Changian

See www.kohmak.com for up to date boat times etc.

There are a few piers around Laem Ngop area, two are used by car ferries to Koh Chang, some are private use or for fishing boats only and one is used for the boats to Koh Mak. The pier you need to go to is called ' Krom Luang ' Pier, you'll know you are in the right place as it's next to a big Naval Memorial with old guns & torpedos on it. It's probably easier to just tell songtaew driver you want to go to Koh Mak and let him take to the correct pier.

Lovely weather now. Bright sunshine this morning. Hardly any rain for the past few days and still very few visitors on the island. The rainy season should end some time in the middle of October.

Anything on the coast is a too expensive. You're looking at a few million/rai for sea frontage. Crazy IMHO. Most land owners we've talked to were looking to sell for around 500,000 Baht/rai for land within a few minutes of the ferry piers. But there is some land for around 125K/rai Sold website for much less with a Chanote title and some sea view at around 125K/rai which I've seen and has some good views of Koh Chang. The owner is an expat who has lived on Koh Chang for 15+ years, nice land. Can buy 25, 18 or 7 Rai plots. I'd got for the 18 Rai which has an old house, fishponds, fruit trees and also views of KC. The 7 Rai doesn't have any views. 5 minutes drive to Centrepoint car ferry, lessto the pier for Koh Mak and Laem Ngop village. ( See the ads on Baht & Sold posted by Graham, the owner.)

Depends on the weather. Last week the sea was calm as a lake, yesterday there were pretty big waves. People drown every rainy season due to riptides. If your sensible you wont have any problems.

Dec / Jan has better weather - and more guarantee of sunshine and no rain - they are also far busier. At the moment you can pretty much have a resort to yourself. In Sept you cant guarantee lots of sunshine - but the past couple of weeks have , on the whole been very nice here. The past two days have been the wettest for a while.

Some jellyfish on Klong Prao beach now - most dont sting. The ones that do just, at least in my case, just give an annoying burn for half an hour then it goes. They wont kill you.

Not much to chose from. VJ Apartment, Klong Prao. Furnished rooms, with AC & cable TV, from around 3500 baht/month + utilities depending on how long you plan to stay and your haggling skills.

At the southern end of White Sand beach, Paddy's Palms has apartment rooms to rent.

No condos available until buyers in Phase 1 at Tranquility Bay decide to rent their units this high season. Nice view, no facilities yet as construction is ongoing.

Yes there is electricity on Koh Chang and it costs pretty much the same as elsewhere in the country. My last bill was just under 3.5 Baht/Unit

It's pretty reliable where we are in Klong Prao, occasionally goes off if there is a storm or a tree falls on the lines in the rainy season. But usually fixed quickly. The PEA office is in Klong Son. There are electric lines heading into the valley past the elephant camp, hardly a grid but it does the job. No problem to hook up electric for a house there if you live near the road. If you want to be further from the road then you'd need to put your own poles / line in.

The Hat Lek border is very quiet. Easy drive from Trat, if you have a bit of time get off the main rod and follow the small roads along the beachfront. Very nice drive.

No queues, no hassles at the border. The longest I have spent in Cambodia is about 10 minutes from the time I got stamped out of Thailand to being stamped back in again. This includes getting a Cambo visa.

But expect to pay 1100 baht for the visa and you might be asked for 300 baht if you are returning immediately to Thailand without wanting to say longer than you have to in Cambodia. Last two times I haven't been asked for anything. Up to you if you decide to haggle, argue or just pay up and go.

There are a handful of guys hopefully trying to sell you ciggies and a few street kids - but it isnt a slum like Poipet. On the Thai side of the border is small market.Nothing wildly exciting to buy unless you need Chinese sunglasses & power tools, bags of Taiwanese dried fruit or bars of cheap Indonesian chocoloate for your inlaws.

Maylamean Bungalows are still there, just south of White Sand Beach Resort. No idea about Banana Point though. Looks like the name has changed. Star Beach? Rock Sand ?, they are on the cliffs. These were rented by farangs before - but not owned. Or was it near Independent Bungalows:

The only large resort with a pool is KC Grande, to the south, where they are building a huge new resort on the site of old huts.

.................anyway, what happened to your last umbrella??

A 100 baht golf umbrella purchased from Somchai's 'Umbrellas,watches, sunglasses and various other knock offs' stall at the Hat Lek border crossing doesn't last long in the wet. Fine for dry weather use though.

Price for the d-tracker in Malaysia is over RM23,000 i.e. approx 230,000 Baht

Buy an umbrella?

This photo was taken in Khao Yai a month ago. Looks uncannily like a croc to me.

No need for any guide, we just walked along one of the trails by the river - the short 3km trail that leads to 'The Beach' waterfall. The cros was in the river and then came out onto the opposite bank.

True, Koh Chang's beachfront hotels are pretty pricey. The main reason being that there are relatively fewgood ones. But 3,000 baht/night fora decade old hut at Koh Chang Resort is definitely not value for money. Compare those bungalows to the ones costing 500 baht more at Klong Prao Resort, or 500 baht less at Coconut Beach Resort - botha few hundred metres away and far, far nicer.

The crap beaches of Koh Mak, so others can see how truly awful they are:

In conclusion. Buy a 30 ton truck if you can afford it. Could probably get a second hand one for the price of a new Fortuner.

The Dusit Princess has been open for about 5 months. There was going to be an official press tour in November but the place wasnt completed. I went to meet some people there at Christmas, not much space for all the guests. Pool area is very small compared to Dewa / Amari. But the beach is very nice - it should be as it's man made.

Sunday will begin with a stroll along the 3 kilometers of sand and sparkles

Made me smile as the beach is about 400 metres long. Can walk further if you walk across rocks. Just dont plan on swimming in the sea - very shallow and a rocky seabed.

Still a few small problems to iron out, when there was a heavy downpour recently the lobby flooded. ( You may get your wish Wilko.) But Dusit only manage it, they don't own it.

Can still stay in a beachfront wooden hut on Klong Prao beach for under 500 baht/night at KB Huts, Tiger Huts or Thale Bungalows. All in far better locations than the Dusit

Thought the Tiger Temple would be interesting to visit. A few photos taken last week. You kind of hope that it isnt going to be as touristy and run down as you think it will be and also that the huge amount of money it rakes in is being spent wisely . . but . . .

The tiget canyon - inhumane conditions - for the tourists. No umbrellas for the tigers but msot were in the shade. Tigers do get slapped on the head when they stir, but cant imagine this is that inhumane - our dog gets a slap on the nose if he's disobedient too. According to the handlers my g/f talked to they do sometimes bite - hence the liability waiver you have to sign before going in.

New compounds are being built - the plan says each tiger witll have a rai of land to roam in. But what's bieng built, whilst much better then the current cages, isnt exactly of the Singapore or Sam Diego Zoo quality and whilst is probably covers a rai - most of this is concrete.

Tiger food - do tigers naturally eat BBQ chicken? I guess it it's good enough for the monks it's good enough for tigers. Thats the only food we could see in the cages. I assuemd that the goats, deer, cattle etc were being bred as tiger food.

A stated aim of the temple is to eventually release tigers back into the wild. Introducing cubs to human contact when they are a couple of months old seems a strange way of doing this. Also saw the cubs being chased around by tour groups of people all wanting to try to pick it up and pet it. The girl looking after it did her best to stop them, but one Thai girl against a bus load of 'Tiger Temple souvenir t-shirt' clad Israelis isn't a fair contest.

Tigers habitat

The photo rules

Tiger Canyon - tourists forced to stand in the hot sun waiting to have photos taken

Fortuantely, the temple has it's own brand of drinking water to cool you down. ( But it's free)

More photos ops- three tiger cubs and a real life monk

The new enclosures being built

Black bear in it's cage and the cages where tigers are kept. ( But if human live in 30sqm condos, why shouldnt tigers like living in small concrete boxes too?

It's open on a Sunday - I was there yesterday. Not sure of the opening times, but 1700 rings a bell.

Call the Bangkok office for DHL, UPS etc and ask if they deliver to Koh Chang and if they do,how to go about it if you can enter the KC postcode. If they cant, then use regular EMS and it'll get delivered within a few days.

Looking for a nice Thai restaurant in Korat i.e. a large,nicely designed place out of town where the middle class locals will go for a meal.

We will be staying at the Dusit and I heard there's a place called Suan Tip nearby that's meant to be good - anyone been here?

All suggestions welcome as we'll be in town for 4 nights.

For a good local architect see www.52islands.com- they did The Spa, Salakkok & Aana Resort - both nice places where you don't notice the concrete. But usually the architect designs what the client wants - any clients often want crap shophouses or soulless hotel blocks rather than anything original.

But what are the local farang business community doing about it?

But I have noticed that in the past few days the roadside garbage that was featured on White Sand beach has now been tidied up quite a bit.

If you've been looking for 10 years why haven't you found one???

He has . . . Koh Chang

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Another 50 or so shophouses will begoing up in Klong Prao soon. But starting to see more unoccupied roadside shop units in the locations that are cheap but have very few tourists passing by.

Have a look at printbooks.in.th - I had a single copy of a pdf e-book printed by them recently. Good service, and good quality printing and cover.

I've survived OK never using any anti-malarials or mozzie spray for 4 and a half years. Not heard any stories about anyone catching malaria here recently. Not something the locals worry or gossip about. So for anyone on a 2 week holiday they'd be pretty unfortunate if they got it.

The word 'malaria' gets people worried. I quite a few emails from people worrying that they're going to die on KC. - but no one ever mentions Dengue Fever which is far more prevalent here and across Thailand as a whole and for which there are no prophylactics.

Someone else making astand against the pollution on Koh Chang. See Toxic Koh Chang

(Ignore the sidetracked written rant about mafia / prostitution and enjoy the video.)