29 Jan - Tip for travellers, if you're arranging to meet at the treehouse - get the right one. I picked up a couple by the road in the south east of the island who had gone the wrong way, realised their mistake and were trying to get round to the west coast to the Lonely beach branch.
In response to numerous, more than one but less than three, emails asking about the absence of a discussion board on this site. I had thought about it but I really can't be arsed at the moment. Therefore, you're best off posting on the TripAdvisor Koh Chang forum if you want to hear from people who've visited KC before and also want the opinions of the very helpful Local Expert for Koh Chang who goes out of his way to help those in their time of need. It's a kind of a Mother Theresa position, providing some rays of hope and/or comfort for those who've booked at resorts they really shouldn't have bothered with or weaning unsuspecting Americans off their painful addiction to Let's Go guides. the main difference is that it can be done from home rather than the slums of Calcutta.
Question of the week came from one of our guests who'd just arrived here and obviously wasn't involved much in planning the holiday "Which way's Koh Chang?" she asked There's only one answer for this type of question, but as I didn't feel I knew her well enough to enquire as to what type of drugs she was on, my reply was limited to "Err, over there." and pointing north, adding "You'll find a map on the table." hoping she'd manage to find the table by herself.
In case you missed it, the Thai Justice Ministry is currently overhauling it's laws to make them fairer fair to women and improve Thailand standing as a modern, almost first world, country. The marital rape law has long been a bone of contention as it allowed husbands to rape their wives with impunity. The Ministry had a tough choice, abolish the law to make this illegal and so be equal to both sexes or, and here's the good bit, make it legal for wives to rape their husbands and so ensure equality of the sexes. Guess which option they went for?
Last week we heard from Mr Kampon Jaroenkajornkul, head of Trat tourism business association, who came out with the statement ''After the bombings <>, around 10% of visitors to Koh Chang decided to leave the island for fear of their safety.'' - a sentence which is must be some kind of anagram formed from a far more sensible statement. This week another local power broker with a desire to be seen as a safari-suited mover and shaker has come up with a solution to Koh Chang's water woes according the the Thai News Agency.
'The Deputy Chief of Koh Chang has proposed to use Reverse Osmosis, a system used to distil sea water to fresh water, to control the water shortage on the island.
Mr. Sakprasert Charoenprasit, revealed that Koh Chang will face water shortages from January-May every year. Five-star hotels and resorts will not encounter water shortages as they have their own underground water pumps. However, small hotels and resorts have to buy fresh water. As for the long-term plan to prevent water shortage, reservoirs will be constructed on the island and RO system is expected to be installed.'
Whether he prefaced his announcement with "Baldrick, I have a cunning plan . . ." isn't mentioned. However, imagine there was an island in Thailand, far further offshore than Koh Chang, and which had well over 2.5 million visitors per year, dozens of world class hotels and a serious water problem, one so severe that even the best 5 star hotels had to ration water at times. So, wouldn't Samui have had a huge reverse osmosis plant by now if it was a viable option? It hasn't, although some resorts do have their own small scale RO plants. I wonder if Mr Sakprasert will address the problem of where the huge plant for Koh Chang will discharge tens of thousands of litres of super concentrated saline waste water every day. Also nice to see that his position as Deputy Chief of Koh Chang gives him the authority to decide to build reservoirs in water catchment areas, all of which lie in the National Park.
On the subject of bright ideas that faded fast under the glaring light of 'real life', let's not forget that by 2007 motorists were to be banned from bringing their cars onto Koh Chang and tourists were to be ferried from beach to beach by boat whilst the main form of transport on the island was going to be the humble bicycle and Whitesands was to be transformed into an overdeveloped sea of drab, uninspiring shop units to become the architectural equivalent of Valium. OK, so the last aim came true, but previous examples of totally un-thought out thoughts that pop-up in the minds of politicians when a reporter is anywhere in the vicinity can be found in the News Archives.
How do you know you've made it in Thailand? When you can drive your Ferrari to Koh Chang and if there isn't enough room in the boot for your suitcases you can get one of your staff to bring them in your Hummer, as an expat guest staying at the Amari did last week.
Coming soon, eco-friendly sea transport, ideal for anyone feeling guilty about blowing their personal carbon allowance for the year on the flight to Thailand. (No, it isn't a yacht.)
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