25 Mar

25 Mar - Day 4 of the Klong Prao garbage dump fire and as with previous mornings, I saw a cloud of grey smoke with distinctive 'burnt plastic' aroma hanging over the village and down to Barali & Tropicana Resorts when I took the dog for his morning walk. Anyone know how long piles of household and hotel waste can smolder for?

Assisting in my bid to be an omnipresent media whore, John at 'Thailand Real Estate Magazine' recently asked me to churn out a series of lengthy space filling articles on real estate on Koh Chang. Seeing this as an opportunity to use the phrase 'your very own home away from home on a tropical island paradise' at least one every paragraph, I jumped at the chance. The first of three monthly articles is in the April issue of the free magazine which has just hit newsstands and estate agency's coffee tables around the Pattaya area. Anyone not fortunate enough to be able to get their hands on this limited edition copy can download my article in pdf format here if they have nothing better to do.

Whoever is in charge of PR for CocoCape Resort on Koh mak obviously knows that they are doing as their resort keeps popping up in UK newspapers. Most recently in The Times where Koh mak was recently recommended as the ultimate away from it all island with CocoCape being the place to stay.

Anyone want to buy an island? If you have around US$3 million in your pocket then Koh Man Nai, pictured left giving subtle come hither looks to potential suitors, can be yours. The catch is that you can only build on a little over 4 Rai of the island, the rest is designated as National Park land. But you can't get much more exclusive than a small island a few hundred metres off Kai Bae beach. However, you may have to mine the waters nearby to prevent daytripping kayakers from ruining the calm during high season.

18 Mar

18 Mar We had some free time a couple of days ago, so we went out on the boat. A couple of photos taken on Koh Rang, where we stopped off for lunch. We had this small bay with views of Koh mak, the island in the distance, to ourselves.

Gulf Charters - www.GulfChartersThailand.com are organising a 'Songkran Flotilla' over Thai New Year. A 5-day cruise around Koh Chan, Koh mak,Koh Kood and all islands in between.

Itinerary
12th - Get together at Gulf Charters Koh Chang Base at Salakpet on Koh Chang
13th - Overnight at Koh Mak, Dinner ashore at Koh Kham
14th - Overnight at Koh Kood, Dinner ashore at Captain Hook’s
15th - Overnight at Koh Kood, Dinner ashore at The Beach Natural Resort
16th - Overnight at Koh Wai or Koh Ngam
17th - Return to Koh Chang

Visit their website for prices, more details.

The big new resort in Bailan is now 70 percent complete and will have 96 rooms and suites. It'll be named 'Princess Resort Koh Chang' and will be Royal Princess Hotels & Resorts first island resort property. Expect it to be well run as Princess Resorts are a division of Dusit Thani Hotels, purveyors of 5-star luxury. Just don't expect a long sandy beach.

9 Mar

9 Mar - Our humble guesthouse made the front cover of top bi-lingual Thai travel mag 'Places & Prices' this month. OK, so you can can only see the deck over the river, as the majority of the photo shows the view from one of Aana Resort's 'Top View villas'. (If you're a voyeur these would be good rooms to book as you can peer into other guests' supposedly private balconies & plunge pools from them.) But a front cover is a front cover.

Congratulations to Michael & Heather on their engagement last week. Michael asked for my help in rounding up a wild elephant, spraying it with a message in indelible paint expressing his love for his wife-to-be and then chaining it to a tree so the loving couple could pose for an album full of photos. And I was more than happy to oblige.

Photo gallery for Wai Chek beach added. Wai Chek is so far off the beaten track that it's virtually on the unbeaten track. But it can be reached by motorbike or pick-up without too much effort if you know where to go.

Couple of interesting resorts for sale, one large & one with three rooms, the first is a lovely resort but in an awful location. The guys at Sunbelt in Bangkok are doing their best to convince anyone with a few million dollars in their pocket that 'Koh Chang Grand Orchid' in Klong Son is worth buying. Maybe they should mention you get good views of the nearby cement factory from reception and it's within easy walking distance of the electricity office, a real lifesaver for any Thai guests who may have forgotten to pay their electric bill. And if you're wondering how little 27 million baht will get you on the west coast of Koh Chang click here to see this advert from a Pattaya based property agent.

Visitors staying at the southern end of Kai Bae beach need no longer endure a walk of over 10 minutes in order to reach the nearest 7-eleven minimart. A new one will open in the coming days opposite the turning to Kai Bae Hut.

Important news for people who share single plates of fried rice and will happily a mile in order to buy a bottle of water for 5 baht instead of 10. Down in Bangbao 'Hippy Hut' have rooms for 100 baht/night. Also in Bailan one roadside bungalow resort is already advertising 'low season specials', also 100 baht/night.

Here's a fun quiz to end with . . . the girlfriend of which European business owner, based in the south of Koh Chang, was going round telling everyone that she met in the market, how she is going to wreck his business and teach him a lesson? (It's a long & rather interesting story and, knowing who the guy is, doesn't really surprise me at all.)

3 Mar

3 Mar - 'Untamed Travel' magazine, for sale at all good bookstores in South East Asia and V-Mart, Koh Chang, are revamping their Koh Chang page. If you think your business, bar, restaurant or resort deserves a mention let me know. Also they'll be a monthly section on 'happenings' - which is 'young person speak' for parties/events etc. If you want the world to know about your next party night, event or special offer for the magazine readers send me an email.

In what one Koh Chang based website has described as "the biggest night of violence since, ohhh, I don't know when but it wasn't like this when I was a lad", all the roadside mirrors located on hairpin bends along the hill between Whitesands and Klong Son were smashed a few days ago. Police have ruled out youthful hijinx and are looking for ugly people with a grudge or closet vampires.

If you enjoy irony, you'll like this . . . On a road in the south of Koh Chang there's a new 'archway' built over the road that welcomes visitors to the area of Koh Chang that was the site of naval battle between the French & Thai navies in WW2. 'Wel Come to History Navy' reads the sign over the road. The politically correct way to describe the battle is that the Thais fought bravely (i.e. the Thai navy was wiped out). Therefore, it is a tad ironic to see on the reverse of the overhead sign the words. . . . . 'Bon Voyage'.

Any divers on Koh Chang on 11 March are invited to get their diving trousers on for the 'First Annual Underwater Clean Up' which is being organised by people who like to organise stuff in return for pats on the back from DASTA officials. (Google it) Contact dive operators for more details and don't forget to ask why they chose the same date as the annual Queens Cup Elephant Kayaking event when there are 364 other days it could have been held on.

More land etc . . .

I've now added info about small plots of land for sale from a half rai to 6 Rai. The most expensive being 8 million baht. See all the listings here. Also, if you're into teak wood houses, you'll like the photos of the three houses for sale on about 1500sqm of land for 5.5 million baht.