A Change of Tack?

My step mother once asked me how I plan my travels, whether it is from A to B or what, and I explained that I prefer to float like a leaf and let the opportunities present themselves. Synchronicity has greater freedom that way, while the variety of opportunities ends up so much greater.

And thus it may be the same with my overall resort dreams. What started out as simple shock when watching how a hotel owner in Borneo completely blunders her operations, eventually metamorphosed into a major community-involved development project – that is if events continue to unfold as they are. [Just so you know, “a change of tack” is a sailing term when you change directions, whereby often the sail can swing from one side of the boat to another in a rather dangerous fashion (make sure you duck!)]

The end of the previous chapter envisioned a kitesurfing haven on the open ocean-facing side of Putoyo, on a small plot of land with a surrounding community of about 10 people. But since then I was fortunate to meet a traveler who has for many years been actively involved in various NGOs and community development projects. She explained that I might technically be shooting myself in the foot with my approach, since, while I will be busy building bamboo huts from the surrounding jungle material, bringing in tourists and developing a kitesurfing haven, the locals will feel left out, probably envious, and start mimicking the same. Soon enough competition will sprout all over, but since I will be dependent on locals to hire their boats or buy their groceries, they could easily raise their prices for me to give their brethren a distinct advantage.

A better approach, she explained, is to approach one NGO which has been active in the region for some time and then the tourist department of the local school (just across the street from my hotel), explaining my concept to the professor and eventually the students, to get them on board for a community-wide (hundreds of square miles of unspoiled archipelago) project to develop this pristine section of the world in a tasteful and thoughtful way.

Stilt housing during low tide.

She also mentions that one of the greatest fears among the older population here is that their children will complete their education but run off to Manila or some other urban complex, because there are no jobs to be found locally. Not only will they become slaves to the multinationals, but the region will be depleted of its young blood, leaving only the old folks to wilt away in their dying traditions.

But if the forces of this community can be combined, not only will this youthful and educated vigour remain, but the elders could keep their traditions alive and even earn a living from it, teaching respectful and inquisitive tourists the tricks of how they survive traditionally (catching fish with bamboo and what not), or by selling local crafts such hats and bags made from hand-woven coconut leaves.

Casually peeling locally grown cashews for eventual export.

We brainstorm for a solid hour, her mostly correcting me where my ideas are wrong, when chance would have it that the owner of the hotel, ex-mayor of the town, is in a lengthy discussion with someone who I later learn has the same vision. When my friend leaves to go snorkeling, the mayor’s companion calls me over and we discuss his visions and projects, showing me video clips of him being reported on national TV about his various solar projects.

I cut our conversation short, as I have to go back to work, but not before arranging with him to go out to his project and discuss further once he gets back in one week’s time.

As per my daily routine, I pick up a bag of veggies and fruit before starting my serious work shift (the preliminary shift under my belt before breakfast), and as I rummage through the pile in search of the most perfectly ripe mangos, a girl at the grocery store mentions that she thought I had already left. “Oh no, I plan to stay here for at least a couple of years, maybe forever.” Her eyes sparkle, eyebrows raised. She asks what I am doing here and I launch into a five minute intense speech, while the store owner carefully weighs the goods and is busy punching in the sum on his calculator. I basically sum up the last two hours of our brainstorming discussion: that this region is a gold mine, lying between El Nido and Coron, and that if it is developed tastefully while preserving the beautiful nature, coral reefs and what not, it will definitely become the best tourist destination in the world, and people will be willing to pay LOTS of money to enjoy it.

Her chest expands and eyes light up in proud exhileration. She thanks me gracefully as I rush off to work, but maybe that would not be such a bad shift in my plans. Leave the slaving away of building jungle huts to others while getting more involved in the organisational end of community development. I can have my small piece of the pie, most importantly do something I enjoy, while inspiring locals how to preserve their inherited beauty and work together as a community, as opposed to against one another to the detriment of the natural environment. I can see this envious competition developing if I were to selfishly pursue my own little resort, despite my eco-friendly or charitable intentions.

In any case, no matter the outcome, this loose leaf is having a great ride.

The below is correspondence with a friend of mine around this time. He is working on a similar project in Mexico and is interested in expanding to Poland, Burma, and perhaps even here in the Philippines.

Hello amigo yah, seems like we’re on similar tracks. I don’t trust ownership much anyway. But even though I don’t got cash to buy, I can develop many places, with the help of volunteers, organise everything, make the web and online marketing, and in this sense almost own to the degree that they will be grateful, and I’m sure, among the various projects I’ll help put together, I’ll always find a home once the shit comes down. Last place I wanna be when that happens is in some city where people will be rioting for food. lots of fish in the surrounding waters here, and I want my projects to be heavily involved in permaculture, teaching tourists about that. I think that the eco-tourist crowd might be willing to pay more to eat organic, locally grown veggies while learning about all this. When I was out there exploring yesterday, got the idea that starting a bee colony would be prudent. Not only as another source of valuable nutrients, but I want to plant flowers and tons of stuff, which the bees will be necessary for. And not to mention to wage my small little war against the likes of Monsanto, whose roundup many suspect is the culprit behind the dangerous decline in bee population. Would be great to team up! Maybe we could even trade seeds, as I heard people are now doing this against Monsanto’s terminator seeds. 

Cool, looks like you’re online right now… That’s actually one of the main goals. It started with watching people lose their land, especially indigenous and those at the “bottom” of the  political/social ladder.  In the US it was working with inner city crime-filled neighborhoods, mostly black or Hispanic, and then watching how gentrification took over quickly.  Here in Mexico it’s the Tzeltal/Mayan, in Thailand it was the Burmese…  The goal is, exactly as you said, to help them develop it themselves. I have no interest in buying or holding possession of anything in my life. But I do have an idea for the process of helping others who want to develop or build. For now, I’ll leave you with the idea that change is always happening (we both know that one for sure), and it’s our goal to help empower communities (disadvantaged or not) to develop with change through conscious-building, sustainable ideas, and eco-tourism. Through this we help change the “tourist” into a professional nomadic super-conscious hippie. This sounds general and vague, but I will give you the specifics soon amigo.

Most of the food just plucked from nature.

So I’m back on this island of Koh Phangan, Thailand. It’s very quiet and there’s seems to be some changes… I’m here for the reason of networking with a few others about these kinds of ideas. Hopefully work with the Burmese here when they’re ready to go back to Burma and build something there. So the idea comes from sustainability. I’ve been working construction and travelling for most of my life, so I’ve become quiet conscious of observing building practices wherever I go. Mostly I’ve noticed how construction or change in general affects the community around it. All sorts of things effect the neighboring areas when it comes to building: the impact on the environment caused by demand (import, export), waste water and trash disposal, the aspects of the physical structure itself – from foundation to finish, and the presence created afterwards. I realized that the process of building or remodeling something has a greater function toward change, and that it has a greater responsibility of incorporating the surrounding community. Otherwise we have things like gentrification & rapid growth/overdevelopment (usually when a local sells quickly, the land is quickly developed by those who don’t really have the knowledge of the local environment, which leads to competition and over-development). Part of the idea is to “plant a seed” with anyone who is developing a plot of land, business practice, or product. It’s like an idea that can work towards other ideas, or even your personal philosophy in general. Instead of creating something sustainable, we want to focus on being more than sustainable – creating room in business practices for community development, conscious tourism, worker’s rights, eco-conscious behavior, etc… I’m focused on targeting those of disadvantaged populations – urban inner city programs, the indigenous, poverty, women’s rights etc… The idea is universal, from small businesses in the ghetto to a yoga resort in the jungle. It’s all connected, so let’s connect it more consciously. While we develop, we can access a huge network of sustainable builders and skilled workers who will help in design and implementation of ideas when and if we need them. We can teach locals how to keep their land and share it with the community as well, all while creating jobs for them and teaching the proper skills to be balanced with technology and nature…  Those are just some quick, vague ideas for now. But the basic thought is that sustainability is cool, but it’s not enough. We all need to be more than sustainable in order to grow with the surrounding area. I’m working on a diagram/graph and hope to have that ready in the next few days. How’s it going out there? I probably won’t be able to get there until the end of Summer…

So what’s different about the island [I lived on Koh Phangan for 2.5 years before ending up here in the Philippines 6 months later – comparison to Thailand]? Heard that the government decided it wants to stop all the parties, except the fool moon [Full Moon], and turn it into full of super expensive resorts and get rid of all the tatoo nuts [the island has long attracted exceptional characters of all shapes and sizes]. At least this approach might bring more respect to nature, as the island is really beautiful, so maybe its a good plan. But I’m done with Thais, so not something i really want to think about. For here, i have a dream to develop as many islands as possible, all with own veggie garden etc., before the entire region gets trodden over and turned into another tourist trash destination. But I’m beginning to have doubts. I find Asians can be pretty dumb in general, like monkeys waiting for a big handout so that they can sell out and buy their big dream LCD TV and fancy car, but leave nothing for their future generations. Hopefully if i can get one project going, others will be interested and I can develop other plots, hopefully keeping this entire area nice, natural and tasteful, instead of overtrodden with dumbdumb tourists. A small, humble chain of self-sustained jungle hut resorts. So i guess in a way it would be similar to your tasteful eco development concept. Where are you getting funding from? So many islands here, hopefully I’ll find something to start working on by the end of the summer. Actually, I hope to start after my next visa run on May 9, so time is running out for me. Need to spend less time in front of the computer and crank up these aging bones. 🙂

Yes, it seems to be heading that way on Koh Phangan. They are trying to push the backpackers/hippies out and cater toward expensive short stay tourists. I feel the same about how they want to sell out and just buy their shit. That’s the same thing I see in the urban areas when the poor people’s property value rises dramatically. Then in two years they spent all they have on nice cars and shit and are back in the cycles of poverty (but with cars with nice rims). So it’s hard, because we want to help out, but, based on past experiences, things seem to stay the same and people choose the easiest path.. I’m hoping our eco-resorts/gardens will set an example, or effect change by leading by example.. Feel it out with the locals there, give it some time to see if you want to invest. I will be building one in Poland for sure. Mexico is already building now. Here’s some pics of when i was there last: pix.phloat.com

Alright brother, talk soon and keep the ideas/dialogues coming.

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Espinosa Kosmans

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We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the country, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all.