An enterprising, environmentally conscious Australian has taken it upon himself to highlight what many might consider to be one of the current blots on the Pattaya city landscape – the cleanliness, or rather lack of it, of the resort’s main tourist beach.
Bob Borgiani, a 70-year old resident of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia has been a regular visitor to Thailand since his first trip to the kingdom 3 years ago. Bob, who has been married to his Thai born wife Tammy for the past 26 years, says that on each visit to Thailand he tries to embark on some project to help the less fortunate in this country: previous trips have seen him help out financially hard-up schools in rural areas and students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Australian tourist Bob Borgiani (far right) poses on Pattaya Beach with workers from the clean-up team sent by city hall, Wednesday, August 5.
On his visit last year to Pattaya, Bob was horrified to notice the amount of debris being washed up onto the main beach, and the trash being discarded by tourists as they left in the evening. Being a keen lover of the oceans, Bob decided that on his next trip here he would endeavor to do something to rectify the situation.
Having contacted Pattaya City Hall on his return to Thailand earlier this month, Bob was able to elicit the welcome assistance of Phurisawat Penphum and a team of 20 civic workers to come down to Pattaya Beach and perform a clean-up on Wednesday, August 5. Starting from opposite the A-One Royal Cruise Hotel, the team worked their way up to the Hilton Hotel, collecting a mound of rubbish along the way.
Workers from Pattaya City Hall provided welcome assistance and support on the day.
“I started out picking up garbage first thing this morning,” Bob told our reporters. “Within 10 minutes I had filled an empty, washed up coconut shell with discarded cigarette butts and I saw so many empty beer cans on the promenade they could re-christen the place Leo beach.”
Bob invested his own resources in having 50 T-shirts specially printed for the event, which he distributed to the all the cleaners on the day. He intends to donate the remainder to the beach deckchair vendors and boat operators in the hope that tourists will read the slogans and think twice before discarding their unwanted litter on the beach.
“In Australia it took state intervention and the imposition of large fines before people finally got the message to take their trash with them and now we have some of the most pristine beaches anywhere in the world,” says Bob. “The key is educating the people who use the beach. Most people throw down their cigarette-ends and drink cans without giving it a second’s thought. I’m hoping that once they read the T-shirts worn by the beach operators they will think twice about the harm they are doing to the environment. I can’t change the world on my own but we can all do our little bit to make things better,” he added.
Noted Pattaya beach guardian Gerry Rasmus was happy to come along and lend a helping hand.
Bob models a T-shirt displaying a message everyone can endorse.
