How this man got to Thailand we don’t know. Why he is unable to say the words ‘coronavirus’ or refer in any other but in a most oblique fashion to the deadly epidemic in Thailand and throughout the world is telling. He wants to have a good time travelling, and that is what he is doing despite the world health crisis. He seems surprised there aren’t any bungalow resorts willing to accommodate him or serve him. The pandemic has taught us to avoid such people because they will most likely give you the virus, since their personal liberty trumps everyone else’s health concerns. He calls it ‘global nonsense’.
He doesn’t deny covid exists but his attitude clearly shows he lacks human empathy. He talks of the loss of business, and the hardship for the locals caused by the lack of business. He doesn’t know much about Koh Phangan or Thailand. Tourists do not enrich the locals unless they have their own business. Wages for waiters and cleaners are so low that many of the jobs are taken by illegal Burmese immigrants!
As he walks down the beach, he sees devastation. Candle Hut Resort is a shell of its former self. Vegetation is growing through the shower floor of one bungalow. The swimming pool is brown and full of trash. Wood is rotting, paint is peeling. The place is a deserted ghost resort.
Dreamland Resort is closed. Flip Flop Pharmacy has the smell of cooking. Nice Beach Resort shows signs of being cared for. Here we have a clear list of those businesses owned or rented by outsiders who abandoned their businesses when the flow of tourists stopped. And a list of those whose owners are active in their businesses and have stuck around.
The ramshackle businesses didn’t want to pay for a caretaker; or they paid for a caretaker who did nothing. All the other staff have been dismissed, no doubt without any furlough payments. It must be cheaper to repair Candlehut Resort after the disaster than to maintain it during the crisis, or there was zero contingency money available. Businesses like Candlehut Resort have been raking in money for 20 years and they can’t shut for 18 months without going to wrack and ruin. That is poor economy.
Anyway, the man liked the sand. He knows a lot about sand it appears. He is correct in identifying the sand as being fine and powdery like the sand in Haad Rin. He is wrong about nearly everything else.
