South Klong Prao Beach, Koh Chang: 2011-12 Update

After Klong Prao Resort, the road heads away from the beach and meanders for a couple of kilometres before reaching through Klong Prao village before running parallel to the beach again at the southern end of Klong Prao beach. This southern section is home to several of the island’s best resort plus a couple of cheap backpacker hut options. Bu there isn’t anything here for anyone looking for 2 star, mid range accommodation or a nice boutique resort.

The beach isn’t too bad either (see below), it’s like this for most of the high season.  In the rainy season it loses sand and gets quite a lot of debris washed up, so doesn’t always look so attractive.  This is where I walk my dog here virtually every afternoon.

Back on the road . . .having headed a kilometre south past Klong Prao Resort you may well have spotted the row of hastily constructed shop units set back and below road level on the right of the road – if you need a welder there’s a guy here who’s cheap, also a small bakery, a sign maker and several units housing sweatshops. This is where your tailored clothes are actually made.  The work isn’t done by the smiling Nepalese guy who will offer you the deal of a lifetime on jacket, shirt and slacks combo as you walk his glass fronted tailors shop trying to avoid eye contact.

Not far away, the 3 star Ramayana Hotel sits roadside, hoping that visitors will stay in the belief that they can easily walk down to the beach from here – they can’t, although it’s a good choice for anyone wanting a very nice room at a reasonable price. A fre shuttle service takes guests to the beach at the sister hotel – The Dewa, a the far southern end of the beach. 200 metres away, on the river estuary, Aana Resort offers another quiet alternative to the busier beachfront hotels, guests use the free boat service or free kyaks to get to the beach, 300 metres down river.  The hotel restaurant is nothing special and usually deserted as nearby two far better options exist in the form of ‘Pu-Talay’ and ‘Iyara’ both also on the banks of the river estuary and both serving your Thai & seafood favourites.  Bodiwork Spa have a coffee shop and training academy in another renovated fisherman’s house by water and adjacent to that is a small western run bar on the riverbank.

On the opposite side of the road to Ramayana, by a large sign for Aana Resort, you’ll see a gravel track. If you’ve ever wondered where all the Cambodian labourers and hotel workers live then take a look down here. Hidden away from sight is a shanty town slum that’s home to an estimated 2,000 people. These are workers who will be earning 100  – 150 Baht or so a day for working from dusk till dawn. It is in this area that a Dutch couple have set up a small private school ‘Study Buddies’ to provide the workers’ children basic education and a safe place to play.

Not far away, back on the main road, the cheapest of Klong Prao’s budget accommodation options is also in this area, by the roadside, ‘Green tree’ bungalows – they’re just plain awful – but you can’t expect much for 150 – 200 baht/night by the road and with deals for longstays. (Far better budget options exist in Lonely Beach or Bailan.)

A little further on and you’ll meet the turning for the waterfall – located about 1.5 kilometres inland. It’s worth a look but don’t expect to see more of a cliff face and less of a waterfall if you visit late in the High Season. But from May until December you can swim in the clear pool and watch visitors, usually loud Americans, jumping off the cliff face into the water. The  600 metre riverside walk from the entrance to the main fall takes 15 minutes and is shady and cool. There’s a 200 baht entrance fee for foreign adults & 100 baht for kids. Avoid weekends & Thai holidays when the place is packed out with Thai groups. At the entrance you’ll find a couple of good roast chicken and papaya salad restaurants. When Thais travel & need food to fill a minibus full of friends the simplest thing to do is order a couple of roast chickens , a few plates of ‘somtam’ plus beer or coke. Simple. (If Jesus was Thai he’d have fed the 5,000 with chicken and somtam and turned water into Chang beer.)

There’s also a very good seafood place just south of the waterfall turning. Visit J.E. Seafood virtually any evening and it’ll be busy, 99% Thais. On low season weekends it’s probably the busiest restaurant on the island with the roadside resembling the parking lot of a luxury hotel, with SUVs and Mercedes lined up.  While all the foreign tourists are eating overpriced seafood by the beach, the Thais are heading here for cheaper prices at a restaurant that’s very well known as, the original ‘Jae Eiw’ opened years ago at Ao Sapparod ferry pier on the east coast.

The beach itself is split in two by the Klong Prao river estuary and is a great place to walk the dog as there is an empty expanses of sand. Along the entire length of the beach, the sand shelves gently into the sea and so is ideal for children. In High Season dangerous currents or rip tides are very rare. During the rainy season it’s a different story as high tide often leaves the the beach littered with flotsam and jetsam and riptides are common. At certain times of year jellyfish can also be a nuisance, the reason being jellyfish like to congregate and breed in areas where rivers flow into the sea.  However, they aren’t life threatening.  It is a bit wierd to swim through a school of small jellyfish but if they do sting you it feels like an insect bite or nettle sting.  More annoying for 20 minutes than actually painful. The estuary that splits Klong Prao beach in two makes for a prime jellyfish hangout at the beginning and end of the rainy season.

The estuary itself is a little haven of tranquility. There’s nowhere like this elsewhere on the west coast or indeed on the island. It’s also the only place on the west coast where you can moor a speedboat or fishing boat right outside your house. The bank nearest the main road is lined with fisherman’s houses, and two excellent seafood restaurants that I mentioned earlier – ‘Iyara’ & ‘Phu Talay’. And a couple of houses have also been renovated by their Aussie and English owners.

The opposite bank has half a dozen houses and is backed by mangrove trees and coconut palms which lead down to the beach 150 metres further back. This is where I live, and a lovely place it is too. (If you want a comfortable, quiet place to stay, take a look at ‘Baan Rim Nam‘ our guesthouse.)

Paddle down here in your canoe and you can go around a kilometre along the river. Go past the houses, the luxurious Aana Resort, and River View Villas ( one bedroom bungalows available for monthly rent) and you’ll come to a lagoon with two mangrove lined rivers leading off it. In the evenings an area along the river leading off at the right of the lagoon comes alight with fireflies. On a good night the mangrove trees light up like Christmas illuminations, although getting the fireflies to form any readable festive phrases or outlines of recognisable Disney cartoon characters is next to impossible. I know, I’ve tried. Both Iyara and Phu Talay restaurants run free firefly trips down here for anyone dining at their restaurants.

The nearby beach is home to the well-known budget KP Huts and Tiger Huts; (Thale Bungalows, which had been running for around 15 years closed in mid-2008 and reopened in early 2010 as ‘The Hut’ but this looks like closing permanently and some new longstay bungalows are currently, Sept 2011, being built) as well as three upmarket places – Panviman Resort, Barali Resort and Tropicana Resort.

Panviman is a good choice if you want peace and quiet, an also most deserted beach and like buildings styled like Thai temples. Not overly kitsch, but teetering on the brink. Tropicana, with it’s new annex is one of the largest on the island but only has a small stretch of beachfront, so expect the battles for sunbeds to be fierce. However, the bungalows and hotel rooms are very bright and spacious and it is only a few minutes walk to the village. Barali doesn’t seem to have much personality, it’s OK just a run of the mill 3-4 star resort that’s unlikely to provoke any strong reactions from guests.  Spacious, well appointed bungalows but packed quite close together.

Near the Tropicana, Blue Lagoon bungalows has a loyal following amongst travellers and seekers of peace & quiet. They also run popular, fun cooking classes at their cooking school on the banks of a smaller river estuary. A pontoon bridge allows people to cross from one side of the river mouth to the other without getting their feet wet. Once on the opposite side you will see Lin Bungalows, another cheap place to stay with better than average rooms. You can walk along the remaining southern section of the beach, past The Dewa & Amari Emerald Cove resorts, to the headland. More on this stretch of beach later.

Back on the main road, after passing Jae Eiw Seafood you cant miss the ultralight airstrip on the right and opposite Chang Chutiman Elephant Camp. For a great view of Koh Chang take an ultralight flight – from 1700 baht for 15 minutes – long enough to take photos of Klong Prao & Kai Bae at sunset. Take a 30 minute flight if you want to see Bangbao & Salakphet bays from the air. Recently, there have been very few flights, due to issues over the legality of the airstrip, but that’s been resolved so 2011-12 should see the return of regular flights.

In the village of Klong Prao, around 5-10 minutes walk from Panviman, Barali & Tropicana Resorts and 2 minutes drive south if the airstrip, there are still quite a few local shops, a temple, a school, a gas station plus a selection of restaurants catering to tourists, a decent enough bakery, a clinic, an elephant camp plus a bank, several ATMs and, as of late 2009, a 7-eleven minimart.  As it is home to a community of locals and also a large number of Thai and Cambodian workers you’ll find it easy to get ‘real’ Thai food at normal prices.

For excellent food, try Kati Culinary & Tonsai, both roadside near the elephant camp at the southern end of the village. Kati has probably the best Thai food on the island. Try it, and if you disagree you obviously don’t appreciate Thai food, get your tastebuds fixed and then go back and try it again. But don’t expect quick service, everything is prepared from scratch, so it can take 45 minutes for your food to arrive at your table.  Tonsai is opposite and worth a try too, the restaurant relocated here from White Sand beach in 2010.

Closeby these two restaurants is Sima Massage, a very good choice if you want a proper Thai massage, designed to soothe aching or stressed muscles but not at inflated spa prices. They also do acupressure – we’ve had a few guests try it and they all say that it did wonders for their ailments which ranged from injuries from a car accident to muscle strains from lifting weights.

For people on a budget or those like me who would rather not pay a premium to eat a simple plate of regular Thai food, two good places for a 40 baht lunch are Chumnan Restaurant and ‘Noodle Duck’ on either side of the petrol station and motorbike repair shop in the centre of the village. They both have all the usual Thai dishes at dirt cheap prices eg Tom Yam Gung for 70 baht, plus some cheap Western food – eg large Pork steak with pepper sauce, salad & French fries for 99 Baht.  Way cheaper and as good as you will find in any western pub or restaurant.   At Chumnan you’ll often see a few elderly expats nursing their beers mid-morning, don’t be put off. It’s just that they sell the cheapest beer in the area. Noodle Duck is so called because that’s the only English on the sign. And again it’s around 40 baht for good Thai food.

Opposite Chumnan is MB Restaurant which although open during the day is on the wrong side of the road – so if you have lunch there you sit in the sunshine.  Visit at night, for good Thai & western food , slightly higher and better decor prices than Chumnan.  50 metres away, Iyara Resort have opened a food centre.  Nice concept with an open kitchen where you can see your food being prepared and indoor and outdoor seating.  It will be popular with tourists.  Unfortunately the portions are small, the menu very limited  and the food is very average.

Opposite the petrol station is KP Clinic, which, when open, has an English speaking female doctor who ill patch you up and dish pout pills. You’ll also find an ATM a little further south in the village, in the wall of the Sea and Sun Divers office. Head down the adjacent track to find a good, cheap laundry – ‘Pu Laundry’. Much cheaper than getting your hotel to do it and they do the laundry for many of the resorts in the area. (If you are staying in the area and give your laundry to your resort to do, they will bring it here or to the other cheap laundry which is at the north end of the village midway between Klongtara Resort and 3 Seasons bungalows.)

Also in the centre of the village is the local temple, nothing too exciting, just a common or garden village temple with a dozen or so resident monks but if you want to see a typical village temple then you can wander through the grounds.for a look around. The local primary school is located at the back of the temple. Also around the back you’ll find some run down shophouses that are very cheap to rent and which have sea views from the roof terrace.  ‘Slim Jims’ purveyor of fine pies , sausages and all manner of pork products  plus the cheap, VJ Residence, apartment style AC rooms which can often be had for around 700 – 1000 Baht / night even in High Season.  Good deal if you just need  a cheap, clean place to sleep.  Opposite the entrance to the temple on the main road is ‘Crust’ one of the better bakeries on the island. If you need croissants and a Illy coffee then put it on your must visit list.

A little detour at this point.  If you enjoy walking and a bit of soft adventure you’ll be disappointed to know that there are no easy tofollow trails in the jungle on Koh Chang.  To compensate I put together a couple of loops, one in Kai Bae and one in Klong Prao.  The Klong Prao Loop is approx 9KM and takes you along the best stretch of beach through the village, heading inland to the foot of the hills from where you follow an abandoned road to the entrance to the waterfall and then head back to civilisation.  If you need accurate GPS co-ordinates then it isn’t for you.  But if you fancy a nice walk then take a look.  Photos, directions and PDF for the Klong Prao Loop.

Heading south through Klong Prao village the road again veers inland and onto the southern end of Klong Prao beach, in an area technically called ‘Mab Klong Kao’. The development in this area was all due to the 160 room Amari opening up. A couple of rows of new shophouses and a small plaza of, permanently unoccupied, shop units have sprung up. The plus side is that there is a good dentist’s here which offers a range of therapeutic & cosmetic dental treatments. So if you need a dazzling movie star smile you can get it here at a fraction of the cost back home.

Located in the bowels of the Amari you’ll find the office of Kayak Chang, who offer guided sea kayaking day tours to the nearby islands and longer trips to the south of Koh Chang.  Run by a UK based company who provide top quality equipment and experienced English guides. Worth checking out for a waterborne ‘soft adventure’ whilst on the island.

Lucky folks staying at Amari and nearby Dewa – a new uniquely designed luxury resort, are spoilt for choice as to which tailor to give their custom to as several occupy shop units near the access road to the resorts.  Other than that, there isn’t a lot to spend your money on in this part of the beach (Do your souvenir shopping at Chatuchak market in Bangkok and save money is my advice, but I’m sure I’d say something different if I was renting a shop unit here.)

Not much in the way of inspired eating and drinking options by the main road in this area though.

Back on the beach for a sunset beer or meal on the sand, you’ll find  Pilot Bar , located two minutes walk north of Amari, Dewa and VJ Hotel, which offers well priced, but generic hotel rooms.  There are also a couple of other similarly priced beach bars on this stretch of sand.

South of the Amari are three mid-range resorts, Grand Cabana, Magic and Chok Dee, which cater more to Thai than Western visitors. The beach here isn’t great but the views north along the length of the beach are very good. Chok Dee and Magic both have restaurants built over the sea, far better to eat your Thai food here in the evening than in your 5 star resort. The service won’t be anywhere near as good, the tableware wont be a matching set, but you can be sure the food will be good and the bill will be far more easy on the wallet.

From here a 5 minute walk along the main road, past the police box, brings you to the start of Kai Bae beach.

Google Map of the South Klong Prao Beach area

Details and Reviews of hotels and resorts in the Klong Prao Beach area

Next: Past the headland to Kai Bae Beach