Views don’t get much nicer than those over Salakkok Bay to my mind. If you are bored with beaches try a try a sunset over an eerily quiet mangrove lined, mountain backed bay instead.

Even in high season you’d be very lucky to see more than a handful of other tourists in and around Salakkok hamlet. There’s one, pretty awful, man made attraction, no fancy seafood restaurants, only a couple of run down places to stay and the only activity on offer is mangrove kayaking. Doesn’t sound too promising, does it?

At the moment no one goes to Salakkok mainly because there doesn’t appear to be much reason for doing so and also because you won’t notice the turn off unless you are looking for it. However, it really should be on your must see list of places on Koh Chang – simply because things haven’t changed there. It’s your chance to see real people, still fishing for a living as they have for years.

Heading down the east coast road, a left turn is signposted to Salakkok and a few resorts (Ploy Talay, Judo, Rommai Challay etc) that all cater for Thai weekenders from Bangkok. These resorts are on the eastern side of Salakphet Bay.

Take the turning, about 500m down the road you come to a 90 degree left hand bend in the road, you’ll see a sign for the local temple and school, and will head past a few rickety wooden bungalows backing onto mangroves. You’ll also pass, on the left, a man made ‘attraction’ the Mangrove walkway which you’ll see on your left just before you turn off onto the road to Salakkok.

This snaking concrete monster was built by the local authorities to allow lazy arsed folks the chance to take some photos of mangroves without making too much effort and is one of the unnatural wonders of south-east Koh Chang. The idea of the mangrove walkway is on the face of it an admirable one, to give visitors to the island the chance to explore a mangrove forest on foot via a walkway on stilts. This is the type of eco-friendly idea that you can imagine a country such as Costa Rica pulling off with award winning aplomb. Unfortunately Thailand isn’t Costa Rica and here concrete is king.

The walkway is, I’d guess, around 800 metres in length and is built entirely in concrete with supporting poles in the ground every 4 metres. Along it’s length are 9 stations where an information board provides a sentence or two of details about what you can see in the area. An attempt at mangrove education and you’ll also learn a little about the ‘Flicking Shrimp’ that you probably never knew before. Nice idea but not enough info to be truly educational. I can’t imagine many school field trips visiting.

Aside from pondering over the huge amount of concrete used in it’s construction, you’re also left wondering just how much mangrove was cut down as there are several large areas where tracks left by a large excavator are clearly visible. Driving a caterpillar through a mangrove forest isn’t particularly in harmony with the ‘eco’ tag and probably not recommended in the ‘Environmentally Sympathetic Construction for Beginners’ manual.

It’s worth a look though and there are some nice views along the way, especially at high tide. However, it definitely won’t go down as a plus point for the local authority’s attempts at showing some concern for the environment as it has obviously been constructed with total disregard for the impact on the surroundings.

It may come a pleasant shock to know that this isn’t the first attempt to bring mangroves to the masses in the area. Back on the main east coast road, a kilometre before you reach the turning for Salakkok & Jek Bae, you’ll see a dirt track leading off down an incline to the left, this heads a few hundred metres along the northern end of the bay.

The original idea was that tourists could drive down here and see mangroves without ever having to get out of their car (it is hot after all). There are no signs of any kind and the road is a dead end, no views other than seeing mangroves that line the road. As you’d expect there was no road here originally, the track was made by dumping truck loads of earth on top of some unlucky mangroves. The edges of the track have been shored up by using concrete pipe sections as large plant pots. This is in keeping with the theme of ‘not having a clue’ that runs though every ‘eco-idea’ the local government comes up with.

Back in Salakkok, immediately after the mangrove walkway the road then heads round a 90 degree right hand turn and most people won’t give a second glance to the concrete paved road heading off in the opposite direction as they are too busy looking out for crazed local Schumacher wannabes in rusting pick-ups heading around the corner in the opposite direction. Take my advice, turn left and take a detour along this narrow paved road.

The road is about 2 km long and is lined by mangroves on it’s left side, it ends with a few fisherman’s houses built on the shores of a large sheltered bay. The first 1km is paved, the second kilometre is a dirt track.

Canoe rental from Salakkok Kayak Station, which also doubles as an inexpensive seafood restaurant is now available courtesy of Koh Chang Discovery Club – an organisation set up by the guy who owns Baan Kwan Chang elephant camp, so it’s done with eco-friendliness, rather than simply profit, in mind. This project won an Ecotourism award at the 2007 Thai Tourist Authority Awards. The only award of any kind to be won by anything on the island ever. Here, you can rent a canoe and paddle yourself, following numbered markers through the channels in the mangroves and out into the bay or have a guide show you the route.

The Kayak Station is located in a community of local fishermen, in this area you’ll see real local life going on. The project is run as a co-operative, owned by the local community Some have invested money, some work in the restaurant, some play traditional music or dance in the evenings when tourists come to go on dinner cruises in the bay – aboard a wooden Thai gondolier and some give their free time to keeping the mangroves clean and garbage free. The villagers share the profits and can now see that it is possible to make a living from tourism without doing away with their traditional life or destroying the environment.

You’ll see the dinner cruises promoted in tour agents on Koh Chang, but if you simply want to do some mangrove kayaking you’ll have to make your own way here.

When you arrive at the end of the road, on the bay, you see another small fishing community of around 20 houses built on the eastern shore of the bay. You’ll notice that despite the amazing views across the bay to the mangroves and jungle covered mountains, there aren’t any signs of tourism here. This is where you’ll get the amazing views across the bay. One day, I don;t know when, it will be on the itinerary of every tour group visiting the island and there are bound to be large seafood restaurants replacing the locals ramshackle homes. On the small pier there’s usually one or two large vessels belonging to the Marine Department moored and if you are lucky you’ll see the small fishing boats coming back with their catch. The bay itself is very well sheltered as the outlet to the sea is only approx 100 metres wide and the east coast rarely sees any of the winds that batter the west coast during rainy season.

On the opposite side of the bay, hidden from view by mangroves, but accessible by kayak is a luxury health spa, The Spa Koh Chang.

Details and Reviews of hotels and resorts in the  East Coast area