rain from time to time the wells on the island stay dry ;-( Haad Yao Beach got a well which has NEVER been dry as long as locals can remember. Well … this year the well was dry for the first time! Should we start worrying??? The guys from Haad Yao Beach DO WORRY!

Soon it will probably also be impossible to find a resort on the island without a swimming pool! Every resort somehow desperately needs to build a swimming pool even though they sometimes don’t have the water to fill it with. So … why are they doing this? Hmh … have a look at Dew Shore Resort. Bungalow prices went up from 350 Baht to 650 Baht once the swimming pool was finished 🙂

More and more mountain areas are transformed into very affordable Real Estate objects for a couple of millions of Baht. New roads are cut through the forest to some spectacular 1 Rai hillside plots with magnificent views overlooking some beautiful whatever bays. A great place to build your home or for investment even though it is still NOT POSSIBLE for a foreigner to own a piece of land in Thailand! So … don’t hesitate … Escape to Koh Phangan 🙂

Well … could it probably be that an increasing number of tourists coming to this island … that a massive construction of new ‘houses for rent’ and bungalows in every tiny corner of the island … that a massive increasing number of swimming pools around the island … … that a massive transformation from mountain areas into real estate objects …

… somehow affects the ecological system of the island? Well … could that probably be the case???

Or should we just deny what’s happening? Continue on doing whatever we think will be good for us and create something new … well … like … for example …

ECO TOURISM 😉

Though I’m still not certainly sure what this ECO means?? ECOLOGICAL? ECONOMICAL? Well … you better decide 😉