Off to from Koh Samui to Cambodia today. I have to leave Thailand due to visa restrictions and my destination was determined by the cost of flights out. Note to self, book early! Even on Air Asia, flight prices are really high, and going to Luang Prabang in Laos, my first choice, to chill for a few days was prohibitively expensive as were most other places. So Cambodia via Trat was the most economical choice. The flight (there are only four a week) got in late afternoon, and the convoluted road journey to the Cambodian border, best not done in the dark anyway, meant the border might be closed when I got there as it shuts at 8pm, so I decided to stay in Trat. I booked two nights as I thought it might be an interesting Thai town to wander around. Ok it was a Thai town, but the interesting bit was missing! Most people flying here take the boat straight to Ko Chang, and by the looks of it, the town is just a support to the island with no tourist infrastructure around. But given the amount of badly behaved kids on the flight who were heading for Ko Chang that is now off my itinerary for the way back! I thought there might be a few backpacker type bars there as it is a transit point for the Cambodian border. As I wandered out of the hotel in the evening in search of food, I quickly realised why no one stops here! No bars, no restaurants, not even a pizza place and definitely no why why, everywhere closed. I ended up falling back on the last vestiges of the less than adventurous Western tourist and visited the local KFC and the ubiquitous 7/11 for supplies to take back to the room.... A lemon bacardi breezer spiced up with a bit of extra secret water is just the thing.... I had booked two nights imagining a leisurely day wandering around the temples and delights of the town, but my evening stroll put a stop to that. I decide to move on tomorrow. I was back to my backpacker ways and stayed in the Trat Center Hotel at a tenner night. I saw a billboard advertising it on the way in to Trat and it proudly advertises itself as a "Budjet" hotel (typo or Easyjet looky-likey, I'm not sure) with "standard facilities", which I think is meant to be a real plus.....
It was actually very nice, brand new, minimalist rooms, not in a deliberately designed way, just bare, but with all you need. Very clean and comfy with aircon and private bathroom, little balcony, little bottles of shampoo, the lot! And particularly lovely gold satin drapes around the mattress.... Oh and an extra visitor, a rather large green insect thing in the bathroom....
This seems to be a habit when I meet up with people here, going from flashpacking to backpacking in one short day... But even though the hotel was fine I was thinking longingly of the 5* Mai Samui, my pool access room and how nice it was, when I spotted a hovel at the back of the hotel with a corrugated iron roof, and a girl washing both herself and her clothes from a hosepipe amongst the weeds. It was a roasting evening, even I had the aircon on full blast and then I realised that to her, looking over at the Trat Center hotel with all its mod cons it must have looked like the best 5* hotel in the world. We occasionally need to remind ourselves how lucky we are.
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