|
For almost his first foray out of Pattaya in the past year, The Pattaya Otter chose not to venture too far afield and instead paid a short visit to the nearby resort island of Koh Chang.
This island, whose name means literally ‘Elephant Island’ is situated just off the coast of Trat province, not far from the Cambodian border and around 200 miles East of Pattaya. It is the second largest island in Thailand – the largest being Phuket.
It is also only one of a series of 47 islands in the immediate area all of which go to make up the Koh Chang National Park – most of these other islands can only be accessed by going to Koh Chang first.
Some ‘old Pattaya hands’ had advised us that although once a quiet haven, Koh Chang had now become over commercialised, but taking the view that just about anywhere must be less commercial than Pattaya, we decided to make our own judgement on this.
Given the relatively short distance to travel and the fact that vehicles could be ferried to the island, we decided to give our car a much needed outing, and so set off on a Thursday morning heading initially South towards the naval base of Sattahip.
This in fact proved to be a mistake, borne of the desire, living south of Pattaya not to have to traverse the whole city first in order to reach the main highway to the cities of Rayong and thence Trat.
But by going the way we did, we passed several industrial estates and thus encountered heavy traffic and countless light controlled junctions, plus having to travel through the centre of Rayong (whereas the other route would have bypassed all this and re-joined just past this city).
Nevertheless we made reasonable progress and once further along our way the journey became much easier. We made a short stop at a quite delightful roadside rest centre where we changed drivers for the remaining distance to the embarkation port for the island.
Our map showed there to be several of these, but one in particular seemed to offer a shorter ferry ride and was also the nearest to us, so we turned off the main highway just before coming to Trat city and headed for the port of Aow Thammachat.
There we found the ferry already loading, it seems like there was one almost every hour, and after purchasing a round trip ticket, drove our car on board for the short (approximately 30 minute) journey to the island.
 The ferry itself was quite basic, a flat car deck with no apparent sea protection (OK for the calm waters of the journey but not much else) and a raised section at the ba ck with a few plastic seats for passengers, but affording us a good view of the trip including the passing return vessel.
But as promised, just over half an hour later, we were disembarking driving our car onto the landing ramp of Koh Chang Island.
Our first task was to find somewhere to stay. Given the rather last minute planning for the trip we had not been able to make any prior booking, but my researches on the Internet had unearthed quite a few recommended places and our map showed there to be many many others, so given that it was past high season, we felt sure we would not have too much difficulty.
The map called ‘The Best Map of Koh Chang’ which given the relative scarcity of such guides, it probably is, showed there to be one main road traversing round the shore of most of the Island but the one thing it did not prepare us for was the extreme hilliness of this road.
In fact the whole terrain of the island is very different to that of around Pattaya, with the interior consisting almost wholly of a series of tree lined steep hills. This has the effect of creating the conditions for a much damper climate, as we were to later witness.
From the ferry, we made our way round approximately one quarter of the island, rising and falling as we traversed one corner where the road wound up and then down again via a series of sharp hairpin bends and where we encountered a queue of very slow moving vehicles.
But once past this, we made better progress although the road was single carriageway only and thus required caution at all bends, and soon came to the main beach known as White Sand Beach or to give it it’s official name, Haad Sai Khao.
The first resort we had on our list, The Coconut Beach Bungalows, was in fact according to our map, situated on a cove just past the far end of this beach, but we discovered that the distances shown were not entirely accurate, and it was in fact quite a little way further on, actually on the next stretch of sand, called Khlong Phrao Beach.
Nevertheless, we found it without too much difficulty, and, Yes, they did have a vacancy, and showed us a bungalow just one row back from the waterfront, which we could have for 1,600 Baht per night (approximately 23 pounds).
Although the room was a little small, I liked its location and would have been happy to take it, but my friend thought we could do better elsewhere, so somewhat reluctantly I agreed to try a couple more places with the proviso that we not spend too much longer doing this.
However the next resort we came to, could only offer us a vacancy for a single night (we planned to stay 3 nights), and that at over 2,000 Baht, so after some further discussion, we returned to The Coconut Beach Bungalows.
There, however, a slight complication arose, as the room we had been shown was only available for two nights as they had a large party coming down from Bangkok on the Saturday.
They could however offer us a larger bungalow albeit a couple of rows further back for the same price and we could have that for our 3 night, so after further inspection which revealed this to be a much better room altogether, and still only a short walk to the sandy beach, we accepted this and with the added ability to park our car right beside our bungalow, proceeded to move in and unpack.
By this time it was around 4 o’clock, so we decided to spend the rest of that day relaxing on the beach and so spread our mat (which we had remembered to bring – unlike our sunbeds which would have been handy but were omitted) under the shade of a coconut tree, after first checking that the nuts weren’t ripe enough to fall.
 Very different to Pattaya beaches, no beach chair vendors covering the sand (sit where you like), virtually no hawkers, and not that many people either.
Oh, and the sea, with breaking waves, looking clean and inviting – invitation accepted and a short swim or more precisely, flop around in the waves.
Afterwards, the few steps back to our bungalow and a shower, then a trip to the small shopping centre across the road for some essential purchases, e.g. beer for the mini-bar and bug spray (another forgotten item). Not much in the way of shops, just a small mini-market and a couple of restaurants.
The resort itself had its own restaurant on the beach and we decided to dine there, selecting a large fish from the items on display in the ice tray.
This took some little time to cook and in the meantime we made ready with a couple of plates of various Thai dishes and a cool beer whilst being entertained by some recorded music coming from a nearby small stage.
Later on a singer, cum guitarist, replaced the canned music, albeit with his own pre-recorded backing group, and warbled some well known numbers (Hotel California etc.) during which for most of the time a young holidaymaker proceeded to display his dancing prowess on the same stage directly in front of the singer, which I’m sure pleased him greatly.
Whilst all this was in progress, our fish arrived and very tasty it was, washed down with another beer, whilst now we were entertained by a group of artists on the beach, swinging burning torches in unison to music with the lights dimmed to improve the spectacle.
This must have been an island speciality act, as further along the beach at the next resort, we could make out in the darkness, similar swinging lights.
After a short time this cabaret ended and we were returned to the canned stage music, this time playing most of Elvis’ greatest hits, at which time we decided to retire to our balcony for a few late night (or not that late night) drinks before the increased volume of assorted insects drove us to the air conditioned sanctuary of indoors.
After a good nights sleep, we awoke to sunshine (the previous day had been mostly overcast with some occasional light showers), and we decided we should take advantage of these conditions by making a tour of most of this part of the island, stopping at various locations for photos.
But first it was breakfast which was included in our room price but for which we were given vouchers to be used at one of the restaurants we had seen the previous night near the mini-market.
There, we were offered a choice of various set breakfasts and the ones we chose were well cooked and most satisfying.
Then, complete with cameras, it was off for an easy ride round the island. Our ‘Best’ map showed several viewp oints marked and my Internet researches had confirmed several good photographic stops. However once again, we found the road to be much more twisty and hilly than indicated, making stopping difficult, and also the profusion of greenery made it difficult to find a good view.
But we did manage to find a few places to stop and take pictures as we gradually made our way to the South West corner of the island.
 There, we came to the fishing village of Baan Bang Bao, which was built entirely out on the water of a small bay, with a central concrete pier onto which were attached wooden platforms, supported on wooden poles where the various houses a nd shops were.
This pier projected out into the bay for quite some distance and the village was clearly tourist oriented as many of the buildings were either restaurants or souvenir shops, but nevertheless it was a fascinating place to see.
At the very end, some fishing boats were moored and on another pier we could see jutting out into the bay, there appeared to be guest huts.
 On our way back, we stopped off at one of the restaurants built out over the water for a coffee and a delightful ice cream (and not just any old coffee, I was offered a menu of the various blends on offer and chose the Blue Mountain special, which was as good as its name implied).
After this we returned to our car and continued our journey, but found we could not go very much further round the island as the road ended at the Grand Lagoona Resort.
It appeared that there was about a 5 km gap from there to the road running from the far side of the island, so there was no option but to retrace our steps.
On the way back, we stopped at a few places we had noted coming as offering potential good viewpoints, including a small restaurant built into the side of the beach cliff, where for the small price of another coffee, we were afforded a superb view of the bay it was on.
 It also had some accommodation, although this photo rather suggests that the economy class rooms were somewhat basic.
We passed back through our resort beach and decided to examine the shopping area at White Sand Beach (which had looked quite sizeable the previous day) to see if it was worth an evening trip there – we soon concluded that it wasn’t as on closer inspection it had very little to offer. However we did have an enjoyable lunch at a German managed restaurant – eating Thai food.
Afterwards we returned to our resort and spent the rest of the day relaxing once again on the beach, this time finding the sea a lot calmer and affording a better chance to actually swim.
For our evening fish (although the usual range of Thai and Western fare is available on Koh Chang, the main food on offer at every establishment is fish, fish and more fish), so like I said, for our fish that evening, we decided to patronise the restaurant we had had our breakfast at, feeling that for the excellent breakfast they had given us, presumably at a low return to them from the resort, we should at least eat a meal we had to pay for there.
Once again, we chose our fish and accompanying vegetables from the array on display, and again had some starters to keep us going whilst it was being cooked.
This time there was no ‘live’ cabaret (seems they had had a Dutch performer but he had returned home), just some loudspeakers on an empty stage from which some not unpleasant nor too loud sounds came.
As did soon, our fish, once again cooked to perfection and with a very tasty sauce.
After this, there being not much else on offer, we again retired to our balcony for a few drinks and another relatively early night.
To view any of the above photos in full size, just click on it.
|
