Дождливый январь на острове Ко Чанг Rainy January on Koh Chang

We lived at the Chang Park Resort & Spa 24.01 - 02.02. 2016 in the main 4-storey building on the 2nd floor. Surprised by the presence in the room of a list of property with the price of each in case you spoil it.
Number
Quite spacious, with one large bed. Bed linen is shabby, stained and torn. Old tiles on the floor and in the bathroom. The whitewashing of the room is fresh, but the furniture is 20-30 years old: a bed, a wardrobe, 2 bedside tables without drawers, one ottoman, a small square table, a TV table with a built-in refrigerator. There is a mini fridge and a "pot-bellied" TV without Russian channels. There is also a hairdryer.

It is inconvenient that there is no closet with shelves on which to lay out clothes, although there is more than enough space for it in the hallway of the room. There are only 4 hangers in the closet and one pseudo-shelf (it has large holes) for the entire length. I had to make 2 hangers for winter clothes from the pieces of aluminum found on the street in the closet.
The balcony is large (3.5x2.5 m) with an air conditioner unit (we tied a rope to it for drying swimsuits), two wooden chairs and a table.
The bathroom has a bathtub (badly maintained) with a hard shower and hot water. There is only cold water in the washbasin. Hot water comes out only if you make a small jet.
After we left 20 baht to the cleaner 2 times (we did it daily), we were brought to the room with an electric kettle (new) + 2 cups with saucers and spoons. In other rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors, we saw that all this is in a room ready for occupancy. The windows overlook the sea, but because of the palm trees it is not very visible.
There are no balconies on the 4th floor and in the bathroom instead of a bath there is a hole in the floor where the water from the shower drains. There are several superior rooms on the first floor: No. 102 - a room twice as large as on the 2nd and 3rd floors and has 4 beds, No. 103 and 104 - two-room rooms with 4 beds and a 2-chamber refrigerator.
Breakfast
It doesn't have a lot of choice, but you won't leave hungry. There were 2-3 types of muesli and milk for them. For some reason, fried eggs are always cold, regardless of whether you come for breakfast at 7-00 or at 9-00. Garnish - 2 types of rice and potatoes, though sometimes raw. In addition to sausages and ham (it floated in water), meat with vegetables each time of a different type (sometimes peppered), 1-2 dishes of stewed vegetables, sometimes with mushrooms or meat. 2 types of jam, oil. There was also soup with meat, 3 types of drink, tea, coffee, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, etc. From fruits - watermelon and pineapple. Breakfast takes place indoors with air conditioning, but mosquitoes bite there.
Territory
Large, with a pond (there are large red fish) and a beautiful bridge along it, beautiful palm trees and several abandoned (repaired) bungalows. There are 3 geese, a peacock. Periodically, 3-5 stray dogs run in and settle under the sunbeds.

The pool is large but partially damaged and without water circulation. In addition, right through it in shallow water, some vacationers go to the beach right in their shoes. It is better not to swim in this pool. Next to the pool is the hotel restaurant, which is open until 17-00. From 17-00 to 23-00 he works on the street in front of the hotel entrance.
Beach
It's big and has a lot of space. But it is very bad that there are only 40 sunbeds. (including those by the pool) + 10 umbrellas. It's very small and sunbeds had to be borrowed before breakfast. For umbrellas it was necessary to walk through the territory of the restaurant to the back room. Sometimes an umbrella brought a beach boy. He also played with vacationers in a flying saucer. The beach is a mixture of sand and shells. There are pieces of coral in the water
The water in the sea was 27... 31 degrees. (due to shallow water). The tides were on a "sliding" schedule, as a result, it was possible to swim both in the morning and in the evening. At first, the water was cloudy (visibility was about 1 m) due to the rains in mid-January. On 30.01 there was also a tropical downpour, but on 31.01 and 1.02 the water was almost clear. The bottom of the sea first sinks, and then (70-90 meters from the coast) rises, and only then deep. Therefore, at low tide it is very easy to scratch yourself on the stones - you need to swim in aquashoes and goggles or a mask to swim around the stones and numerous tall algae with panicles of petals. To the south, along the coast, the sea is shallower than to the north.
There are many reviews about what a wonderful beach the neighboring Cliff Beach hotel has. But its sandy part is about 5 times smaller in area than the Chang Park hotel and there are large stones in the water, and a large log is flooded right in the center of the beach between the stones (you can beat your legs). Well, we have not seen such an accumulation of garbage as in the bay behind the massage hotel Cliff Beach for a long time. Between the beaches of the hotels there is a living coral with fish and sea anemones. Not only coconuts, leaves and sticks float in the sea near the Chang Park Hotel, but also garbage thrown from pleasure boats.

Further south from the Chang Park hotel towards the Gaja Puri hotel, the sandy beach narrows sharply (the sand is wet there due to growing trees) and disappears altogether, turning into a stone embankment from which you can’t buy. One of the hotels even has a special ladder for swimming - but it is slippery. And so to the very "port" of Kai-Bay. ? ? "port" to the south to the Sea Viev hotel at low tide a sandy beach about 40 m wide, at high tide the water reaches the grassy lawn where there are sunbeds and benches.
"Village" Kai Bey
It consists of the main street along the sea and several minor ones. All life is along the main street, it is also the main road for transport. Next to Chang Park is the northern 7/11 store and two exchangers (there are 4 in total). The course was 35.42 baht / dollars. (if you change 50/100 dollars), it fluctuates and in Bangkok it was already 35.07. If you go south, then in 7-8 minutes. from the hotel there is a Tesco store, the prices there are lower than in 7/11 and there are more goods. Opposite Tesco there is a VIP-bus reservation point to Bangkok or the airport and their schedule hangs. There is also a restaurant with self-cooking nearby: you can cook soup, shrimp, cook meat, fish or shrimp on the grill. Side dishes are already ready. All this costs 200 baht / person, there is a Russian-speaking assistant. If you cross the bridge over the river further south, then from the sea side there will be a ready-made food market - you can take fish, chicken, shrimp, etc. About 200 m from Tesco there is a second, south, 7/11 store.
In the "village" there are restaurants of Italian, Mexican and other cuisines. There are several points where they sell vegetables and fruits - closer to the Tesco store.
If you walk from the Chang Park Hotel along the sea to the south, then you can walk to the Sea Viev Hotel in 40 minutes, if on the road - in 25 minutes. There are two elephant farms near the hotel: one in the south before going up to the View point (We went to the View point - nothing special, the views are like views), the second is 15 minutes. walk towards Klong Prao beach. 1 hour of skiing - 700 baht / person. In the same place, on the road to Klong Prao (from the sea), there is a travel agency with Russian-speaking Natasha.
Trip to Cambodia

In Cambodia, in the city of Siem Reap, you have to go through the border town of Poi Pet, and it is located approximately at the same distance from Bangkok, Pattaya and Koh Chang. Therefore, travel agencies offer tours from them at the same price.
On Kai Bay Beach Koh Chang in different travel agencies tour 3 days / 2 n (it makes no sense to go on a 2 day / 1n tour - you won’t see anything) with accommodation in a 4 * hotel for 9.2 thousand baht / person, + services of a Russian-speaking guide - 1000 baht / people per day. In addition, you have to pay for a re-entry permit Thai visa 1200 baht / person. Hotel guide Maxim Coral travel offered the same trip for 12.7 thousand baht + re-entry permit visa.
The problem is that it takes about 9 hours to get to Siem Reap and all other travel agencies leave after breakfast at the hotel at 7-30, and Coral travel at 5-15, i. e. on the first ferry at 6-00 from Koh Chang and therefore gets to the hotel in Siem Reap around 15-00. Those. Coral travel has an evening program on day 1 of the tour. In addition, Coral travel, unlike the vaunted company Satang, provides full board during the trip (6 meals a day) and VIP border crossing.
We went with Coral travel. I was surprised by the large number (more than 8) of checkpoints at the entrance to the Cambodian-Thai border. At the border in Poi Pet we were met by a man who led us to obtain a re-entry permit (we paid 1200 baht / person, take 2 photos with you), transferred us through the Cambodian border (Cambodia visa - $ 30 / person, which he paid myself). As a result, we crossed the border in 15 minutes. to 12-00. He brought us to the bus where there was a very good guide Nelly, who spoke Russian well and told a lot about Cambodia.

We were at the Princess Anhor Hotel at 14-45. We were given room 418 with windows to the south and to a very busy street number 6 - the room was unrealistically noisy. It turned out that in this hotel almost all the rooms face street number 6. Only numbers X02, X04, X06, X08, X10, X12, X14 and X16 go to the opposite side. But in room 412 there was an occasional jackhammer noise, and in the end we stayed in corner room 302. The first night it was quiet there, the second rumbled the air conditioner of the next room. The sheet was 60 cm shorter than the mattress. In addition, the Princess Anhor hotel turned out to be vegetarian and there were mosquitoes in the restaurant and at the reception. The sconce in the room was turned off only by unscrewing the light bulb. There was no hot water, the drain in the sink was clogged. Avoid staying at this hotel.
Further, on the first day of the program: Royal Square, Genocide Museum, National Cultural Park, Apsara show with dinner. At 18-30 we came for dinner, and it turned out that there was no table closer than the 12th row from the stage (the guide did not book a seat in advance) and we saw the Apsara show from afar. Show from 19-00 and lasted 45 minutes. Then the driver took us to Pab street where we wandered among the crowds of tourists and bought local goods.
The peculiarity of Cambodia is that US dollars are freely circulating in it as the main currency and cheap, locally produced, coffee and alcohol. So take a lot of small dollar bills with you. Prices: 0.5 kg of coffee - $ 2; cane sugar in a beautiful package in 3 bags (0.2 kg) - $ 2.9; local rum (0.7l, 35°) – $2.5; local whiskey "Gold label 41" (0.7l, 41°) - $4
Cambodia has no tax zone and is littered with cheap "French" and "English" spirits. Don't dare to buy.
On the second day at 5-30 we left the hotel and at 6-00 we met the sunrise over Angkor Wat (entrance $ 20 per person, they give out a card with a photo, the guide paid). The sun rose into the clouds. Our guide was Lin Keo - a very good guide, who knows Russian well.
The entrance to the 3rd tier of Angkor Wat is only from 7-45, so we are about 20 min. stood in line and during this time ate food from the lunch boxes received at the hotel.
At 9-00 we were already in front of the entrance to the Bayon Temple. We examined the terraces of elephants and the leper king. At 10-30 we were at the Ta keo temple (with very steep steps) and we didn’t go further than its 3 levels. It is very hot in Siem Reap after 9-00, so take plenty of water with you and be prepared for sweat to get wet through your clothes.
At 11-00 we were in the temple of Ta Prohm (there they filmed the film "Lara Croft... " with A. Jolie). He wins in that the bas-reliefs are better preserved in him and he is in the shade of tall trees.

At 12-20 we were brought for lunch (buffet, several cuisine options). In Cambodia, a siesta is accepted, which we had until 15-30, when we went to watch the floating village and the sunset on Tonle Sap lake.
On the way, on his own initiative, Lin made a stop at a lotus plantation and near a rice field. It was interesting - thanks to him for that. To the floating village and the 2-storey floating restaurant, the three of us sailed on a fairly large boat for about 30 minutes. after sunset, we were taken to the hotel, where there was dinner with the waiters according to the menu (5 dishes) pre-ordered by the guide.
I note that the service in Cambodia was at a high level - all our requests were immediately fulfilled. If you have any questions, write to sk_lora@ukr. net and I will answer.
On the third day, we left the hotel at 9-30. I had to catch the last ferry to Koh Chang. If you are coming from Bangkok or Pattaya, there is no such problem and on the third day there will be an excursion program, for example, a visit to the day market, etc.
This time the border was passed much longer - at first they stood on Cambodian for about 20 minutes, then on Thai for 50 minutes. The attendant was the same. He checked that we filled out the Thai entry cards correctly, but did not speed up the border crossing. We dined that day at our own expense. There are 216 km from the border to the ferry and we drove them in 3 hours 10 minutes. to 16-45. We were lucky, in half an hour our Toyota was the last to board the ferry and at 18-30 we were at the hotel.
Advantages of the hotel: wide sandy beach, friendly staff, good wide soft bed.
Disadvantages: no closet with shelves, very dark in the room in the evening, mosquitoes at breakfast, very few sunbeds and umbrellas, shallow sea.