Our Guest House
If you like this site then maybe you’ll like our guesthouse / holiday home. We’re right in the centre of the west coast of Koh Chang but are hidden away from the hustle and bustle on a quiet river estuary most visitors to the island never see. Yet we’re only a 150 metre walk or 300 metre canoe paddle to the quietest stretch of beach on the west coast of Koh Chang.
The guidebooks seem to like it . . . “Live like a canal fisherman, with wi-fi and air-con. Perched on a wooden pier on Khlong Phrao, and backed by a mangrove, this renovated wooden fisherman’s home affords the opportunity to experience a side of Ko Chang most visitors never see . . . . The guesthouse is often full so reservations are highly recommended.” Lonely Planet Online Guide.
“Baan Rim Nam: A charming, idiosyncratic, converted fishing family’s house, built on stilts over the klong at the end of a walkway through the mangroves. Run by a British-Thai couple, it has just three comfortable, stylishly-furnished air-con rooms with good bathrooms, plus a deck area for lounging but no restaurant. You can borrow kayaks and it’s a couple of minutes walk to the beach and Barracuda Restaurant.” The Rough Guide to Thailand 2007, page 495
“Peaceful, scenic and unusual, this converted fishing family’s house is built on stilts over the wide, attractive khlong at the end of a walkway through the mangroves. Run by the British author of the best Ko Chang website it has just three comfortable aircon bedrooms with free wifi plus a big deck for soaking up the khlongside village but no restaurant. You can borrow kayaks and it’s a couple of minutes walk to the beach and Barraccuda restaurant or 20 min to the main Khlong Prao facilities .” Rough Guide to Thailand’s Islands and Beaches 2009, page 215
“This out-of-the-way guesthouse is set in one of the most gorgeous spots on the island.” www.Travelfish.org
‘Baan Rim Nam’ has also been featured in Bangkok Airways in-flight magazine, various Scandinavian newspapers & magazines in addition to being the subject of a four-page feature in ‘Intisari’, an Indonesian travel magazine, although admittedly that was mainly due to our one and only guest from Indonesia being a travel writer.
(And for any Russian speakers reading this, check out Cybercrime‘s excellent photos and reviews from 2005 onwards of our guesthouse and several other places to stay on Koh Chang on the ‘Vinsky’ travel forum. He returns every year to the island and to updates the info and reviews. )
So, you never know, maybe you’ll like it too . . .
First of all, thanks for considering staying at our little homestay/guesthouse/holiday home . . . . whatever you’d like to call it. Hopefully I can convince you that staying here is far more comfortable than a chipboard backpacker hut and far more laid back than a package tour resort hotel. And despite not being right on the beach the views along the river are far more interesting than staring at an empty ocean all day.
We completed the renovation of ‘Baan Rim Nam’ (‘House on the water’) in early Dec. 2004. Although only having a handful of rooms means that this venture isn’t going to make our fortune. Although in November 2009 we rented the neighbouring house and added two additional rooms, another covered deck and a very large open air deck for sunbathing during the day or sitting out under the stars at night.
The two new rooms look like this:
The Beginning: It was simply a matter of us finding the house by chance, loving the quiet location and figuring that there must be other people who would like to stay here too. Therefore, why not fix up the rooms in an old wooden fisherman’s house and see what happens.
Our simple idea is that we want you to feel like you are staying at a friend’s house rather than you are just a room number in a resort. Adding to this feeling is the fact that as 99% of our guests come from this website, or from recommendations from previous guests, so you’ll find that anyone else staying at the house probably has a similar ideas to you of what to expect on Koh Chang and how they like to spend their vacation time.
Our fisherman’s house is built on concrete & wood stilts over the Klong Prao river estuary on the west coast of Koh Chang. It’s the only place of it’s kind on this side of the island. At high tide the water reaches underneath the house and into the mangroves at the rear.
The beach is around 2 minutes walk away through the coconut field or 2 minutes paddle by canoe down to the mouth of the river. How you get there is up to you.
We have five, simple, tastefully decorated, ensuite, airconditioned double rooms in two adjacent houses. The rooms open out on to two decks – one open and one covered built out over the water.
You will see that our neighbours are a 4 star resort, a couple of good restaurants, local families, – some are fishermen, some are boat operators and some seem to spend the day doing nothing much at all except shouting across the river to each other.
In the evening it’s quiet. Very quiet. There are no bright lights, no bars, no traffic noise and the only sounds that you usually hear are the cicadas, vocal frogs and the occasional canoe tour paddling past to see the nearby fireflies which inhabit the mangroves upstream. It’s also one of the few places on the island where you can be woken up by birdsong at sunrise. (If you are here at a long weekend holiday or during a Thai festival then you’ may well hear some pretty awful karaoke emanating from the resort opposite or nearby restaurant on the river. It’s Thais having fun on holiday and the ‘singing’ goes on until 10pm or so. Grab a beer and join the fun by shouting your requests for songs across the river. They will oblige by murdering your favourite soft rock ballad just for you.)
The luxury Aana Resort is on the opposite side of the river. Of course, their guests have a few more luxuries . . . but you can walk to the beach if you stay at our place. Something they can’t do. :-)
We want the place to be laid back and not overly commercial so things aren’t run or done too formally. This is a business but it’s run more for fun than as an exercise in emptying guests’ wallets as quickly as possible. So there’s no forced tours or trips but if you want anything arranging we can help do it. But don’t expect too much pampering.
We’ve got a free wi-fi connection in the rooms and also on the deck at the front of the house for anyone travelling with their laptop. If you don’t have a laptop, I have one you can borrow to check your email, that’s free too.
Rooms: The rooms have a ‘natural’ feel, so the decor uses a lot of wood, cream colour and bamboo furniture. There is one double bed, with a proper spring mattress, in each room. But we can provide an extra fold out bed for a child or adult who doesn’t mid a bit of discomfort.
So, it’s a maximum of two adults in each room plus one child, or two if they are small, in each room.
The bathrooms have a shower, sink and western style toilet. The shower doesn’t have piped hot water. However the sun heats the water in the tanks to a lukewarm temperature so, for most of the year, the water never feels too cold. (Although in December you might want to skip your early morning shower. ) We provide toiletries & bath towels in the rooms, as you’d expect. But no beach towels – bring your own or buy cheap ones here. Although we have beach mats you can borrow for free to put on the sand.
Room Rates for 2010-11
1 June 2010 to 31 October 2010
Double room – 900 Baht/night OR All 3 Original Rooms – 2,200 Baht/night
OR Book all 5 Rooms, sleep 10 adults – 3,500 Baht/night
1 November 2010 to 31 May 2011
Double room – 1,100 Baht/night OR All 3 Original Rooms – 2,700 Baht/night
OR Book all 5 Rooms, sleep 10 adults – 4,700 Baht/night
1 June 2011 to 31 October 2011
Double room – 900 Baht/night OR All 3 Original Rooms – 2,200 Baht/night
OR Book all 5 Rooms, sleep 10 adults – 3,500 Baht/night
* Extra single bed – 200 Baht/night
There are NO additional taxes, surcharges etc, no obligatory gala buffet dinners on special occasions and no price increases over New Year, Thai New Year, Public Holidays etc as these are all examples of the kind of sad excuses for price rises that I don’t like.
Term of payment: Cash only (Thai baht). Payment in full on departure. No need for any advance payment or deposit, I’ll trust you to show up if you say you will.
Location: Although we’re in the centre of Klong Prao beach, we’re a little off the beaten track. This part of the beach is the quietest on the west coast and never gets crowded. You can always find a quiet spot to sit and read, sunbathe etc here and you’re guaranteed not to be disturbed by people selling souvenir junk on the beach.
To walk to the main road takes about 15-20 minutes along the dirt track, here you’ll find cheap restaurants, a bank, a bakery and a 7-eleven. Some of you may be disappointed to know that the nearest beer bars or souvenir shops are around 30 minutes walk away.
And when you’re on the main road it’s only a 5 minute pick up truck taxi ride to the supermarket and shops at the north end of the beach or to Kai Bae village to the south. So we’re not cut off from the outside world entirely.
To make life easier we can also call a taxi for you to pick you up from Baan Rim Nam to take you to White Sand beach or Kai Bae if you fancy a night out in the big city.
Directions: To reach us, follow the dirt road, 100 metres north of Klong Prao temple, that is signposted to KP Huts, Tiger Huts, Panviman Resort and Keereeta Lagoon.
Go about 50 metres past the Panviman Hotel and then turn right and stop immediately after passing a concrete wall – there’s only one wall, you cant miss it.
You’ll then see our signposted wooden footbridge through the mangroves to the house. If you end up at ‘The Hut’ huts ( previously Thale Bungalows ) , you’ve gone 400 metres too far.
Pick Up Service: If you are coming by bus, I will try to pick you up from the pier on Koh Chang when you arrive. This is a FREE service for anyone staying 4 nights or more. However, if you’re only staying a couple of nights then there’s a 300 baht charge for this to cover my time & gasoline. (At certain times of year I might be busy, if so will pick you up from the main road when you arrive in Klong Prao and will happily refund your 60 baht taxi ride from the pier.)
At the end of your stay, I’ll give you a lift back to the main road from where you can catch the pick-up truck taxi back to the ferry pier or elsewhere on the island.
If you are travelling by plane, the Trat Airport shuttle provides a door to door service between the airport and Baan Rim Nam. Price 350 Baht/person, let me know if you need it booking for you.
Restaurant: We don’t have one. It isn’t worth it for three rooms and we can’t cook. Fortunately, there are cheap beachfront restaurants at a couple of bungalow resorts less than 5 minutes walk away. On the opposite side of the river a good Thai & Seafood restaurant called ‘Pu-Talay’ which is also in a renovated fisherman’s house and at the mouth of the estuary is another well-known seafood restaurant, ‘Iyara Seafood’. Both mainly cater to Thai tourists, although the menus are also in a kind of English. Both of these restaurants will pick you up from Baan Rim Nam by an old wooden, Thai style gondola and then paddle you over to the restaurant if you want to eat there. Also in the area, is the small ‘Sea Breeze’ restaurant run by Nick & Breeze , with only two tables and an open kitchen and also ‘Sapporot Bar’ – a handful of bar stools and cheap beers, plus all the info on fishing in the area your likely to need from Dave the expat owner.
However, one meal we can manage is breakfast, not included in the room rate. Nothing extravagant: fresh coffee or tea, fruit juice, cornflakes/muesli, toast – i.e. some food that you recognise to start your day before you spend the rest of it eating various weird and wonderful Thai dishes.
Some of our guests will opt to have breakfast at our place, others head down to the nearby beach restaurants to eat there instead. And some like to buy some bits and pieces and make their own. The choice is yours, just let me know when you get up if you want anything.
We also have a fridge full of beer, water & soft drinks at ‘normal’ prices e.g. Coke – 15 baht, Singha – 60 baht, Large Beer Chang – 80 baht etc. But, if you want to buy your own drinks from the minimart in the village, no problem, you can keep them in this fridge too.
Activities: There are a lot of companies offering trips and tours. Rather than have dozens of choices for you, we just offer activities from tour companies that I know you will enjoy and that don’t cost a fortune. We can fix you up with boat tickets to Koh Wai, Koh Mak etc. Full day snorkelling trips from Attipol Tour where in addition to seeing loads of fish, you will be very well fed and looked after. Treetops Adventure Park, if you’ve got teenage kids or just fancy a bit of exercise. Also Baan Kwan Chang elephant camp should be on your ‘must visit’ list and if you want to get away from the beach a jungle trek with Tan the Trekking Guide, is also highly recommended. The two best Thai cookery schools are nearby in Klong Prao village.
Island Tour: One trip that is popular is a day’s drive around the island with me. Something that’s expensive if you book through a tour agency and not much fun if you’re on a rental scooter as you’ll be riding well over 100 km in the sun. But if I have time, I’m happy to take our guests all round the island by car, visit all the scenic viewpoints, say ‘Hi’ to a few elephants, eat lunch in good restaurant and see the quiet, picturesque south-east of the island. Cost for my time, car & gasoline is 3,000 baht.
Kayaking: We have sea kayaks and a Canadian style canoe which you can use for free to explore the river estuary and mangroves. There are six small islands just off Klong Prao & Kai Bae beaches. The nearest is about 30 minutes paddle from us or you can visit them all in a day – but you’ll need to be reasonably fit and confident on the water as the furthest island is around 3km from the mainland and no-one is going to save you if you get into trouble.
Laundry: There is a good laundry in the village. The cost is about 30 baht/kilo. Just give us a bag of laundry and we’ll take it down there for you. You’ll get it back the next day, neatly folded and smelling of roses.
Other details you might find useful
Our Guests: There isn’t a typical guest at Baan Rim Nam. We get people from all walks of life, all ages, all religions, all sexual orientations and all countries – it’s like the United Nations at times. And pretty much the only thing guests have in common is that they, like you, have found this website and are looking for a place like Baan Rim Nam in which to stay. . . which has got to be a good thing :-)
Check in / Check out: Check in time is when you arrive, which for most people arriving from Bangkok is mid to late afternoon. The check out time is 12.00 noon, however if you need to hang around longer and there’s no-one waiting for the room you can do so, no problem.
Child Policy: I’m of the opinion my dog is more intelligent than most young children, however I realise that your views may differ. Therefore, we welcome kids . . . and dogs* . . . providing they are house trained. More seriously, the house and footbridge are around 1 to 1.5 metres above the water/river bed and therefore it isn’t advisable to allow small children to play unsupervised on the deck as you’ll get very wet and muddy should you have to pull them out of the river. (Our dog can get out on his own.)
*If you want to bring your dog that is OK, no additional charge, but you need to book all 3 rooms in the main house or both rooms in the annex. This is simply to avoid the dog disturbing other guests.
Animals: We’ve got a Golden Retriever ‘Santa’ who will want to play with you. He loves making new friends, is fine with young children and is probably the most photographed dog on the island. He often draws a small crowd when he’s chasing fish in the shallow sea by the beach. There are also various cats hanging around, I think we’re up to 7 or 8 now. A couple of these came with the house and the others just stopped by for lunch and have never left.
Cancellation/No Show/Early Check Out: If you have to cancel, please let us have as much advance notice as possible as it will upset me if I’ve kept a room for you and you then suddenly have a change of plans 24 hours before you’re due to arrive. Also, if for whatever reason you discover that Baan Rim Nam isn’t for you, I won’t be offended at all if you let me know you want to leave early – even if you have booked a few nights. This has happened a couple of times in the past when guests have found the location too quiet or in the rainy season when the weather has been very bad. It is far better you move on and enjoy your holiday elsewhere on Koh Chang rather than stay somewhere that doesn’t suit you.
Trat Airport transfer: From Trat: I’d advise taking the Trat Airport minibus shuttle service. It’s by far the simplest and quickest way. The cost is 350 baht/person one way. They’ll drop you off at any resort on the island, including our place. Just let me know if you plan to fly here and I’ll arrange the transfer for you.
