Jetskis in Koh Phangan

I stumbled upon a free website made for Phangan Jetski based in Thong Nai Pan Yai the other day. The site is really bad and obviously ignored by the person who made the site as it is full of spam comments. Moreover, the website is misleading in the extreme as in the video section they have a video of jetskiing with dolphins. Unless you click through to YouTube you won’t discover that the video was actually taken in the Maldives not Koh Phangan!

This flagrant misrepresentation sums up the jetski experience not just in Thong Nai Pan and Koh Phangan but throughout Thailand. If you don’t believe me Google the term ‘jetski Thailand’ All 10 entries on the first page catalogue the numerous scams perpetrated by jetski companies. Operators are meant to have a captain’s license, but the police never check. In Phuket the mafia control the jetski business. You can see a YouTube video that shows a scam in action. A very minor scratch is treated as major damage – Thais crowd the foreigners and start shouting in order to scare the money out of the tourists. A cop then turns up and arranges a small discount. He is in on the scam.

I was going to post pictures of jetskis in the water in Thong Nai Pan, but thought this will just encourage people who look at pictures without reading the text. Don’t hire jetskis in Thong Nai Pan.

Here are the reasons why:

1. They pollute. You can smell the petrol fumes from the jetskis.
2. They are noisy.
3. They are dangerous. Jetskis coming and going pose a threat to people swimming in the sea, especially children who are harder to see and who don’t instinctively get out of the way. Going out to sea in a jetski is also dangerous as the coastal waters contain lots of rocks just below the water.
4. It doesn’t matter if you rent a jetski from a foreigner or a Thai person the result of scratching the jetski is the same: they will refuse to return the passport until they have $1,000 in cash. A scratch costs only a few hundred Baht to fix, and can be done simply.
5. The police won’t help you. Your resort manager won’t help you. The only thing that will help you is having 2 passports!
6. Most people don’t go anywhere on a jetski. They simply circle around the bay and then come back. People stop to stare at you jetskiing not because they think you are cool, but because they are wondering why any idiot would want to make so much noise and cause so much pollution in such a lovely spot.

Please save yourself heartache – don’t rent a jetski in Thong Nai Pan. It is illegal to demand a passport as a deposit in Thailand, as a foreigner should have his or her passport nearby at all times. Saying this won’t help you when hiring a jetski but it should alert you to the fact that the really precious thing is the passport not the jetski.

In fairness to Phangan Jetski they claim to offer the option of buying insurance. Who underwrites the insurance is not revealed. It is just stated that 80% of damages are covered. Whether that means the amount asked for is only $200 instead of $1,000 is unclear.

Also in fairness to Phangan Jetski they have some good reviews on Trip Advisor – indeed 19 good reviews. However, the bad review mentions paying 900 Euros for a jetski that sank – the tourist was picked up by a fishing boat!

More Road Improvements

One of the longest running sagas concerning Thong Nai Pan has been the road. Until the 1980s it was nothing more than a footpath from Baan Tai to Thong Nai Pan. In the 90s it was a dirt road traversing mountainous terrain that became treacherous after heavy rain. In the early noughties the big hill was paved and then in 2012 the road from Than Sadet to Thong Nai Pan was put in. Now they are working on completing the job.

Work is currently underway to concrete the last section of dirt road between Jungle Flight (at the top of the big hill) and the Than Sadet turning. As can be seen from the photos the preparatory work has been done flattening the dirt. Next up is the road laying team who will lay the road in sections.

Such is the nature of road building in Koh Phangan that it seems unlikely that the road from the Baan Tai turning to Thong Nai Pan will be entirely finished but it looks like 2014 will see 90% of the road finished.

The road is of a quality that exceeds any other on the island. The decision to do such a good job is no doubt down to the airport on the same road. If people are to be encouraged to fly to Koh Phangan they will want to be able to quickly get to their hotel once they land.

The saga is not over, but the old fears of being stranded on the Thong Nai Pan road have become a thing of the past. There is more reason to worry about other roads on the island such as the road to Than Sadet or the big hill separating Baan Tai from Haad Rin.

Walking from Thong Nai Pan Yai to Than Sadet

I have never met anyone who has walked from Thong Nai Pan Yai to the beach at Than Sadet. It’s something I am always meaning to get around to. I was greatly impressed by Tezza’s blog. He not only does this walk but does all the hikes along the mountainous east coast of Koh Phangan.

http://tezzasthaiinfo.blogspot.co.uk/2006/12/ko-phangan.html Gives a detailed account of these hikes and is an invaluable resource for those visitors to Koh Phangan who want to get off the beaten track and experience the natural beauty of the island. Although the east coast holds the leading luxury resorts on the island as well as the construction site for the new airport, it is an area that remains mostly untouched by the development sweeping Koh Phangan. Beaches like Haad Thong Reng, Haad Yao East and Haad Wai Nam are places that time seems to have forgotten, places that feel a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of the Full Moon Party.

Haad Sadet to Thong Nai Pan Yai

The trail to Thong Nai Pan Yai starts on the main access road, near the Rangers Station. Follow the signs for viewpoint bungalows. After 5 minutes the track divides. The right turning goes to Viewpoint Bungalows. Take the left turn. Follow this path and you get to Thong Nai Pan Yai. The path goes up and down and at parts is no more than a narrow path through the jungle. The journey cannot be done on a motorbike.

The trail comes out on the road where the Funky Buddha is located. It takes about 55 minutes to walk the trail. Considering it would take about 40 minutes to drive a motorbike between Thong Nai Pan and Than Sadet this is a good route.

You are unlikely to meet anyone while on the trail. Be sure to wear boots, carry water and use sunscreen. Also don’t set out late in the afternoon as the sun goes down quickly in the evening.

Future Roads

The local government plan to connect all the beaches up by concrete roads in the future so now is the time to enjoy this adventure before the trail is made redundant.

Tezza

Respect to Tezza for his independent researches. We recommend checking out his blog for information about other walking trails in Koh Phangan. I can think of few better things in life than exploring the stunning beaches on the east coast of Koh Phangan.