Thailand - Koh Chang

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Suzanne here...

We walked to the bus station in Trat to get a taxi to the jetty as it was closer than town and we thought it would be busier. It wasn't as it turned out, and with only one other passenger the promised 50 bhat fare each increased first to 80, then 90. When it hit 100 baht each we basically told him to stick it, so it went back to 90. Probably over the odds but at least we were on our way. Unexpectedly we were dropped off at a ticket agent a little way from the pier, but the boat fare was as expected and included drop off at the boat so it was fine.

The journey to Koh Chang only took about 30 minutes and there were shared taxis along the coast, 70 baht each for us to Khlong Phrao. We'd struggled to find decent cheap accomodation as December is high season. In the end we'd sprung £42 per night (blinking expensive by backpacking standards) on a bit of luxury for two nights at the Bhu Tarn Resort. I have to say we were not disapointed. Certainly the nicest room we've had so far on the trip. Once settled we went online to look for cheaper alternatives. Nothing within our price range that didn't look ropey. Worse still, prices had increased since the previous day. If we wanted to extend our stay at Bhu Tarn it had gone up to a whopping £68. We gave up and decided to get some dinner. We ended up a long walk down the road at Sao's. Decent Thai fare at a reasonable price. We then decided to do the sensible thing and get a taxi back, where we enjoyed some beer and our Burmese whiskey on our nice balcony.

The following morning after a decent if slightly random hotel breakfast (I didn't bother with the broccoli soup but David went for some spaghetti bolognese!) we had to tackle the accomodation issue. We'd been considering moving on to Koh Mak or Koh Kut but they had even more limited options so we decided to stick to Koh Chang. We went for the Mercure Hideaway. The same as Bhu Tarn (£42) so expensive, especially as this time breakfast was not even included. However we just couldn't bring ourselves to book somewhere cheap and tatty. We've become a bit spoiled. We booked three nights, which meant we had three more to book but we'd had enough so headed out to Khong Phlu waterfall. On the way we saw lots of elephants which of course is always an amazing sight, although them being in captivity is rather sad. Who on earth would go to an elephant show knowing that they are basically trained by torture? The waterfall was a nice walk away, and the approach although a bit rocky was easy enough. It cost 200 baht each to get in. The actual waterfall is nice enough, not spectacular (in the dry season at least). The real reason to come is for the pool and river where fish nibble at your toes. A fair bit bigger than at a fish spa, they did peck quite hard! I couldn't say it hurt though, it was in fact quite pleasant. We spent quite a while in the water just relaxing.

On the return walk we stopped at a little bar / convenience store for a beer. We were the only ones there but it was cheap and most plesant with (very) soft 70's American rock playing so one soon turned into three. I don't know how many customers the guy gets as he took a photo of us! Rather than go back just to go out again we elected to have an early dinner at a little local roadside place (no idea of the name) then grabbed beer supplies and went back to our nice hotel for more relaxing and music. We also tackled the final three nights accomodation problem, booking a mid-range place back in Khlong Phrao as other than the waterfall we'd not explored it much to be fair (not even the local beach). Still expensive at, once again £42 a night but at least with breakfast. We'd have got more for our money if we'd booked it all in advance. Irritating. The thing we don't get is if it is high season and all the hotels are hiking up their prices, where is everyone? I'd hardly call it busy.

The next day we were in no rush to leave the hotel until check-out time so had breakfast (where I treated myself to a small sachet of Marmite I'd brought from home) and just relaxed in the room until noon. We then grabbed the first taxi that passed to the Mercure at Bailan beach. Luckily they let us check in at noon. Bigger than the first hotel, it had more facilities such as two pools and it's own stretch of beach, with beach bar. It was very nice and much more like a proper holiday than backpacking. Well, the budget was going to suffer but nothing to do but enjoy it. The room was lovely and the balcony overlooked one of the pools. We did our usual trick of getting the lie of the land and found another beach bar nearby called Lisca Beach. Absolutely adorable. It was all too pretty so we had to stop for a cocktail, and a glass of wine. Then another cocktail back at our place as Happy Hour was in full swing!

Dinner was at the highly rated Tamarin, which turned out to be probably the best Thai food we'd had so far on this trip. Fried chicken, green curry and Pad Ka Prao, all yummy. You know the drill by now - back on the balcony to enjoy beer and music, and this time a drop of Thai brandy.

The next day we planned to do very little.We went down to the hotel beach and snagged some sun-loungers and just read and relaxed the day away, dipping in the sea and pool now and then. At Happy Hour someone came over to take our order and we ended up having two Mai-tai's and a Gin-sling. After freshening up we wandered the 50 meters down the beach to the lovely Lisca for wine, bruschetta and pizza. It was absolutely gorgeous, and very romantic. Sitting right on the beach, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. And this is peak season?

On our last day at Bailan we thought we should go slightly further afield so got a taxi down to Bang Bao. There is not much there other than a pier, but is was a plesant enough trip. Again, we had the end of the pier practically to ourselves. We had lunch at a little place right on the pier called El Greco. It has a very nice view and as we were waiting we saw a couple of large birds of prey (Brahminy Kites) as well as lots of pipe fish.. I had Gyros, not very Thai admittedly but it did make a very refreshing change. David had pork schnitzel. We were only out for a couple of hours, but it was nice to leave the resort. Once back, we had a dip in the second pool below our room then cue more relaxing. It's a hard life! We went back to Tamarin for dinner, although we had different dishes at least, which was just as good the second time.

Time to move on again, this time back to Khlong Phrao and The Gallery. It was a modern hotel and again above backpacker spec, but not as flash as the previous two. Still, the location was pretty good and we'd heard we could use the facilities of their sister hotel on the beach. In the meantime, our hotel did have a quite nice pool of its own that we used and enjoyed.

We'd actually booked a table that night at Barrio Bonito (think I've mentioned our Mexican obsession). On the way we looked for a bar but so many are girlie bars. There is little I desire to see less than some sweaty grim old white men leering at young Thai women. We did stop at one empty bar. (Sky Bar) but as the only customers had the (unwanted) undivided attention of the staff. Very odd to be hovered over and almost forced to play Jenga and Connect Four! We left after one drink. We ended up at Filou Cocktail Lounge which was far from our type of place but at least busy and not too seedy. Luckily it was then time to eat. We very much enjoyed Barrio Bonito. It didn't blow us away but it was pretty tasty.

It was when we got back to The Gallery that we realised that in addition to the constant pinging of the lift, we could hear the rooftop bar very clearly. Great. Luckily we don't tend to go to bed early, and anyway I have earplugs. Still, that together with the oddly enclosed balcony meant we retreated inside our room. A shame after the excellent balconies in the last two hotels.

After breakfast the next morning we headed to our hotel's 'sister' The Emerald Resort. Oh my goodness. A fantastic five star hotel with a great pool, plenty of sunloungers, and right by the beach. We had a really, really wonderful day. So relaxing, actually close to perfect. You could walk for ages out into the sea on the lovely sandy seabed. We stayed all afternoon and loved every moment. In the end we prized ourselves away in favour of a nearby beach bar, more loveliness. One of our best days so far.

Could dinner complete the day? We were only going for a burger, albeit a well reviewed one. Burger Station was full when we arrived so we popped to some random pirate pub round the corner. Dead once again, so we just had the one. Luckily on our return there was a table free. Well, I hesitate to say it is the best burger we have ever had, but I couldn't name a better one. Absolutely delicious. As for the chips. Oh. My. God. Proper, homemade, thick cut chips. I could have wept. How glad was I that I'd sneakily brought a couple of malt vinegar sachets from home?! Look, I know this was just a burger and this may seem like an overreaction but it was heaven in a basket and we'll be talking about it for years to come knowing us.

On our last day on Koh Chang we had no plans so went back to The Emerald Resort. Not as sunny and so perhaps not quite as good but still relaxing and pleasant. We skipped the beach bar as we needed a dry day. We picked up some laundry on the walk back (always a joy). Dinner was at Thai Dutch, great Thai food, as good as Tamarin I'd say. For me the pad thai was the best we've had. Which was just as well as it about killed us not to return to Burger Station.

So that was Koh Chang. I think we were right to stay for the eight nights. It's felt like a proper holiday, and moving hotels gave a nice bit of variety without having to travel far. I find it a bit odd that there are so many hotels, with fewer people than expected, yet the prices were so high. Still, we enjoyed it very much.

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