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.