The dark side of Koh Phangan

As with most places in Thailand, especially heavy tourist areas, there is hardly any organized system for trash collection. Koh phangan is no exception. It is sad to see such a beautiful and remote paradise ruined by trash and broken glass bottles. The tourism industry is the only industry on the island as 90% of the island is inhabitable and unreachable due to such thick and steep terrain. The impact of travelers is a double edged sword, as it fuels the economy buy also destroys the natural beauty. This lawless anything goes island leaves people broken scraped, burned, tattooed but with great pictures and stories to share. As there is no proper place to dispose of common trash; bottles, paper, wrappers, travelers are forced to simply throw it on the ground. The beach most affected is Haad Rin, site of the full moon parties, by the end of the night the beach is littered with bottles and rubbish.

Scooters are the most popular method of transportation through the island, and they are cheap to rent. With no drinking and driving laws, scooter accidents are the most popular form of injury aswell. All over you see people with bandages, crutches and slings, limping and hobbling around. They say in the past 2 years there has been an increase in health clinics from 2 to over 25. That's one opening up each month. I questioned why they don't do something about all the scooter accidents and allowance of glass on the beach. The simplest responce was that if people don't get hurt, they don't need to go to the clinics and the doctors don't get paid...

It gets even more F**ed up...
Transportation throughout the island is run by a local mafia. Especially with the boats, they set the price and keep it high. They control who goes where on the island.

There is no water sanitation or waste treatment facilities. I assume sewage is pumped deep into the ground. My reason for this is if you dig deeper than 16" into the sand on haad rin beach you do not get a pleasant smell.

It's almost 1.5x more expensive to leave the island than it is to get there. With 5 day minimums on a lot of the places, and a limited number of boats, you are sure to stay a while.

Please don't get me wrong though. Koh phangan is a beautiful island with lots of remote beaches and natural beauty. The negativity is primarly focued on Haad Rin beach and the heay impact of the full moon parties. Overall the community is friendly, down to earth and chill. Its understandable the desire for more money as they just want to improve their lifestyle with the simple luxeroes we take for grated. It's just sad that a lot has to be made from peoples pain and stupidity, but that's just the way it is. The unregulated freedom makes it very attractive to young backpackers and travelers, you just have to watch out for the people that can't handle it and keep your flops on in busy places.

Mike Pennington
mike@rhinoconcessions.com
864-320-2306

www.rhinoconcessions.com