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thaiaficionado
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I recently returned from a visit to Koh Chang, where I stayed at the Amari Emerald Cove Resort, the only 5-star resort on the island. The resort had only been open for a few months, and it was very pleasant to stay in a hotel where everything was so new. Rooms were quite large, with natural hardwood floors and solid wood furniture.
The resort was very stylishly designed, and beautifully landscaped. It featured a 50 meter lap pool, with diving platform, and also a whirlpool pool, and a children's pool. The three floor structure featured 165 rooms, and ocean-facing rooms cost about 7700 baht per night in high season, but the sunsets were absolutely spectacular. The resort shares a lovely secluded cove with Koh Chang Cabana, on Kai Bae Beach.
Nightlife options on Koh Chang are somewhat limited. I saw one small beer bar complex where girls may have been available, but I would recommend bringing your own. I was accompanied by a lovely girl from Pattaya, and it took us nearly five hours to drive from Pattaya to the ferry pier near Trat, including a lunch stop in Kanthaburi for just over an hour. The ferry crossing was 25 minutes, and cost 120 baht for a round trip.
The resort has a "registered guests only" policy, so not what you would call "guest friendly", but none of the staff bat an eye, except for a maid who couldn't suppress a big grin when we emerged from our room in the morning. It became apparent at the breakfast buffet that I was the only punter present, and appeared quite conspicuous with a girl 30 years my junior. I received some of the usual ghastly looks of contempt from a few middle-aged women, the kind of looks I've come to cherish and adore, along with looks of envy from their husbands, who were probably wondering why they "brought sand to the beach."
Koh Chang is Thailand's second largest island, about 30 km long, and up to 8 km wide. It is quite mountainous, and covered with dense vegetation that some say reminds them of Maui, but I can't really concur, except with regards to the relative lack of nightlife.
In the afternoon, between boom-booms, we visited two of the most notable waterfalls. A paved road encircles the island, with many steep hair-pin turns, the worst of which are on the north side, and which must be taken in low gear. We saw a farang take a spill off a motorbike, but fortunately he wasn't injured.
On the east side of the island is the Than Mayorn Waterfall, a four-level, medium sized fall that flows year round. It is notable because King Rama V and King Rama VII inscribed their initials there in 1876 and 1927, respectively.
Not far from our resort, about a 20 minute walk from the parking area, was the more popular Klong Plu Waterfall, which is a fairly impressive sight, and where about 40 tourists were present, several of which were swimming in the chilly waters of the pool at the base of the fall. Both falls are within a national park, the entrance fee was 200 for me, 20 for my girl, but the ticket could be used for both falls.
Koh Chang, check it out quickly, before it becomes more like Phuket and Samui.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 8:06 am on Mar. 4, 2005
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Andre
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Nice Report,thanks TA!
i been there 2 years ago it was fantastic but under construction,resorts and hotels anywhere were growing like mushes! Had Sai Kaow is the turistic and most crowded beach for sure.
from bkk to Trat it took a 5 hours half + 1 hour ferry boat and some songtaew trek up the hills.
call me cheap charlie but I been at the 350 baht front sea bungalow and 1 hot (in every sense) night in tent,bad mosquitos around those beaches at nite,rented a bicycle too.
Been to that waterfall u mention and the trek to get there is quite long too uh?
they doubled the price,i should had paid 100 and 20 the gal I were with.
Pretty amazing sight of that cascade and the natural swimmin pool is the most fresh and pleasant water in the world,the wooden "arch" was still intact?
another cool spot is a fishermans village which I dont remember the name,sorry = (
builded on a thin woody pier,great inexpensive seafood dinners and romatic sunsets with palms on the horizon,,,what a place!
hope to see that island again.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 1:08 pm on Mar. 4, 2005
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thaiaficionado
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Andre,
Glad you liked the story. There's nothing wrong with being a cheap charlie, especially when it involves getting back to nature. I'll be the first to admit I spent too much in those few days, but it was very relaxing, and I really enjoyed myself. The park does allow camping, and even rents tents I believe, but the mosquitoes are quite bad at night. I even received a few bites when we went to the hotel bar (indoors!) for our complimentary welcome drink. I would recommend taking insect repellant.
The fishing village you mention is Ban Bang Bao, in the southwest corner of the island, where the road ends at the 7-11. There isn't much evidence of fishing anymore, which has given way to dive shops and tourist souvenirs, except for the excellent seafood restaurants, and we did stop there for dinner.
I've been infatuated with waterfalls since an experience on the French Polynesian island of Raiatea, about a 3 or 4 hour speedboat ride from Tahiti. The island was larger than Koh Chang, but only had 2 or 3 resorts and a few thousand inhabitants. In fact, there was only a single gasoline station, which was closed on Sunday.
Following my guidebook, I found the trail to a falls there. It was very hot and humid, and I stopped in the woods to pick a fresh papaya (the banana's weren't yet ripe). When I finally arrived at the 40 foot falls, I was hot and sweaty, and there was nobody anywhere around. What distinguished this falls was that you could walk around the pool and step directly into the falling water. On my first approach, the temperature difference between the water and my body was so extreme, I had difficulty breathing when I got close. On the second attempt, I was able to place my head into the water, but only for a few seconds. By this time, by body temp had adjusted, and I was able to stand under the water for several minutes while the fresh, cold, spring water pounded on my head, and sounded like thunder. It was extraordinarily exhilarating, and the only sensation I've ever felt that was better than hot sex.
Then again, when I was vacationing in Hilo, on the island of Hawaii, some idiot jumped the 80 foot Rainbow Falls. He survived, but spent several days in the hospital.
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Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:27 pm on Mar. 4, 2005
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thaiaficionado
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Following Hermanolobo's great idea of enhancing his excellent Havana field report with a geocities page of pictures, here's my try. The page may load a bit slowly since the images are about 200K, but they enlarge quickly from the thumbnails since the thumbnails are the same.
Kudo's to Brother Wolf!
Koh Chang Pictures
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 3:37 pm on Mar. 6, 2005
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DaffyDuck
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Great stuff, and some amazing pictures - damn, Kho Chang appears to be an amazingly gorgeous destination.
One question about your images, though - how did you generate them, or where did they originate from? They are all extremely grainy, bordering on 8-bith dithered images - I haven't seen this lately (was popular in the late 80s, as video cards were low-color) - but just wondering if that's your camera, your computer, or geocities doing it???
Dr. von Quack!
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 4:26 pm on Mar. 6, 2005
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thaiaficionado
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Sorry, I didn't have a digital camera at the time. When I had the film processed, I requested digital images as well. The jpegs they generated were 1800 X 1200, and fairly 'grainy', as you've noted. I then cropped the images, and reduced the dimensions using the Microsoft Paint program before posting them.
During my last visa run to Singapore, I purchased a digital video camera that records directly to dvd, and can also take still pictures. I plan on using this new camera from now on.
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Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:29 am on Mar. 7, 2005
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Andre
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Cool webpage TA! I keep the multi shoot postcard here on the desk in plain sight...so nice!
Koh Chang is everchanging so the first u visit the best u see,and now in Trat there is a damn airport too.
let's say that a week there is the best anti-stress therapy,could fit for a honeymoon too.
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Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:09 pm on Mar. 7, 2005
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thaiaficionado
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Most of the east side of the island is still undeveloped, just 2 or 3 resorts, but doesn't look like many beaches there either, and can't enjoy the sunset from that side. Definitely a place to just lay back and put your feet up. And yeah, a very romantic setting, I was almost ready to marry that girl. 
Several uninhabited islands close by for a day trip, too.
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Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 3:33 pm on Mar. 7, 2005
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Gus
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TA
Koh Chang sounds the sort of place I would like to visit for a few days.
I take it that it is best to take a TG with you?
If there are a few TGs in Koh Chang I guess that the quality is not brilliant and also it would be very difficult to be Big Butterfly anyway.
I would like to stay somewhwere that is pretty quiet, yet is not far from some bars and restaurants.
A hotel with Air Con is desireable and rates around 1000
Any info would be great, Regards Gus
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Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 4:16 am on Sep. 25, 2005
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