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Published: December 26th 2018
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Sunset over Ream beach
View from Monkey Maya bar After a good sleep we woke to another overcast day. The breakfast by the pool was delicious (poached eggs, bacon & fresh fruit). We decided to walk into Otres Village to see if we could find some breads for breakfast for the next few days. Despite being overcast it was very hot.
The paths from our hotel to the main village that used to exist have all been walled off by the big construction companies. This meant that it was a longer walk than expected as we had to go along the main road and round the long way.
The construction around here seems excessive and poorly thought out. There are high rises going up everywhere. We saw new builds where the balconies from each building more or less touched each other. They’ve left no space between sites for access so people in the hotels on the 2nd or 3rd road back cannot get to the beach without a very long walk. They’ve allowed beach front sites permission to build high rises blocking out everyone else’s views (fortunately they’re not up yet - the pictures outside the construction sites show how big they will be). Most of the finished
ones remain empty so I’m unsure as to why they’re continuing to build so much.
The village itself consists of 3 main roads with shops and hotels on. Most of the cafes and restaurants seem to have closed and more hotels are going up in their place. The well known Otres market - a hub for backpackers with western stalls and music, has shut down. You could see how this used to be a vibrant backpackers town but I think those days have gone.
Failing to find any nice cafes or bakeries we succeeded in finding some baguettes, fruit and little cakes in a local store. It took us ages to work out who to pay as there was no till and no one speaking English!
We wondered back to our hotel and checked out. We then went back to the beach for lunch. As we were eating it started to pour and everyone rushed inside. We weren’t expecting torrential rain here. After eating we arranged a tuk tuk to our next hotel.
Monkey maya is a little eco resort with individual huts on the edge of what was Ream National Park. As we entered the
Otres beach
Everyone hiding from the rain in ‘The Secret Garden’ restaurant park we were upset to find a huge area of felled trees and extensive construction going on. It was still jungly and rural where we are staying but apparently it’s closing in 3 weeks time. The Chinese have bought what was a national park and have plans for the whole coastline. It’s so frustrating - you try and do what you can for the environment and then you come out here and it feels like a loosing battle.
Monkey Maya is basic but beautiful. There’s a large thatched bar/restaurant area overlooking the beach & sea. Our bungalow is clean, with large windows overlooking the sea. There’s no WiFi, air con or hot water and only occasional electricity but they’re super friendly and it seems perfect.
We watched the sunset from the bar with our welcome drinks. We then changed and enjoyed a yummy dinner whilst watching a spectacular thunderstorm in the distance.
After dinner we walked down to the beach and enjoyed a swim watching the glowing plankton. It was a very surreal experience. It looked like we were swimming through bits of glitter. Perfect.
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