Luna Lounge

Nat and Khun did a good job with the Luna Lounge. They organized the building of an impressive round-thatched bar with water features and comfortable sofas and attempted to bring a bit of sophistication to TNP. At the time it was built (2008) it was in competition with Que Pasa at the back of the village of Thong Nai Pan Noi. Que Pasa closed and for a while Luna Lounge was the only high-end restaurant / bar in Thong Nai Pan Noi village.

Luna Lounge represents how Thong Nai Pan Noi is changing. It catered not for cost conscious backpackers but for those with plenty of money to spend on wine, cocktails and ‘fusion’ dishes. Phad Thai was out and coconut pannacotta was in.

The other interesting thing about Luna Lounge is how well the bar networked. Not only were many of the early customers friends of friends but also they were milked for Trip Advisor recommendations. I have to admit I hate Trip Advisor. They take other people’s content and make money from it. They parade an authority that simply is not there. Because several people wrote in recommending Luna Lounge it became ‘the best restaurant in Koh Phangan’.

I guess the people who have dined at the Rasananda ‘Michelin trend’ restaurant, at Chantara Restaurant at Santhiya, at the BBQ at Tapan Noi or even the hole-in-the-wall place on Walking Street in Thongsala were just never asked to tell Trip Advisor about it. Luna Lounge appeals to a certain type, the same type who pays any attention to Trip Advisor.

Now the restaurant has passed into new hands. They have a new website. It’s no longer www.thai-luna.com. Now it’s www.luna-restaurant-phangan.com/. Don’t worry there is a re-direct so you can’t miss the website. The new people renting the bar are Fred and Cathy. They have gone for an impressive wine list and stuck with the Asian Fusion culinary theme. There’s BBQ fish, orange and ginger duck, pesto and roasted vegetable pasta, Phi Phi chicken and, surprisingly enough, Pad Thai. The website doesn’t give the prices but I bet it’s not 40 Baht!

Anyway, best of luck to Fred and Cathy. If any beach in Koh Phangan needed a Luna Lounge then it was Thong Nai Pan Noi. They are a good match; but so are Better Than Sex and TNP.

Wang Thong Gallery

Unfortunately, many tourists associate Thai art exclusively with pictures of elephants and Buddha heads. These are often well done and decorative but are so hackneyed as to ill-deserve the phrase ‘art’. I suspect commercial pressures have made many young Thai artists conform to what they think foreign visitors want to see. It is thus refreshing to discover that Thong Nai Pan Yai now has a resident Thai artist that is unashamed in pursuing his own artistic vision. His name is Top Thumvanit, and he has a studio and shop on the road leading to Wang Thong Waterfall. If you are in Thong Nai Pan and are interested in seeing real Thai art then you should make your way into the forest to check Top’s canvases out.

Top Thumvanit went to Silpakorn University in Bangkok to study fine arts. After a brief spell painting on the streets of Sukhumvit he moved to Krabi and then again to Khao Lak where he opened his own gallery called ‘Top Art’. He moved again in 2011 to start his second gallery in Thong Nai Pan Yai.

The favored medium of Top is oil and canvas. He varies between a playful realism and a magical surrealism. His subjects include Thai iconography as well as a tropical fairy land of gossamer-winged creatures sporting in luxuriant blossoms. It is eye catching art that reveals a fertile imagination.

All of the paintings are ‘one-offs’. Even if Top’s pictures don’t end up gracing major international galleries it adds to their appeal and value that the purchaser is getting a unique piece of art.

For those looking for a reproduction of another painting Top can meticulously execute copies of any painting he is shown.

With the general encroachment of big business it is good to see that the original bohemian spirit of Thong Nai Pan has not been lost, and that talented and interesting people are still drawn to the beauty of the area.

Panviman Hacked

I hate hackers. Plenty of times my sites have been pried open by somebody with a bizarre axe to grind who leave an arrogant index.html to smother my content and drive away traffic. The worse ones are those that take over your back room. It is hard to get hold of your site again. 

Perhaps the most cunning hackers are those who infiltrate a site and subtly add their spammy links but leave a site ostensibly the same. This is what has happened to the Panviman site. Have a look at the screen save above. The Panviman title is now 'Viagra Prices Pfizer, Viagra Over Cannabis ++ Cheap Generic ...'

The information for one of the sub-listings is 'Lisinopril generic aceon Do ingredients you female like girls paris? need asked when ..'

Panviman may have 5 star accommodation and a great reputation but their eye is clearly not on the virtual ball. If they employed me I could alert them to this, but they don't and so I won't. Perhaps they'll eventually wonder why they are getting emails about 'Cannabis' and 'girls paris'. Until they address the problem us impartial observers can enjoy the joke while it lasts.