Koh Pha Ngan - paradise on an island

I arrived in Koh Pha Ngan 2 days ago, after travelling by sleeper train (highly recommend this - slept most of the way) where I met an English 'bloke' called Robert who was heading off to do a 7 day detox fast/ cleanse. That got us started on a pretty in-depth conversation about tactics and options for detoxing. Probably would have bored most people to depth but I found it fascinating!

A bus (on which I met 2 Irish fellas from Coolock!) picked us up from the train station & brought us to the boat. The crossing to Koh Samui ('Koh' means 'island') and then Koh Pha Ngan was long enough for me to get burnt to a nice crimson (through clouded skies of course) by the time we arrived. I decided to go to Haad Rin at first (Hat Rin - Hat means 'beach') which is famous for full moon parties (basically buckets of booze until dawn), but to the quiet side, as Hat Rin is more populated than other parts of the island. I had hoped to meet fellow travellers there. Stayed one night which was long enough to find out how commercial it was (akin to Koh San Road - see second blog entry) and left yesterday to travel north to Ao Thong Nai Pan Noi beach (noi means 'little). I settled into a bungalow at the very end of this idyllic beach and have been happily lounging here. I'll plan on staying here for a few more days as I bumped into one of the most colourful characters I have ever come across - "Mr. Blue". He is a 50-something engineer/ ship's captain who works 6 months and plays 6 months. When he plays he is an outrageous exhibitionist (to the point where his piercing was hanging out of his swimming trunks.....if you get my drift...). Mr. Blue, I and Sylvan (from Montreal) have got our own little gang going for now. The one complaint we have is that the whole island is populated almost exclusively with couples!!!!WDF?? (Whatdefuck?) Blue said that a couple of years ago it was all single backpackers and it was great fun - now it's just dowdy thirty-something couples sitting alone at their boring tables, providing no entertainment for the rest of us (how thoughtless of them....!). Argh! Seems like I won't be meeting many backpackers until I head north into Chiang Mai.

Off to go snorkelling today, so hopefully will get some good piccies. I snorkelled the Pan Noi beach yesterday and it is shocking how much dead coral there is. I snorkelled for a good mile along the shoreline hoping that the further away from the beach I got (and thus away from the sewage) the cleaner the water would get and the more coral would be visible. It never changed. Visibility was less than 5 feet, the sediment layer on all the dead corals is CLEARLY from greywater/ sewage seepage off the beaches. It is a bloody disgrace. They could have snorkelling trips in their own back yards if they just cleaned up the sewage problem. I am reluctant to put my head underwater at this point having seen what is in there with a snorkel and mask.

The compounding problem with the sewage is that there is virtually uncontrolled building - huge concrete resorts RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!! for god's sake... and no sewage rules as far as I can gather. These behemoths are eating up local resources, will drive up prices for food, bottled water, everything, and the locals will pay the cost so that the rich owners of these insults to Nature can accumulate more money. And for what? So they can bring it with them when they die? What a dreadful waste of Nature's bounty just so one person can feed their greed.....