Koh Chang Island

Well here I am again, after a wonderful weekend away in Koh Chang with all my friends from the Nagas Motorcycle Club, back in front of my computer knocking this run report out for that hard and unforgiving taskmaster Phil at the Pattaya Trader.

I mean it folks, I literally got off the bike half an hour ago, came straight upstairs, booted up and am writing against time to beat the deadline, whilst all the other guys and gals of the club are slaking their thirst washing road grime away with some of those extremely cold and very welcome tall green bottles of the old amber nectar! "Som num naa" as they say in old Siam... "serves you right"... you wanted yer name in print... you suffer the consequences!

Anyway, that's enough of my gripes, I'll make do with a pint of imported PG Tips and tell you what a great time we had!  A group of us left Jomtien Friday late morning and headed off down South to rendezvous at Klaeng with some other club members who were riding from Bang Saen. Rather than take the boring old Sukhumvit Highway 3 all the way down through Sattahip and Rayong (traffic lights far too numerous to enjoy the ride) we headed across country via Soi Wat Huay Yai to the 331, turned left and rode for a couple of klicks to the flyover above highway 36 and then turned south. Incidentally it is far less dangerous to drive over the flyover, do a U-turn and exit the 331 on the left hand side sliproad to merge with southbound traffic than to exit the 331 into northbound traffic, cross 3 busy lanes within about 100 metres to the "official" U-turn and head into southbound traffic in the fast lane. My personal opinion only.

Anyway, you're now on the 36...this is a terrific road which in many places is 6 lanes wide and spits you out after about 50 kilometres of long straight undulating hills back onto highway 3 on the far side of Rayong... from there in no time at all you are in Klaeng. We pulled over at the Green Lemon fuel station on the far side of town to await the rest of the gang and tuck into some great Thai style "motorway caff" grub... great stuff... full lunch and drinks for about 30 baht per head! The rest of the crew turned up after about 10 minutes, and talk about drowned rats! They had ridden down the 344, joined up and stayed with a vicious downpour all the way to Klaeng, whilst we were riding parallel but 50 klms or so to their west and stayed bone dry!

From Klaeng it's an easy ride for another 2 hours or so, past Chantaburi and Khlung to just before Trat where you turn right onto the 3156 and head for the ferry at Laem Ngop. Alternatively head through Trat and down the 3148... you'll end up at the same place. The ferry is very user friendly these days, holds about 30 vehicles, costs only 60 baht and takes about 25 minutes, compared to the old rust bucket I took my Kawasaki on all those years ago... full up with 10 vehicles and any bikes had to perch on the lip of the open bow door!! Actually that old girl is still moored up at the port on the island... someone please scupper her before they press her back into service!! (Dunno where the ferry is now though!).

Once on Koh Chang we headed west over the mountain (beware those hairpin turns... even experienced riders can have trouble on this baby!) to White Sand Beach where we booked into the brand spanking new and very tastefully designed and built Logans Place. (Book with Heli on 06 149 8523... she speaks fluent Finnish, Swedish, English, German and Thai, the standard of spoken English by the staff is excellent, the food is superb, the beds are really comfortable and the showers are power!! ). Regular readers of this column will know, and not need to hear again all about what this particular bike club gets up to once the machines have been put to bed and we are let loose... suffice to say we had a great time, particularly at Heli's Kitchen (Logans Place), Oodies bar and the Fifteen Palms bar (White Sand Beach) and the Chow Lay Seafood Restaurant way down south at the sea gypsy village 'Baan Bang Bao'.

The weather was not great but don't ever let that spoil your stay... even the rain is warm in this country, you're never far from refreshments, the people are great and you'll dry out soon! So, after a terrific Saturday getting wet, having plenty of refreshments and meeting some great people Sunday dawned bright and sunny for our return trip, which coincided with us meeting up with about 200 pickup trucks loaded to the gunnels with durian, headed for the markets at Chantaburi. My Buddha what a stink! I spent most of the ride trying to adapt the old "Twas On The Good Ship Venus" ditty... you know, something like "Twas on the road back from Koh Chang, I'm trying 'ard not to 'ave a prang, but those durian trucks, the smelly old f***s, are driving me up the bloody wall!"

 Well, I did say "trying" to adapt the ditty... anyway, it passed the time and my "motorway warbling" always keeps the missus amused... I know this coz I always get a loving "thwack" on the back of me skid lid!  Before we knew it we were back in Pattaya looking for a suitable place to finish off a great weekend and so headed for the most superb tenderloin steak with b้arnaise sauce, home fries and garlic butter at one of this towns best kept secrets... Max New House Scandinavian Restaurant in Wong Amat... check it out!

So, where to next? Long term we're looking at a "wine tasting" (yeah, right!)  trip to Loei province, a tour of Ayuthaya, a weekend in Hua Hin to meet up and party with the Headstones MC, a visit to the Elephant roundup in Surin (that'll be November, and yep, yours truly the Elephant Man will be organising that one!) and the annual Chiang Mai bike Week in December. However, next month we may be off to do some jungle riding and tour Khao Yai National Park. Don't forget, I'm not gonna go into all the gory details of what fun we get up to when we go touring... I'll tell you how to get there and drop some hotel and restaurant names but if you want in, you've gotta come along to a club meeting, meet the gang, learn the rules and get on yer bike! Details from here.

Right, that's yer lot for now, hope I never offend anyone with anything I write... if I do the views expressed are mine alone and not the club I ride with. I'll see you around town or at a club meeting... keep your lights on, ride safe, watch your back, front and sides and enjoy riding Thai!
PS. Loved the bit in last month's Pattaya Trader by Berkeley Hunt ref. the photo scam at the Driving Licence Centre... yep, she got me too!!