Got taken for a free meal at the posh Amari Emerald Cove resort a few days ago. I couldn't face the Thai restaurant at the hotel as once you're used to good Thai food, all hotel Thai food is crap. (I used to do some work at The Oriental in Bangkok, assessing the customer service skills of some of their apprentices and part of the deal was a free meal. I remember having a bowl of Tom Yam Goong, priced at almost 1000 baht and the only differences to to 50 baht Tom Yam from my local restaurant were that the prawns were larger; it wasn't served in a plastic bowl with mismatched cutlery; and that it didn't have any real taste.)
So, Italian food at 'Sassi' it was, and we chose to eat outdoors overlooking the hotel car park. Starter was Caesar Salad with soggy croutons - how a 4 star hotel can screw up what are essentially small square bits of toast is beyond me, but aside from that no complaints. Main course was chicken breast stuffed with something green - probably vegetables - not bad and served with a single boiled potato that had been carved into a conical shape and stood upright for an unspecified reason. Dessert was mango & sticky rice, 40 baht in the market and always delicious. OK, so it's about as Italian as the chefs at the Amari, but seeing if the staff can lower themselves to make the only Thai dessert that's worth eating is always fun. They made it, but the mango wasn't sweet and the sticky rice wasn't cooked properly. So overall about a 6/10 for the food and if I'm building value into the rating as well then you're probably looking at a negative number as I really don't care if I drink out of imported glassware and eat off celadon plates or not, but when the bill is almost 3,000 baht for two people I have high expectations. However, the waiter was very good - he had 10 years experience of working in an Italian restaurant in Bangkok and certainly knew his stuff. Also good is the sight of the hotel lit up at night - it looks far nicer when you can't see the harsh whitewashed walls and just see the subtly lit pool & walkways and security guards lurking by the beach - not sure if that's to keep guests in or keep beach dogs out.
G'day! Last Saturday's (19 Aug) 'Sydney Morning Herald', and also 'Melbourne New Age', newspapers featured a lengthy write up on Koh Chang. Surprise, surprise I get a mention in it, apparently I'm "loquacious". (Yeah, I had to look it up too and it's something that I'm not.) Still, it makes a pleasant change from being called a "twat". Anyway, I've cut & paste the article here, so you too can revel in my growing fame.
Business owners . . . . make sure your place is open in early October, spruce it up and employ an English speaking member of staff with an IQ greater than their shoe size. Why? Because God, in his/her earthly form as a Lonely Planet guide writer, will be visiting this area of Thailand in a few weeks' time in order to update listings. My advice is to offer generous discounts and freebies to anyone with an antipodean accent who wanders into your place in mid to late October.
Tourists . . . Carry a notepad an camera wherever you go, pay more attention to your surroundings than usual, put on your best Steve 'Crocodile Hunter' Irwin accent and make the most of this opportunity to negotiate good discounts and in mid-late October.
Animal lovers . . . Stop reading now. Another year, another dead baby elephant on Koh Chang. That's three dead at the two elephant camps in Klong Prao in the past three years. Baby elephants may be cute but they get stressed pretty easily and the novelty of being pawed by kids and having their photos taken with families crowding round them soon wears off. They get fed-up and lose the will to live - I know how they feel. I'm not a vet or zoologist but I'm pretty sure that a young elephant should last longer than a pair of 99 baht flip-flops do.
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