Episode 12: Sihanoukville, Ko Chang and
Bangkok
Occheuteal Beach hut, Sihanoukville
Klong Prao Beach, Ko Chang
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Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh
Tuesday 1 Feb 2000Hi 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.
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