After the Full Moon: A Dog-Friendly Beach Clean-Up on Koh Phangan

Four years ago, I joined a morning clean-up at Haad Rin the day after a Full Moon party. The sand was covered in cups, bottles, straws and flip-flops. In the middle of that mess, I found a beach pup with huge ears sleeping on a sunbed nobody had claimed. That was Noodle, and I took her home that afternoon. So you could say beach clean-ups changed my life.

This year I wanted to give something back, so I wrote a short post on the Wagdee events page and in a few island groups: a Saturday sunrise clean-up on a quiet beach near Chaloklum, dogs welcome, free coffee at the end. I honestly expected five people. Twenty turned up, with nine dogs, three buckets and an unreasonable number of gloves.

The dogs were the best part. Noodle, who patrols our bungalow like a security guard, did the same on the sand, checking every bag. A senior Labrador called Pepper carried a plastic bottle for ten minutes, proud as a king. A Shiba, who clearly had no interest in anything, lay on a towel and supervised. Some of the volunteers had never met a street dog up close, and by the end of the morning two of them were asking me about adoption.

We kept a few rules. All dogs stayed on leads near the water, we brought fresh drinking water and a bowl for each dog, and we finished by nine, before the sun was too strong for paws on hot sand. We watched out for broken glass, fishing hooks and cigarette ends, because a curious dog will taste anything. If a dog picked up something strange, its owner took it away calmly and checked with the vet if there were any worries.

Together we collected forty-one bags of rubbish. A restaurant owner lent us a pick-up truck and took the bags to the proper bins. Afterwards we sat in the shade, drank iced coffee and watched the dogs swim. Noodle swam out beyond the rocks and came back with a flip-flop, which she delivered to me like a prize.

I think about the bungalow beach where I found her, and how easily she could have ended up somewhere else. If you live on an island, start small. Pick a morning, bring a bag, and invite the dogs. They are very good at making people show up.