The Intellectual Side of Koh Phangan

Koh Phangan is changing, but not changing in spirit or looks, Koh Phangan is maturing a little, hopefully for the greater good of all.

With the recent events of things like Converge Forum happening at Moonlight Cinema this got us thinking about the intellectual side of the island, the parties and hedonistic lifestyle, the yoga and spirituality are just not enough for some of us once we’ve been here a while.

It is a natural instinct for a lot of us to keep learning, to educate ourselves and learn new and different skills and what better place to do this than Koh Phangan where people from many different cultures and countries are in one place with many different skills, many different levels of education or training behind them, you may not find all of this knowledge in one place anywhere else in the world.

Jaime himself from Moonlight Cinema sums it up perfectly;

‘Although Koh Phangan is known for its care-free party atmosphere, there is an ever-growing amount of locals and long-term tourists that are well-accomplished in their fields from back home; many of which being involved in tech, digital media, finance, and other relevant industries outside of Koh Phangan.

We have the opportunity to really change Koh Phangan’s image in the next few years into something more diverse, more valuable, and more interesting than just the intoxicating Full Moon Party and all the associated ‘extra-curricular activities’ around this event and its smaller counterparts.

In short, it's time Koh Phangan grows up a bit, especially if it wants to be taken seriously domestically and beyond’.

Over the last few years there have been a few co working spaces opened up for the growing number of digital nomads who have discovered Koh Phangan as a place to work and many businesses are taking greater notice and care of social media workers and the influence they have and this is a new type of knowledge which professionals need to know about as this is the direction that everything seems to be taking right now.

Thailand is known to be a place where westerners come to utilise their language skills by teaching english or other teaching positions and this is the same here on our island with also the Thai community teaching us expats their native language so we can communicate more.

Phanganist has recently had the pleasure of our Linda knuckling down and holding her Thai language lessons here at the office with Pang and lots more expats have been trying to improve their Thai skills whether it be at one of the schools here or privately, there is always lots to learn!

Once you get to know people more in depth than just that regular face you see and say Hi to at a party it can be refreshing to learn how knowledgeable these people are and the different skills to you they have in everyday life. We’ve all been in one of those late night ‘deep’ party conversations about the universe, science, culture etc which starts amongst an alcohol fuelled night but if carried on out of this context they can get much deeper and you really can learn a lot from each other in a more sober context.

Koh Phangan is a great place to learn, and this you can do for free just with the simple act of sharing. Lots of people have shelves of books they have read already and are willing to lend out to the next person who wants to read its insider words and there is a rich mixture of people of different ages, people who are older and wiser who you can learn a lot from.

As well as all of the spiritual courses you can partake in there seems a real thirst for intellectual knowledge is coming over Koh Phangan, we all want to better ourselves as a community and also as individuals of course and to be able to guide younger generations on a positive path and so we all have to grow.

This island is very open minded and it attracts these sort of people who have a sense that there is more to learn than what is just taught to you in school. Also as you grow up you may become interested in different subjects that did not appeal to you when you were younger so you find yourself looking for other ways to learn about these things whether it be literature, science or some art form and we are fortunate to be in such a place with people from many different walks of life who we can learn from.

We are sure that there have been small groups who educate each other on the island for many years yet as the island has grown we are seeing more platforms being established so that more and more people can get together and share their intellectual knowledge with each other in a more professional manner and maybe this is where one corner of the culture of Koh Phangan will set its direction?

Whether in twenty years time or so there will be a Koh Phangan University we cannot predict but for us it is a refreshing thing to see and be part of a young culture with such a yearning to learn and educate so we hope that many people will benefit from this including the local Thai people as well.