Mr Kit's Paradise Beach in Chaloklum!

Some of the local residents of Chaloklum have joined forces to start a new community project called Mr Kit’s Paradise Beach.

The main members of the team for now are Hinch from The Holy Grill, Jamie from Wake Up Wakeboarding and Mr Kit himself, Hinch popped in to Phanganist to tell us more...

So tell us a bit about the project…
It’s Mr Kit’s Paradise Beach which is an empty stretch of beach on the west side of Chaloklum, about five hundred metres west of the pier.

It’s a communal get together of people from the village who want to give tourists and party goers something to do in the area.

There’s a volleyball net for beach volley, small goals for beach football of five a side, games, a slack line, horseshoe pitching and other fun and games, watersports, wakeboarding and of course swimming.

Mr kit from Buddy Bar has a boat for boat trips, sunset or to the marine park and they do thai food at the bar. I do a beach bbq from two or three o’clock until about six or seven.

What do you hope for this?
The road is being worked on the whole west side of the island so we want to give people something to do in the daytime. To give the party goers some activities here rather than driving around looking for something. It’s a big beach and no one’s doing anything, it will help to generate a bit of business and get people moving around the island and get them up north a bit more.

It will give the party goers something to do in the afternoon when they are waiting to go to the next party. Generally what people do is wake up at twelve then have breakfast, then drive around looking for something to do, then dinner and a pre party before the next party so this will give visitors to Koh Phangan something in day in Chaloklum. They can get together, make some teams and get some sand in their knickers!

Tell us about Mr Kit…
He is a local fisherman, an old pirate! He’s been a fisherman all his life and has a boat where he does trips to the marine park and goes fishing.

He’s getting a bit older and complaining about his back so he would rather sit on the beach and sell beer, so we are helping him with this.

Everyone’s scratching each others backs and helping out and we get to make a little bit of money.

When will it all start?
We are all really getting our shoulders under this thing so it will start from the 17th of July.

We have some kids that help out with making the teams and stuff for the games and other people are organising teams for the five a side as well, these games will last about ten to fifteen minutes so everybody can play a game.

The beers are cheap  and we do the bbq for 100 Baht, little burgers, chicken fillets, wings, salad and bread. I put together a plate which is a good nibble for when you get hungry after a game.

How has the community reacted?
The people involved at moment are really enthusiastic and lots want to join the games, We have to see when it starts as it’s still in its childs shoes, so we will see how it grows and how it flows. People who are involved at the moment have got a good feeling about it.

Have you been making any of your famous recycled stuff recently?
Yeah of course, I spent low season, three months long making a solid heavy mango wood table from three hundred kilos which we hope to sell to cover the low season lack of income, I’m always making furniture.

Also I made another bbq which is now going to be on the beach and we made some cable tables, the big cables on the street, well these are rolled around these things and when they’re empty they throw them away, the tables are gonna be on Mr Kit’s Paradise Beach.

Why would you encourage people to come to this beach?
Get fit, play some games, have a beer, go for a swim, and then have a nice bbq to top it off!