Occheuteal Beach hut, Sihanoukville

Klong Prao Beach, Ko Chang

Hi everyone. My last episode was written in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and now we are back in Bangkok. Some of you may actually read this after we return to Ottawa as this is our last day. We fly out of Bangkok tomorrow Wednesday, 2 Feb. I can't believe we are at the end. If I had my druthers, we would be staying longer, but family beckons us home.

The next day, Saturday, we took a comfortable bus to Sihanoukville, on the ocean, to start our beach holidays. We found a nice simple guesthouse right across the road from Ochheuteal Beach, in our opinion the best beach in town. Sihanoukville is just barely starting as a resort so the beaches are almost empty. There are 2 or 3 larger hotels at the north end of Ochheuteal, but we were half way down the 3 K length and we had our pick of the grass sun shelters that lined the beach. The sand was clean and white and the water temperature was lovely and warm. We liked it so much we stayed a day longer than we had originally planned, just swimming and walking on the beach.

Tuesday was the day to move on. We took the water route back to Thailand, starting with the noon fast boat to Ko Kong, further up the coast. Ray and I handed over our passports at the dock in Sihanoukville for immigration check number one, took our places in the very comfortable seats inside and watched the other people board. There was a large group of men in business attire, some of whom, we noticed were dressed in black and we sporting highly visible gun holsters around their waists. Ray found out during the trip that the Cambodian Finance Minister and his entourage and bodyguards were on route to Ko Kong for a meeting to discuss ways of improving this Thailand-Cambodian route for tourists. Just before reaching the town of Ko Kong, the boat pulled into a dock and we were all instructed to get off, collect our bags and go through another immigration check there. The Lonely Planet had suggested this port as a quicker way to reach Thailand than continuing on to Ko Chong, so we got off, completed the immigration check and arranged to take an open motor boat the rest of the way to the border crossing at Hat Lek. Five of us had a wilder ride than we expected. For ½ hour the driver just opened her up and we bounced across the open water, praying that our bags didn't bounce out on the next impact. One of our fellow passengers was an American doctor who has spent most of the last 15 years travelling to remote villages mostly in Laos & Myanmar (Burma) dispensing medical help. He travels mostly overland and crosses wherever he pleases. He says the villagers always take care of him. No wonder. His pack sure was large and heavy, most probably with drugs.

The ride ended at a stone sea wall, where a rickety ladder led up to an open field. A Cambodian official was there to guide us past a garbage dump to the third immigration checkpoint. From there we walked down a road to Thailand. No big signs, no official looking buildings or anything, just a small Thai flag to let us know we were in Thailand. Finally finished all the official paperwork, we hustled over to locate a Songthaew taxi to take us to Trat, one hour away. This proved to be a little more difficult than we anticipated as the local taxi Mafia refuse to budge until they have 8 passengers, and we were only 5 people. We had to wait nearly one hour until more people showed up, then we went about 1 K down the road and stopped beside another Songthaew. With no explanation, we were told to switch to the 2nd one, so off came all the luggage and on we all got. The first songthaew sounded pretty terrible, so we didn't mind. About ½ hr later, I asked Ray where our day packs were, and he said he had passed them up with the other bags. I had seen our big bags go on top of the roof, but couldn't see the day packs. Our worst fears were realized. We got to Trat, but our day packs didn't. The driver was rightfully concerned and telephoned back to the spot where we made the switch. Sure enough, the bags had been left on the side of the road but luckily were now safe in a house and he promised to have them returned by the next morning at 10 AM. We had no choice but to trust the driver, so we found a nice guesthouse in town for the night.

Luck was still with us, for the bags were where and when they were promised and nothing was missing. We could continue our trip to Ko Chang, just off the coast. We took a taxi to the ferry dock in Laem Ngop, caught the 11 AM ferry and shared another Songthaew to Hat Sai Khao beach, the closest one. Ugh, we were not impressed. This beach is overdeveloped and is jammed with small bungalows that are overpriced to boot. I left Ray with the bags and walked about 1 K down the road and still didn't like anything. On the way I talked to an Australian couple who recommended their choice, Magic Resort, on Khlong Phrao, the next beach down. Sounded good enough for me, so we waited for the next Songthaew and drove another 6 K to Magic, where they were only too willing to have our business. There were still quite a few bungalows in this complex, but it turned out to be very comfortable. The beach was great and never crowded, even on the weekend. Trees lined the white sand shore and the water was clean and warm. We stayed 5 nights. Ko Chang is the largest of 47 islands that make up Ko Change National Marine park. It is the 2nd largest island in Thailand covered in rainforests and mountains. The hills on the east coast fall right to the sea, but the hills on the west coast, where we stayed, ended in white sand beaches.

One day we took a walk to Khlong Phu waterfall, a few K away from our place. Even though this was the dry season, the falls were quite impressive. We enjoyed the view from the base and then found a path that led more than 100 M to the top. We passed a young man on the way who cautioned us that it was a dangerous climb. It was just a pleasant climb & a nice view. I am getting the feeling that people are making snap judgements about our, and especially my, abilities as soon as they see our grey hair.

Ko Chang Waterfall

Ko Change Snorkeling

Another day we signed up for a day trip to go snorkeling over coral reefs on nearby islands. That was fun. We saw several of the other islands on the trip out and spent a long time admiring the fish and corals at 2 different spots. Part of our lunch that day was cuttlefish (squid), that was retrieved from traps pulled from the water on the way out. On the return trip, we stopped to visit a fishing village at the extreme south end of Ko Chang. All the buildings in the village are built on stilts right in the water and are connected by a series of narrow walkways. Up until last year, there was not even a road connecting the village to the rest of the island. Other than that, we just swam, read and relaxed and took long walks down the beach. We walked about 4 or 5 K in each direction, going from sandy cove to sandy cove, stopping at some of the other resorts for snacks or lunch.

All things must come to an end and Monday, 1 Feb, we returned to the mainland by ferry and took a minibus to Bangkok. Last night we stayed in a guesthouse off backpacker's haven, Khao San road, then this afternoon we will take a taxi to a hotel near the airport.

The trip has been a great success. We would highly recommend this part of the world to anyone and we rather like independent travel. If we had any improvements to suggest, it would be to spend more time in several of our favourite spots. Another month would have done it. We are already planning and talking about what are essentials to bring for the next trip. In the meantime, some of you may even get to be bored by our photographs, but we have a lot of developing and sorting to do at home first.