So Lonely?
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The beauty of the Lonely Beach is immediately obvious. As soon as you can see
through the palm trees and down to the golden sands and turquoise waters, you realize you made the right decision to pass by the more developed resort areas further north. The beach itself is kilometre-long stretch of golden sand with crystal blue waters so shallow you can wade out tens of metres from the shore.
Bamboo bars and budget guesthouses nestle into the palm groves, while the strains of Bob Marley can be heard from open doorways. Dreadlocked Westerners and tattooed Thais lounge in hammocks, casually chatting and smoking, and stray dogs sleep under the shade of palm leaves. Yes, Lonely Beach most definitely caters to a particular type of tourist - the backpacker. But as its reputation spreads and the gentrification of Koh Chang creeps down the island’s west coastline, is Lonely Beach able to keep away the crowds and keep its laid back image in tact? Does it want to? Travel Daily Asia spoke to three of the resort’s accommodation for their thoughts.
If any resort encapsulates traditional life on Lonely Beach it is The Treehouse. 11 years ago Pamela Jultanu was the original intrepid traveller who took the boat ride (there was no road) down the coast and fell in love with the place. She built the Treehouse, a warren of thatched bamboo shacks with a stilted restaurant/bar terrace extending over the water.
“It was difficult to begin with; there were no roads and no electricity - and it was malarial. We had two years alone like this. But the solitude was nice too.
“Then they connected Lonely Beach to the electricity, and after this everything began to change,” she said.
The Siam Hut arrived three years later and cleared the palms on the beachfront to create Lonely Beach’s first actual beach huts - a row of ramshackle bamboo shacks on stilts. The modern air-conditioned concrete rooms sell at Bt1500-5,000 (US$49-162), complete with swimming pool and large restaurant.
“It’s very different from when we started. We still have the wooden hill-side bungalows, but our customers now want more luxury,” said head of Sales & Marketing, Khun Yong. It caters to families and its guests are mostly Europeans.
One relative newcomer to Lonely Beach is Thomas Liesack - manager of the Sunflower Bungalows, a small mix of wooden and concrete en-suite rooms set back from the beach. Nightly rates here are Bt400-600 (US$13-19).
“I doubt we will see any major developments” said Liesack. “Land prices on Lonely Beach are exorbitant now.”
For him, life would carry on much the same.
I’ll build some new huts, but probably wooden ones; they’re cheaper to put up.”
But for Pamela at The Treehouse, life has already changed too much. She has built another Treehouse on Long Beach, deep in the undeveloped south of the island.
“We won’t be here for the next high season,” she said, with only the slightest hint of regret. “It’s about the right time to leave. The area is developing fast; every night you can hear the parties and the music blasting until 3 or 4am. Koh Chang is changing,” she said.
“There is less and less market for the real budget traveller here now. The Bt100-200 (US$3-6) per night guesthouses are disappearing. People are demanding private bathrooms and air-conditioning. Most of the new resorts being built here will cater for the mid-market.”
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