So finally (for this time at least) I leave Cambodia this morning to go to Koh Chang, the Thai island. I could have waited until after midday and picked up yesterday’s transport that I arrived in Koh Kong on, to carry on in an escorted fashion. But I decide I have got quite good at this border crossing lark on my own so decide to make my own way. Little did I realise that I would be changing transport quite so many times. It starts simply enough with a tuk tuk from Koh Kong over the Friendship bridge to the border. Much easier than the Vietnam/Cambodia crossing, with the entry to Thailand very quick and simple. Interestingly making the crossing by land you only get a 15 day visa but if you arrive by plane you get 30 days. Obviously we land crossing cheapskate backpackers are less to be trusted! But doing it on my own has another benefit of not coming on a crowded bus, you are not in a queue with the other 59 passengers. And the walk between the two crossings was not the long one as it was from Vietnam – about a hundred metres, accompanied by my tuk tuk driver – I had no choice, he was wheeling my suitcase ahead of me at a pace that would not have shamed a 100 metre sprint champion. Of course then I was asked to give “some small riels in recompense”. On the Thai side you find a shared mini bus and they leave when they have a full complement. Fortune was shining on me, I was the last to arrive so we left straight away for the 1.5 hour trip to Trat. A smart modern mini bus, we change sides of the road (unlike most other places in Asia, in Thailand they drive on the right, i.e. the “correct” side of the road, i.e. the left!). We also change environment. Within a few hundred yards, the poverty and dust if Cambodia is left far behind with proper roads, traffic lights, lines down the middle of the road – but I can’t help feeling I have also left some of that charm behind too. You forget, but when you first return to Thailand from the UK, it has the feel of a second, if not third world country. But coming back in from Laos and Cambodia, you realise that it is clearly first world. We go a few miles and then have to change into another, identical mini bus… My travelling companions were a mixed bunch of men, including two particularly unattractive German guys who were staying at the Dugout last night. Interestingly, they weren’t accompanied by their two new Cambodian girl “friends” they seemed so close to last night…. Next to me was a middle aged Thai guy with a bad BO problem, a hacking cough and a very loud mobile phone. I know the seats were a tight fit, but I did feel he was getting unnecessarily close on occasions. My best Memsahib face made him back off for a time, only to have to repeat it again a few minutes later…. But eventually, I arrive at Trat bus station in a generally unmolested state. After some discussion, with neither side understanding the conversation (even my experienced Asia speak didn’t work), I agree to get in a songthaew (one of those open backed shared truck taxi things) for 50 Baht (£1) to go to the ferry. When we get to Trat town we stop and I am directed to a chemists…. I still haven’t worked that one out but I gather I have to change transport – and also pay the first man 20 baht…. The second man charges me 150 baht to the pier - my negotiation skills failed me, he wasn’t budging. Where the original 50 baht came from I haven’t a clue, but whatever. So off we go again and it’s a surprisingly long way to the pier, about half an hour. I hate boats as you know and asked to be taken to the fast boat. Yes, yes they said. One is 25mins, the other is 45mins. But as I’m sure you’ve guessed, I end up at the 45 minute one. But again, fortune was smiling and I get on the fery just as it was about to leave. I had visions of a real sea journey, but actually it was a bit more like ferry across the Mersey – a bit further perhaps, but you felt you could almost touch the high peaks of Koh Chang before you got on. When we arrived, the guide books had failed me again, there were no crowds of tuk tuks or anything else awaiting to take me to the hotel. After about five minutes I unearth a songtheaw driver who was finishing his lunch at the small port’s café and from him I gather I need to go to the “other pier” to get to where I need to go. He wouldn’t agree a price so I decided to go anyway. Ten minutes later I arrive at said “other pier” and yes, this is the 25 minute one, and obviously the one that connects to the airport – loads of Westerners were getting off the ferry that had just docked. So I change transport yet again (and a first for Thailand, I was not charged for the first part of the journey from the original pier – result!). My bag was thrown on the roof and I did my sardine impression with the rest to make my way to the Dusit Princess.
It was quite a journey. The island seems to be one big series of mountains rising up in sheer cliffs from the beach. So there were a number of hairpin bends as we snake our way across. All in all to get from the Dugout in Koh Kong to The Dusit Princess in Koh Chang I had to take:
1 tuk tuk
1 walk
2 mini buses
2 songthhaews
1 ferry
2 more songthaews
- not bad for the princely sum of a tenner door to door!
I knew the hotel was at the end of one of the stretches of beach and it is quite a way from the main beach drag where there are loads of bars and restaurants, so I will be a bit of a hostage to fortune for eating here. There are a couple of small restaurants just outside and a little shop selling water etc, so I will be fine. I can always take a “booze run” one day to the shops if my need for cheaper alcohol overtakes me!
The hotel is beautiful, extremely stylish, lots of fountains, pale wood, gorgeous pool chairs and a lobby area that’s bigger than Asda , Swanley, all made from pale marble. It seems very quiet too, I’ve seen hardly any other guests all afternoon. I am booked in a pool access room – there are about ten rooms in a row with a long pool at the front which you can get in from your deck. Not nearly as swish as Ant and my private pool in the Nam Hai last year but still lovely. The room is gorgeous too, and a heavenly bathroom, fluffy white towels everywhere, little bottles of shampoos and things, a shower with water in an area that doesn’t spray water all over the loo, and my favourite, a loo that flushes! And so far the sun is shining, long may it continue. Back to flashpacking again – fab!
