21 Aug

21 Aug - Would you swim in that? Neither would I, but only a couple of days after a Dutch woman drowned, and the local powers that be said that there was a system in place to warn / prevent people from swimming in the sea a couple of Thai teenagers had to be rescued from the sea off Whitesands Beach. Not by any lifeguard or rescue crew but by three foreign tourists who were also in the water.

You wouldn't feel safe visiting Koh Chang unless there was an up-to-date warning designed to make you feel how fortunate you are to still be alive. Thankfully the draconian laws restricting carry on items on pick-up truck taxis and the screening of all passengers have now been relaxed. With tourists & locals alike unable to travel between Whitesands and Kai Bae by public transport, they took to camping out roadside until the all-clear was sounded. Meanwhile local officials busied themselves by adopting serious frowns and implementing 'better to be safe than sorry, especially after the fact' policies. However, the novelty wore off after a few hours and the pick-up truck taxis were soon running to their usual irregular schedule. This after police investigations rumours concerning the possible use of suicide fighting cocks by terrorists intent on bringing vehicles to a halt using a potentially lethal mix of menthol inhalers, locally grown vegetables and badly sung Thai pop songs, proved to be unproven. However, the ban on all liquids being carried - except essentials such as Red Bull and Beer Chang - is still in force.

Is Koh Chang dull in low season? Look at it this way the only event of any kind that will take place on the island between June - October is the opening of the new Post Office, by the roadside in Pearl beach, which will begin providing all manner of postal services from 4 September onwards. Locals are already camping outside the doors in anticipation of being the first to glimpse the whitewashed interior walls. Last year there was no new post office that could be opened and next year there probably won't be either, making this a once in a lifetime occurrence for some unfortunates.

Added some guest reviews, in addition to my own thoughts, to the hotel booking pages on the site. The common thread that runs through virtually all reviews is the lack of English ability amongst hotel staff. Unfortunately, this isn't going to change any time soon as virtually all hotel managers have no say in how their hotels are run. Rather than being a GM, they're more like an RM, and so just take care of the staff and resolve day to day problems rather than having any say in how things are actually set-up, organised and run, let alone allocating a budget to any from of worthwhile staff training. Requests for money have to go to the owner, or in some cases to the owner's wife who hold's the purse strings despite never having run or even worked in a hotel before. The only qualification being I'm richer than you so I know best. Being an impotent manager gets to many people after a year or two, hence the high turn over of GMs in many resorts. Some go through 2 or 3 in a year and thus have no direction or continuity. Managers learn that to survive they just go along with the boss, sit back, relax and don't change a thing as what's in place already pleases the boss so why change it? When you're at your resort try asking the manager how often his hotel provides English language classes for staff. (Then ask the staff and see if a) they understand the question and b) if their answer is the same as the manager's.)

Two websites for you to peruse at your leisure. These are well worth a look in the same way that injecting heroin into your eyeballs is well worth trying. Still, if you're reading this at work you might as well waste more of your day by visiting: www.moosplace.se & www.saigarskohchang.com.