2 Jan - The show home at Siam Royal View housing development is 90% complete and it's . . . . orange. The workmanship is good; the design is pretty nice, especially the high ceiling in the living/dining area at the front of the house which gives the room a very bright & airy feel, but why is the exterior tangerine?
With jovial backslapping and seemingly endless "See you next year!" quips out of the way it's time to get back off the holiday spirit and into the humdrum world of life on a Thai island again.
It looks like a very well known, well established bungalow resort owned by a local family will be available for lease soon. This place is in all the guide books and is in a prime west coast location. The family need to take a break from running it and spend time raising their kids, so are looking to lease it. Annual rent will be around 1 million baht. The contract will be for 12 years. Photos and more detailed info coming in the next couple of weeks.
** Important to note that as this resort will be leased from the owners themselves and not from a third party - e.g. an expat who's previously leased it, as is the case for most of the small resorts that are available on Koh Chang. So there's nothing else to pay - only the annual rent. A common theme running through resorts to sublease from western lessees is the fact they all ask for several million baht to "sell" the property that they don't actually own. They ploughed their savings into it, after 1 or 2 years it didn't work out and they didn't get rich quick and so now it's time to sell it on and cover their losses. Avoid these types of places unless you have successfully run resorts before.
Dec 31st was the busiest I've ever see in it out at the snorkelling islands around Koh Rang. Speedboats were queuing to find a mooring space and there were a couple of huge ships who deposited hundreds of non swimming Thais into the water. People watching was half the fun, I wish I had a photo of the woman swimming with mask, snorkel and wide brimmed sun hat.
Deaths - Peter Williams, long term English resident of Kai Bae passed away on New Year's Eve. Funeral was on 1 Jan. Described as a typical English gentleman who enjoyed his cricket and also a beer, he'll be missed by those fortunate enough to have shared his acquaintance over the years.
Also a couple more tourists killed riding motorbikes and apparently a policeman deliberately mowed down by a car just over a week ago.
Elsewhere in Thailand 3 people died as bombs went off in Bangkok last night and NYE celebrations were cancelled. Western embassies put out the obligatory advisory message against non-essential travel to Bangkok. In light of the 180 people who died in road accidents in Thailand over the past 3 days . . . have any western embassies issued warnings against non-essential road travel in Thailand? I think not. Unless you're Iraqi the odds of getting caught up in a bomb blast or terrorist incident in Thailand are much lower than in your own country. Not a cause for panicky holiday cancellations but be sure to report any unattended hand grenades to the relevant authorities.
Announcements . . . The Treehouse, Koh Chang's backpacker's mecca has a new website www.tree-house.org. It's a hippy-trippy Flash driven site which features the font used on the 'Spangles' packets from the 70s. Kai, the webmaster, would also like me to tell you about the great New Year's Eve party that they will be having . . . but actually took place a couple of days ago as I didn't update the site in time. Consider this plenty of advance notice for NYE 2007 when I'm sure they will also be having a party. If you've got an event of any kind you'd like plugging for free here or on the Koh Chang page of 'Untamed Travel' magazine - let me know.
Is Koh Chang attracting a different kind of visitor this year? A couple of people mentioned that to me over the festive period. I cant say that I've noticed the change myself as far as the guests staying at our place go but from the emails I receive I think the island is starting to get a higher percentage of package tourists with expectations of a livelier, more upmarket, Samui-esque island. Which is a pity for those of us who enjoy peace and quiet. What I have noticed is that our little area of the riverbank is changing, it looks like a couple of fisherman's houses will become restaurants on the opposite bank and nearby some locals have sold up and builders from a large resort are beavering away on something or other. Interesting to see that the roof is actually been painted in camouflage colours so it blends into the mangroves when viewed from, say, Google Earth or a passing helicopter.
No comments:
Post a Comment