Paradise at a cheap price...

During our trip Simon and I have been lamenting the rise of big resorts and the disappearance of small affordable (for people on a budget like us) hideaways. Two of our best finds have been on the beautiful island of Pho Quoc in Vietnam and in the soon to be completely destroyed by resorts island of Ko Chang in Thailand.
Pho Quoc
Simon and I flew to Pho Quoc with just over a week left on our Vietnam visas. I could have easily been deported for overstaying - The island was great and very cheap, but most importantly it was a world away from the busy streets of the rest of Vietnam and the constant attempts to extract money from you.
Initially we stayed at the Thousand Island resort, mainly because it was on the beach we wanted to stay on and they offered to take us there for free. Despite the great pool and concrete sculptures the place wasn't really for us....



We walked along the beach and found the only two simple bunglows amongst a sea (no pun intended) of large scale resorts. For the princely sum of $7US we stayed here:
And we pretty much spend the whole time doing this:
I made great dent in my stack of books and walked away decidedly more freckled than before. Simon, meanwhile, having already read all of his books, was left considering learning German - as there seemed to be no books in English anywhere.
I am not sure why people stay at the resorts - ok I do know why - the pools, the aircon, the nice sheets, the great (though expensive) food the lack of strange insects in the room etc but we were on the same beach and swam in the same sea and if we really wanted the pool we could buy a beer at one of the resorts and enjoy it as much as we liked.
Ko Chang
Three years ago I stayed on Lonely Beach on Ko Chang an island in Thailand. It was still mostly backpackers but the resorts had begun to creep in. Spared the Tsunami in December 2004 Ko Chang has undergone a dramatic transformation. I took this photo then:
This has been replaced by this at Siam Beach Resort I am sure it is lovely but to me it looks like a concrete jungle.
We quickly abandonded the not so Lonely Beach and headed for Long Beach and the Treehouse a newly established bungalow type place. It was very remote, sitting in the back of a 4WD ute which was only just managing the tricky combination of rocky roads, steep hills and tight bends we were wondering if it was all going to be worth it. What we found at the end was the most genuinely relaxing place that we have found on the entire trip.


With no phone, let alone internet and power only between 6pm and 1am it is a great place to just get away from it all. Adapting to the "showers" was difficult, I found that washing your hair using only a bucket from a tub of water hard but who needs to wash hair in a shower when there is sea and who can complain when the open air (but not open!) showers are amongst the trees and the sun is pouring in on you. Lying in a hammock looking out to deserted water I wanted to spend much longer here



and for 150Bt ($5US)I could have - but the d-date of 4 November and our flight to London is calling...