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.)