24 Apr

April 24 - The Koh Chang International Triathlon Championship, is set for May 21st. Competitors will start at White Sand Beach with a 1.5km swim, then cycle 40km before a 10km run to the finish line at the Koh Chang Lagoon Hotel. Prizes, medals for participants and no doubt lots of posing and handshakes from local dignitaries. No idea how you can enter though as the tourist authority's finely tuned publicity machine hasn't made this info public yet.

Spa Samui, will open their new Koh Chang operation aimed at the healthy and want to be healthy sections of the tourist market, on May 1st. The new venture is named either 'The Spa Koh Chang Resort' or 'Seamazon Spa the Health Resort Koh Chang' depending on if you read the info on www.spasamui.com/spakohchang.htm or www.seamazon.com. It's located down in Salakkok, hidden away amongst the mangroves. I had a quick look in when I was in the area the other week and very nice it is too but still needs quite a lot of work doing if it really is opening on May 1st. But it may well be the resort to put Salakkok on the tourist map.

Anyone want an internet cafe on Whitesands? Good location, well known, everything in place - just turn up, hand over 320,000 baht and it's yours.

Anyone want to rent a bungalow long term. A friend has one for 10,000 baht/month to lease long term - 6 or 12 month renewable contract. Bedroom, bathroom, living room and additional room that can be used for storage/spare room etc. Quiet location, off road parking, and has a private swimming pool you can use. (We lived in the bungalow next door to this when we first came to Koh Chang.)

Lots of traffic jams on Koh Chang over Songkran, the Thai New Year holidays. The Bangkok Post reckoned on over 2,000 cars coming onto the island. The traffic flow wasn't helped on the day when everyone was leaving, as a Thai royal decided to come here for a day trip which resulted in roads being cordoned off for her and her entourage. The party ate at Aana Resort, (wouldn't be my choice for a mid-afternoon meal) and I'm sure my excitement at seeing her matched her delight at watching the farang opposite.

The second installment of my 'Koh Chang Real Estate' trilogy for Thailand Real Estate Magazine is online now at their site and in print in the magazine. Read it on www.thailand-property-guide.com.

Down in Bangbao it appears a new housing project is underway, a couple of signs for 'Aana Resident Project' have appeared. Call me cautious but it's always a worrying sign when a developer doesn't make any effort to check the three words of English on the sign.

A new coffee booth opened a week ago in Kai Bae, Sawasdee Coffee. The good news is that it's cheap - 35 baht for iced coffee. The bad news is that it's undrinkable.

14 Apr

14 April - As a few of you found last week's business advice from expat expert Bob, author of 'How to lose your life savings in 30 days or less' useful. So, he'll be back later this month with some tips taken from his latest work 'The art of selling loss making small businesses to unsuspecting newcomers' which shot straight to the top of Koh Chang's best seller list recently.

Why do people remove their brains once they get onto an island? I met a girl who 'bought' a small business and now wants to sell it. She owns the fixtures & fittings but pays rent to a landlord for the shop space:

"How long is the lease?"
"I pay rent every month."
"Yes, but how long is the contract for?"
"As long as I want, I pay every month."
"So, what does the contract actually say? 1 year?, 3 years?"
"What contract?"
"Your rental contract."
"I don't have one, but the landlord is a nice guy so it's OK."

A new contender for the title of 'Best small plot of land currently for sale on KC'. Here's the view from a lovely bit of land for a house or small quiet resort. 9 million baht will get you 2 Rai of 'Chanote' titled beachfront land near Bangbao which stretches up a hillside with views over the bay and private beach below.

If bay views are your thing, a budget version, aso 2 Rai, but no beachfront is available for 1 million baht down in Salakphet. Farmland but with sunset views over the head of the bay. Email me if you're interested.

The Independent newspaper (UK) had an article on Ethical Travel the other week. Koh Chang got a mention as a good place to go in Thailand for the 'conscientious tourist'. So if you're the type of person who feels guilty about all the jet fuel that's used to transport you to Thailand, let me know and you can plant a mangrove tree at our house in order to say 'Sorry' to Mother Nature for only 1,000 baht. (Who said absolvence should be free?).

The lovely Lek, from the Project Department of the IMPACT Exhibition Center, would like everyone, or, more probably, only people with money to spend on yachts and condos, to know hat the 'First Pattaya Boat Show & Premier Living Exhibition' will take place between 29 April - 3 May 2006 at Ocean Marina Yacht Club. More details at: www.impact.co.th/pattayaboatshow.

'Bunting' - there's a word I haven't used for a while, and have only used now as Aana Resort today have put up the saddest example of bunting I've seen since my primary school's Sports Day in 1976, which took place at the height of a national strike by the Union of Bunting Makers.

Big thanks to Nick for making a phone call to enable me to get my 1MB ADSL hooked up in under 24 hours (after over 3 months of waiting). Next high season they'll be a free wi-fi hotspot at our place for any laptop carrying guests.

6 April

April 6 - It's too hot to do anything outdoors on Koh Chang today. So far I've answered emails, written a press release on peripheral vascular disease for a stem cell research company, churned out an article on real estate on KC for a property mag and drank far more fruit shakes than most doctors would recommend. So, it's time to take my brain out and do a quick update of the site.

I get quite a few emails from people considering moving to Koh Chang to open a small business and asking for my opinion (for what it's worth) about their projects.

I thought it'd be interesting to highlight step-by-step, how the locals do it. I've enlisted the help of expat expert Bob, a representative of the Koh Chang Amateur Businessman's Club and author of 'How to lose your life savings in 30 days or less', the popular guide for expat bar owners and restaurateurs, to talk us through this case study which explains the process of how one arrives at the decision to open a particular type of business in a particular area.

Somchai arrived on Koh Chang with nothing more than a smile and the contact details of a T-shirt & beachwear supplier, he setup shop in a small corrugated iron shack roadside. Business was good. Somchai invited his friend, Narong, to open a shop next door. Seeing the success Somchai was having the two decided that they could double their sales if Narong also opened a t-shirt & beachwear shop. A week passed and Narong's cousins, Nit & Nat, who was visiting from Isaan suddenly had the idea that what the area really needed was a third beachwear shop. Two weeks later they were in business. However, due to a dispute over the overcharging of tourists - Nat insisted prices should be double what locals paid, Nit insisted on triple. The two split and Nit went solo, setting up 'Nit T-shirts and beachwear' next door.

Meanwhile, in the paddy fields of Isaan, Somchai's younger brother had heard tales of his brother's booming t-shirt and beachwear emporium. And, as it was conveniently located in the midst of a thriving expat Isaan community, he loaded his wife, kids, dog, and mother-in-law in the back of the Isuzu and drove south. Within a week, this 50 metre stretch of roadside had it's fifth t-shirt and beachwear vendor. For a while business was good with some shops seeing daily profits of well over 120 baht. However, the bubble burst in March with the end of the high season and the arrival of Narong's aunt who after researching her options carefully over the course of a 2-hour somtam and sticky rice business lunch with Somchai's wife, decided that the current investment climate could support a sixth t-shit and beachwear shop, albeit one that focused on beachwear more than t-shirts, which would set her shop aside from the others, thus 'Same same but different beachwear and t-shirts' opened for business. Despite insisting that she hardly made a profit, the other traders placed the blame for their drop in sales on this new arrival, who didn't display a plastic, paw waving Chinese 'welcome cat' in the shop, and thus placed a jinx on all other traders in the vicinity. Somchai is rumoured to be mulling a move into the lucrative sunglasses and sandals market for the 2006-07 season.

And just to prove that the truth is often stranger than fiction, a new bungalow resort has recently opened on the roadside several kilometres south of Dan Mai, on the unvisited east coast. Its name . . . . 'White Elephant Resort'. (Really)

1 April

1 April - Koh Chang's first attempt at an Art / Craft / Music festival is being held on the 3 & 4 April at Hat Sai Noi beach near Bangbao. Find more details on the two days of events organised by Jambe House & Curlykez Gallery on flyers posted on literally every immovable object south of Kai Bae. Daytime events are free, evening stuff will cost you 250 - 300 baht to attend. Free pick-up service provided by the organisers to whisk people to Bangbao in style.

If the thought of staying roadside in Kai Bae is something you've always dreamed of and never thought would be affordable then think again - Baan Bo, Kai Bae have a webpage or two in English. (Also info in Japanese too.)

April's edition of 'Thai Travel Today' the Thai language travel news monthly carries an article regarding a recent meeting of DASTA, the government agency for developing tourism on Koh Chang. It appears that plans are afoot to make simple changes that should, the committee hopes, bring more visitors to Koh Chang. Chief amongst these is the plan to rename several popular beaches. DASTA officials noted a disparity between the number of tourists staying on beaches with 'western names' and those with harder to pronounce Thai names. Whitesands and Lonely Beach regularly see high occupancy rates whilst Klong Son, Klong Prao and Kai Bae beaches are often shunned by holiday makers, researchers found. Dr. Wichian, Directory of DASTA is quoted as saying "There are two reasons for the change. We want foreign tourists to be able to tell their friends where they stayed and the current names don't adequately reflect the natural beauty of the island." If the proposals are adopted, next high season expect to be offered accommodation at 'Hideaway Bay', 'Crystal Cove' and 'Six Islands Sands'.

'Moccachino' - the nicest coffee shop on the island is reluctantly up for sale by it's owners. If you're looking for a small well-located, well-designed space for an office or shop in Kai Bae then this is worth a look. Info & photos.

I have to update the Koh Chang info for May's edition of ' Untamed Travel' magazine - so if you've got any kind of event / promotion / happening planned for May let me know in the next week or so, and it can have a free mention in the mag.

Contrary to what I have mentioned in previous emails to several people - the nice plot of land, 1.25 Rai, and house with 40 metres beachfront on the east coast is still up for sale. The owner has now been persuaded to include land leading back to the road in the sale and so has re-priced the land at 6.25 million from 5 million previously.

If you like to spend your free time cruising, Seabourn Cruises run a Singapore - Vietnam cruise which stops off at Koh Kood on the way. The article on the cruise, from the Daily Telegraph website, gives a hint at it may not be a voyage for the budget conscious: "We snorkelled from a white sand beach on Koh Kood into clear waters where tropical fish glowed as if lit by internal light bulbs and a launch from the ship brought out caviar and Champagne served in the sea off a surf board."

And in Salakkok, south east Koh Chang, there are three fisherman's house for sale two at around 1 million each and one for 1.8 million. All have excellent views over the bay. If you're into scenic views, no tourists and need a place to moor a boat then they're ideal.