30 Jan

30 Jan - I was over on the east coast of the 'Oriental Eden of the East' the other day and was struck by how dead the three resorts I visited were - I expected to see some signs of life. One was a rather expensive western run place, (lots of local gossip about problems with the lease, rip offs, unhappy landlord etc) and the other couple were Thai run, one very nice and one best described as 'homely'. So, if you're looking for a bed on the east coast - take a look at Suan San Chan, (www.suansamchan.com) about 2.5km south of Centrepoint pier ad only been open for a couple of months. Three types of very tastefully designed bungalows from 800 - 1,200 baht/night all have hot water, AC, satellite TV; in this small 18 room resort. Bungalows are in a shady garden area and here's a small private beach - so it's a good place to get away from the tourist masses for a day or two or, if you arrive on the island late and just want somewhere comfortable to stay. Call Khun Paiboon, who speaks English & German, for a free pick up from the ferry pier. Tel: 07.137.5854

If staying on the east coast isn't your thing, but finding a small friendly place for a beer is - try 'Souk Bar', about a kilometre south of Centrepoint ferry. Run by a young, arty Thai guy called 'Ed' who's got a very nice little bar right on a small sandy beach, where you can listen to chill out music until the early hours. He's been open for 6 years but only recently got round to putting up a sign, that's how laid back it is.

And finally, if you don't want to stay on the east, don't want to eat & drink on the east but do want to live on the east, there's a funky house for sale right on the beach, literally a couple of metres from the sand. It's been recently rebuilt - supposedly as a guesthouse but the Thai owner now doesn't have time to run it, so it's for sale. 1.25 Rai of 'Chanote' titled, beachfront land and this 3 bedroom house for 5 million baht. Located 5 minutes drive south of Centrepoint ferry.

24 Jan

24 Jan - Imagine you're the owner of a beautiful boutique hotel on Koh Chang and you decide to have a very tasteful brochure printed to advertise it. You've spent millions of baht on your hotel as so it's only right that your brochure oozes sophistication. You decide on a minimalist approach, letting the photos speak for themselves without unnecessary text, but you're lost for words about how to describe your little diamond amongst Koh Chang's rough. You only need one exquisitely crafted paragraph. What would you do? I've no idea, but when I saw the text below it was like deja vu all over again . . . . as I originally wrote it!!!

Exhibit A - From Keereeta's glossy, designer brochure.

Exhibit B - From a far less glossy, poorly designed page on this site. A small Mediterranean styled (with a few Thai twists) hotel which has some of the nicest hotel architecture to be found on Koh Chang. The rooms are all individually furnished so you I can guarantee you won't feel as though you're staying in a Holiday Inn. The rooftop offers great sunset views to the rear of the hotel and of the mountainous inland to the front. Keereeta is located roadside and the nearby shoreline is stony. Therefore this isn't a place for beach lovers or party animals. But if you want quiet sophistication with a personalised touch when you return from a day out then this is for you.

Note how the ending of one sentence is removed to avoid referring to lack of a sandy beach in the vicinity. Now if only I knew the Thai for "cheeky bastards" :-)

Whitesands land update . . . After asking a few questions I discovered that the lawyer acting for the sellers cant actually provide a 'cast iron' 30 year lease for these plots. They can be leased in renewable 3 year contacts, but any buyer won't be able to get a 30 year lease. Instead they have to just trust that the government wont take the land back. To be honest, this is unlikely. Koh Samet is an example of an island where many resorts are built on land leased in the same manner as the plots here. But, you'd have to be happy to do things the Thai way if you wanted to lease one of these plots.

19 Jan

19 Jan - If you were in the vicinity of Laem Ngop the other day you'd have seen warships from the Royal Thai Navy parked offshore as part of the celebrations of Thailand's naval "victory" over the French in WW2. As with many battles, there are differences of opinion over who actually won. Thailand officially claims victory which is fair enough, but naval historians tend to hold a different opinion. This is mainly based on the fact that no French ships were sunk whilst the Thai fleet, despite their bravery, was only saved from being wiped out by a ceasefire brokered by the Japanese. Here end's today's history lesson.

Last update I mentioned that the island seemed pretty quiet considering it was high season. I received an email from a guy who has a business here saying I shouldn't say things like that as it might put visitors off coming. (?!?) Fair enough, the island is packed with visitors, there are no rooms available anywhere, there are traffic jams of mopeds on the roads. OK? Rushing to book your flights?

If you're staying in a fancy hotel it's worth shopping around for your tours. Visit any tour agency outside the hotel and you'll find the exact same tour or trip at half the price that is advertised within the walls of the 4 star. Luxury hotels seem to think that if you're paying a lot more than most for a room then you should also pay far more for an identical tour. One emailer learned this recently when, having paid 900 baht for a snorkelling trip booked through their hotel, they found themselves on a boat where the other people they spoke to had only paid 500 baht for exactly the same trip.

And finally, an early contender for Koh Chang's wedding of the year , taken from the Thai language press . . .

Triple play

The guests, it has to be said, were taken aback by the wedding invitation card, which announced the nuptials of bridegroom Yeuifa Meelaap and two brides: Vassana Uysap and Jenny Saibua.

A wedding for a threesome was unusual, and all the more so when one realizes that the groom was also a woman.

Talking to reporters, the trio explained that K. Vassana, a mother of one child, and K. Jenny were very close friends, “sworn sisters”, as they put it. Together they ran Vassana Seafood on the holiday island of Koh Chang in Trat Province.

The groom, Yeuifa, ran the nearby Khunyoong Seafood restaurant. Each, they said, was in love with the other two.

The groom followed tradition, paying a bride price of a 10-baht-weight gold necklace, 300,000 in cash and a car to each bride’s family.

People at the ceremony admitted that it was unusual, but in no way objectionable.

The happy trio have now combined their businesses into the Vassana Seafood and Khunyoong Seafood Talay Pao Restaurant, and have moved into a house in nearby Rayong Province.

15 Jan

15 Jan - More crime on Koh Chang. A well known bungalow resort had their restaurant trashed by 16 Russian guests who were visiting from Pattaya. The restaurant closed at 10pm which was too early for the group, who came back and reopened the bar . . . with large pieces of wood. The owner wasn't too happy when he found out in the early hours of the morning and let off a couple of rifle shots to end the revelry before calling the police. They came and the end result was the group apparently paid 30,000 baht for the damage and were repatriated to Pattaya.

Meanwhile at a nearby luxury resort the accountant forgot to put 150,000 baht into the safe and the result was that a wad of 40,000 baht, that had been left on a desk, (unsurprisingly) disappeared. The owner reckons a guest is responsible, rather than a member of staff.

Fear not, KC is still a safe island, but I suggest sleeping with a gun under you bed just in case.

The boys in brown have been making the rounds of all motorbike hire shops. It's time for the annual meeting where the local authorities meet up with the rental shop owners. The owners sit, nod their heads and agree to whatever hair brained schemes are put forward and then go away and continue as normal until the next meeting - at least that's been the pattern for the past 5 or 6 years since these annual get-togethers began.

Siam Royal View have now released prices for small plots of beachfront land in Klong Son development. You're looking at 4 million baht plus for a 300sqm beachfront plot. See http://www.siam-royal-view.com for info and .pdf pricelist.

Yeah, Koh Chang is quiet isn't it? Occupancy at virtually all hotels & resorts is well down on this time last year. Will KC ever be a popular tourist spot or will it forever be known as the island you head to when a natural disaster wipes out your first choice destination? Only time will tell. One plus is that you'll find yourself in a good position to haggle at most resorts - especially those which aren't in prime beachfront locations.

10 Jan

10 Jan - Don't miss out on this if you want land for a house or two on Koh Chang . . . If there's one thing rarer than finding a decent cup of coffee on Koh Chang then it must be an affordable, small plot of land in a quiet, undeveloped location but only 5 minutes walk from the beach.

I went to see the land yesterday morning. As the plot plans have only just been produced, marker posts aren't yet in the ground and access tracks aren't complete. However, I was surprised by how nice an area it was and also by the fact that some plots will have sea & sunset views. In my opinion, this land is probably the best deal that I've seen since I've been living on Koh Chang.

A local developer has done a deal with land officials to have small plots of government owned land with 'Chanote' title (meaning that you can get permission to legally build houses, resort, restaurants etc etc) available for long lease, up to 30 years.

All contracts will be signed and registered at the Government Land Office in Trat and are done through a Trat based lawyer. (Buyers wont just sign a piece of paper from a landlord.) As it's a lease a foreigner's name can be on the contract, no need to set up a Thai company or have a Thai name on he contract. The leased land, and/or property built on it, can be sub-let or sold as it's no problem to change the name on the lease agreement which is between the lessee and the government.

There are ten plots, prices are from 930,000 baht (620 sqm) - 2,880,000 baht (1920 sqm) In addition to the purchase price there's annual rent of 4,800 baht per year to pay the government for the land. As of today, two of the plots have already been taken.

The deal is that 50% is payable on initial contract signing and the remaining 50% when the official document from the Land Office is received - around a month later.

Jan 6 2006

6 Jan - Jeremi you're on the website! You slept thru New Year, what you gonna do???

Thinking of travelling from Koh Chang to Siem Reap? From a recent post on the Lonely Planet discussion board . . .

"Despite warnings in the LP for Cambodia, we inadvertently ended up paying 1000 baht from Koh Chang to Siem Reap in Cambodia. (We bought the tickets from the Treehouse, a supposedly backpacker friendly place, who are also part of this rip off). We were taken to a restaurant near the border at Poipet where a guy in what appeared to be the embassy gave us the visa forms to fill out-we didn't realise that this cost an extra 200 baht each, and that this was not in fact the border at all just another rip off. Everyone in the place fell for this, it was so cleverly done. Then we herded (eventually) on to an old crappy bus that took hours to get us to Siem Reap -obviously so that we'd all be so tired that we'd have to stay at the guest house they conveniently dropped us at at 11pm. DO NOT buy any bus tickets from Koh Chang, do this trip yourself - it is a joke and so easy to fall for."

It isn't entirely fair to blame Treehouse for the rip off, but if a resort is doing business with a tour agent it'd be nice to know that they do care a little about the service an agent provides in addition to simply counting the commission they receive.

As one response commented: "Many people handle the border just fine without any scams at all. The one thing they all share in common is that none purchased a transport to Siem Reap from a guesthouse or travel agent in Thailand."

If you're straying in the Klong Prao / Kai Bae area then you'll see five small islands located between a few hundred metres and 3 kilometres s offshore. Here's a few photos from a recent paddle around the islands of Koh Yuak, Koh Suwan, Koh Man Nai, Koh Man Nai and Koh Pli by sea kayak.

Forgot to mention Cookie Restaurant reopened on 31 December. Worth a visit if you're on Whitesands.

Jan 1 2006

1 Jan Photos here are from New Years Even at our place and in the canoe on New Year's day . . . it's a hard life

** Per Tommy - your email address is incorrect , I cant reply to you.**

Dave visited KC recently and took his life in his hands by hiring a taxi from outside Bangkok Airport direct to Laem Ngop pier. Much quicker than the bus, and at only 3,000 baht, cheaper than the cost of a couple of one way flights. If you're feeling adventurous, why not try it?

Speedboat services - another new one . . .

From Bangbao to Koh Wai, Koh mak, Koh Kood, there's a new service from Ao Phrao Speedboats now running using a twin engined speedboat. Leaves Koh Chang at 11am daily.

Small plots of land on Whitesands, around 300 metres from the beach and accessible along a public track will be up for sale soon - they'd be excellent for housing. Plots will be half a rai (800sqm) each and a total of around 6 Rai will be sold or leased. Prices will be very affordable. This land is owned by the Thai military, so the situation will be similar to that on most of Koh Samet.

Land can be bought, sold and leased by private individuals but at the end of the day it still actually belongs to the military. Therefore, in the advent of a war, they could take the land back for war time use. (This is highly unlikely, unless the Cambodians obtain nukes.) I've been promised a copy of the plot plans and prices in the next week or two, so email me if you're interested.