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About Me Hi, I am Mr. Joe, also known as
Joe Ling or
Ambassador to Happyland.
In 2004 I came with my family
on a holiday to Koh Phangan
and somehow, got stuck in Haad Khom and Coconut Beach.
After a short time back home in
the UK, I came back
and helped in the day to day running here in the resort.
The
owner, Mrs. Pen and all the staff where very lovely people,
always friendly, smiling and helpful wherever they could.
It was a real pleasure to be part of this small Family run resort.
In
the beginning, when I started working here,
we only had 5 wooden bungalows and 5 concrete bungalows.
Somehow Mr. Saneh thought concrete was better
then the traditional wooden bungalows we had.
I
have always been very loyal and very dedicated to what I was doing.
Mrs. Penn and all the staff at the time, did their best and worked
very hard
to gain a good reputation, despite of the many short comings
and we had many, many guests who came back again and again
I
used to do everything within my power, sometimes 24 hours a day.
I used my brain, my hands and my personal money,
to make our customers stay as a pleasant one as only possible.
I helped in the kitchen, in the restaurant and the resort wherever I
could.
I took bookings, picked people up at the pier, took people out for the
day.
I helped build the footpath, repaired bungalows, cleaned toilettes.
If
there was a problem in any of the four resorts on Haad Khom,
Mr Joe sure would try to help any time of day.
I gave advice to everyone to the best of my knowledge
on anything from health, travel, accommodation, etc.
always trying to stay impartial
.
But
every so often Mrs. Pen's husband Mr. Saneh (Pi Neah),
took over and things got from satisfactry to bad to worse.
Even their own son walked away as he was used and abused.
Mr Saneh usually spends his time siting on the floor in his
room.
Smokes his cigarettes and stears on the floor in front of him,
wondering how to cheat anyone out of a few hundred baht
for massages and his gambling and alcohol addiction.
When he doesn't get what he wants, he can get pretty violent.
He threatens his staff, his guests or the other resort owners
with his gun, his machette or anything he can grab.
In fact, he's just a small time criminal from Bangkok.
Over the five years at Coconut
Beach, me and Mr. Saneh
had several clashes about how to manage a resort
and what good or bad business practices are.
Late
October 2008 I stopped working for the resort
and started renovating my bar at Mrs. Pen and Mr. Saneh's request.
That was fine until I wanted to
open the bar for the winter season,
Mr. Saneh had different ideas. He already got some doggy Rastaboy
to take over my bar once I was not there. So
mid December I decided I wanted to leave the resort
and asked Mrs.
Pen and Mr. Saneh to pay me back the money
they kept borrowing of me over the past 4 years.
1.5 million baht. I did not want it all and not at once.
Mrs. Penn promised me she would pay back little by little
but Mr Saneh refused, became very violent and chassed me
and some of his guests out of the resort.
I had to leave most of my possessions behind
as I was not able to get them out of fear for my life. So
today, I'm still on Koh Phangan and am looking for new work.
I enjoyed what I did and I made many, many friends. So
if anyone hears of some work in a resort or knows a good solicitor,
PLEASE
CONTACT ME BY MAIL I
still love Haad Khom, one of the nicest places on Koh Phangan
but,
Coconut Beach has become a place of pure rip-off. So
take my advice and stay away.
(Sorry, this is bias advice)
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