Khlong Phrao beach on Koh Chang Island - part I - the interesting
Our first post from the trip! It has been a trip packed with fun so not much time for blog posts! Some thoughts are written down and there are plenty of photos! Right now I decided to at least write down a few simpler places impressions and some useful tips as we take some slower days in Chiang Mai. So, the first one:
This is a post about a single place on Koh Chang called Khlong Phrao. Why? Because we had only two days to spend on Koh Chang and visited only one place. Luckily it was perfect for us.
First part of the post will focus on our impressions and will show some photos as well. The second part has accommodation and transportation tips for those wanting to come themselves.
This post may not describe well Koh Chang as a whole, but one can only experience it one place at a time anyhow.
It was back at the very beginning of our trip when I still had some things to do for my job so it came down to only two days. Koh Chang wasn’t originally on our list, but it was close to Bangkok. We did a bit of research on the potential location – we wanted to rule out places that get lots of party going on at night and still wanted a place with some shops, restaurants and a bit more life. We didn’t miss with Khlong Phrao beach close to Khlong Phrao village.
What we primarily wanted was some time on a beautiful beach and Khlong Phrao did not disappoint us. It was our fist experience of a tropical beach and it looked as if it was something out of a movie.
The beach was beautiful, very long and diverse. Shallow for long, but deep enough to have a nice swim still. Any trash you could find was rather natural - wood debris or some sea grass, nothing too much. It is really a perfect place to just enjoy swimming in the sea. More to the north was one more expensive resort along with some dilapidated huts with pretty untouched beach and not too many guests while more south were a few more upscale resorts. Middle part, close to our accommodation, had a few nature oriented accommodations. Something owners themselves like to call unassuming resorts. There were also a few beach bars/restaurants without much partying, two river estuaries with pontoon bridges to account for the tide, and views of amazing hills.
Speaking of views, the sunsets were amazing!
As well as the possibility to admire myriads of small crabs coming out as the sun sets!
I couldn’t say we had it all for ourselves, but it never felt too crowded. Beach bars did not mean noise – they rather meant you didn’t have to go too far to get a coffee or a smoothie if you suddenly wanted to have one. A bit of development is not necessarily bad.
At least that is what we felt in November – at the beginning of the season. And at least in our location – when we were coming over from the ferry we could feel that some of the places closer to the ferry port did feel quite busy.
Very near was also a populated stretch of road called Khlong Phrao village where one could easily find many tourist agencies, restaurants serving both Thai and Western food, many street food vendors, massages and even a classic rather found in more developed places: a proper Thai Night Market with food court. Yummy.
If we had more time to explore other beaches and places on the island, we could have jumped on songthaews – local combination of a bus and a taxi created out of a pick up truck. These are present all over Thailand and usually drive on a certain route like a bus but may stop to drop off passengers where agreed. This is not present on some less developed islands but is almost everywhere else. What we did with our time instead, other than enjoying the beach, was to book a half day jungle trek. We went to see one of the waterfalls in the forest, named Khlong Phlu, and had quite some hike up the mountains. I managed to have a close encounter with a spider!
Meeting the spider wasn't as scary as it seems. Our toor guide discovered the spider and I picked it up from him and then the spider started to crawl on me. The whole jungle trekk was very pleasant and even the half day version was a nice exercise. Good enough to leave room for a lovely Thai Pineapple Fried Rice! Yep - that's cashews and raisins there together with some shrimps!
What else can be done on the island? There were no ethical elephant sanctuaries on the island - though even the less "ethical" ones will still support at least the continuation of the species. We didn't try any but came accross this cute elephant in a camp close to our accomodation:
Or you can learn how to cook some of the Thai Foods at one of the courses. The course at a French chef ran Blue Lagoon looked very interesting!
More about activities can be found at the very useful website of one of the accommodations:
I am Koh Chang
That is it from our first trip report! The less interesting but more useful information is coming soon!
This is a post about a single place on Koh Chang called Khlong Phrao. Why? Because we had only two days to spend on Koh Chang and visited only one place. Luckily it was perfect for us.
First part of the post will focus on our impressions and will show some photos as well. The second part has accommodation and transportation tips for those wanting to come themselves.
This post may not describe well Koh Chang as a whole, but one can only experience it one place at a time anyhow.
It was back at the very beginning of our trip when I still had some things to do for my job so it came down to only two days. Koh Chang wasn’t originally on our list, but it was close to Bangkok. We did a bit of research on the potential location – we wanted to rule out places that get lots of party going on at night and still wanted a place with some shops, restaurants and a bit more life. We didn’t miss with Khlong Phrao beach close to Khlong Phrao village.
What we primarily wanted was some time on a beautiful beach and Khlong Phrao did not disappoint us. It was our fist experience of a tropical beach and it looked as if it was something out of a movie.
The beach was beautiful, very long and diverse. Shallow for long, but deep enough to have a nice swim still. Any trash you could find was rather natural - wood debris or some sea grass, nothing too much. It is really a perfect place to just enjoy swimming in the sea. More to the north was one more expensive resort along with some dilapidated huts with pretty untouched beach and not too many guests while more south were a few more upscale resorts. Middle part, close to our accommodation, had a few nature oriented accommodations. Something owners themselves like to call unassuming resorts. There were also a few beach bars/restaurants without much partying, two river estuaries with pontoon bridges to account for the tide, and views of amazing hills.
Speaking of views, the sunsets were amazing!
As well as the possibility to admire myriads of small crabs coming out as the sun sets!
I couldn’t say we had it all for ourselves, but it never felt too crowded. Beach bars did not mean noise – they rather meant you didn’t have to go too far to get a coffee or a smoothie if you suddenly wanted to have one. A bit of development is not necessarily bad.
At least that is what we felt in November – at the beginning of the season. And at least in our location – when we were coming over from the ferry we could feel that some of the places closer to the ferry port did feel quite busy.
Very near was also a populated stretch of road called Khlong Phrao village where one could easily find many tourist agencies, restaurants serving both Thai and Western food, many street food vendors, massages and even a classic rather found in more developed places: a proper Thai Night Market with food court. Yummy.
If we had more time to explore other beaches and places on the island, we could have jumped on songthaews – local combination of a bus and a taxi created out of a pick up truck. These are present all over Thailand and usually drive on a certain route like a bus but may stop to drop off passengers where agreed. This is not present on some less developed islands but is almost everywhere else. What we did with our time instead, other than enjoying the beach, was to book a half day jungle trek. We went to see one of the waterfalls in the forest, named Khlong Phlu, and had quite some hike up the mountains. I managed to have a close encounter with a spider!
Meeting the spider wasn't as scary as it seems. Our toor guide discovered the spider and I picked it up from him and then the spider started to crawl on me. The whole jungle trekk was very pleasant and even the half day version was a nice exercise. Good enough to leave room for a lovely Thai Pineapple Fried Rice! Yep - that's cashews and raisins there together with some shrimps!
What else can be done on the island? There were no ethical elephant sanctuaries on the island - though even the less "ethical" ones will still support at least the continuation of the species. We didn't try any but came accross this cute elephant in a camp close to our accomodation:
Or you can learn how to cook some of the Thai Foods at one of the courses. The course at a French chef ran Blue Lagoon looked very interesting!
More about activities can be found at the very useful website of one of the accommodations:
I am Koh Chang
That is it from our first trip report! The less interesting but more useful information is coming soon!
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