Baan Rim Nam Guesthouse
"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."

"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."

General Information
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.

We completed the renovation of 'Baan Rim Nam' ('House on the water's edge') in early Dec. 2004. Although only having three rooms means that this venture isn't going to make our fortune.

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 the west coast of Koh Chang. At high tide water is underneath the house. The beach is around 2 minutes walk away through the coconut field at the back of the house - or 2 minutes paddle down to the mouth of the river.

We have three, tastefully decorated, ensuite, airconditioned double rooms in the house. All of which open out onto a covered deck built out over the water. It is the only place to stay of it's type on the west coast of the island. But this isn't a place for party animals or for those in search of pampering.

You will see that our neighbours are 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 and fishing.

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 Flicking Shrimps - a type of shrimp that use their claws to communicate, you'll often hear the 'clicking' noise at night plus cicadas, vocal frogs and the occasional canoe tour paddling past to see the nearby fireflies which inhabit the mangroves upstream.

A new luxury resort - Aana Resort has opened up on the opposite side of the river. Fortunately, their guests are well behaved, as you'd expect from visitors paying 4,000 baht/night or more. 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. :-)

You can borrow a canoe or kayak - for free - and paddle upstream for about a kilometre, or down to the beach at the mouth of the estuary 300 metres away.

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.

We've got a free wi-fi connection in the rooms and also the deck at the front of the house for anyone travelling with their laptop. If you don't have a laptop, I have an old one you can borrow to check you email, that's free too.

Location

We're in the centre of the Klong Prao area of Koh Chang. We're on the river estuary but the quiet beach is only 200 metres walk away through the coconut trees. Alternatively, you can paddle a canoe to the beach. The area where we live is very quiet, no loud bars, no karaoke and no traffic noise.

To reach us, follow the dirt road that leads to KP Huts, Tiger Huts, Panviman Resort and Thale Bungalows.

Go 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 Thale Bungalows, you've gone way too far.

Our place isn't on any maps or in locally produced guide books. Maybe I've upset someone? :-) But this keeps it nice and quiet and our guests always seem to enjoy staying somewhere that the majority of visitors to the island will never see or know about.

We're a little off the beaten track. To walk to the main road takes about 15-20 minutes along the dirt track, or a 1 minute paddle across the river and 5 minute walk to the main road if you want to take the short cut. Some of you may be disappointed to know that the nearest Karaoke bars or souvenir t-shirt shops are over half an hour walk away.

But when you're on the main road it's only a 5 minute pick up truck taxi ride to the shops at the north end of the beach or to Kai Bae village to the south.

This is why we don't have any walk in guests, virtually everyone comes through this website, and also why I am happy to pick up our guests from the ferry pier when they arrive on Koh Chang. 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 200 baht charge for this to cover my time & gasoline.

At the end of your stay, I'll give you a lift to the main road from where you can catch the pick-up truck taxi back to the ferry if you're travelling by bus. If going by plane, the airport minibus will pick you up from our place.

Rooms

The rooms are very spacious when compared with your average Thai beach bungalow and are much brighter than many hotel rooms. We wanted them to have a 'natural' feel, so the decor uses a lot of wood, cream colour and bamboo furniture. There is one double bed in each room. So, it's a maximum of two adults in each room plus one child on the floor. (We've got a foldout mattress for them.)

The bathrooms have a shower, sink and western style toilet. The shower doesn't have hot water however the sun heats the water in the tank to a lukewarm temperature so, for most of the year, the water never feels too cold. We provide soap & bath towels in the rooms.

There is also an outdoor shower, ideal for cooling off quickly and for washing sand off after you return from the beach. As this shower is directly above the river, please don't use soap or shampoo in it.

Restaurant

We don't have a restaurant, it hardly seems worth it for three rooms. There are cheap restaurants at a couple of bungalow resorts 10 minutes walk away and also at the nearby beach bar which does very good Thai & western food. On the opposite side of the river a good Thai & Seafood restaurant called 'Pu-Talay' which is also in a renovated fisherman's house. At the mouth of the estuary is a well-known seafood restaurant, 'Iyara Seafood' & they'll send a row boat down to our place to pick you up if you want to eat there.

One meal we can manage is breakfast, not included in the room rate. Nothing extravagant, fresh coffee or tea, fruit juice, ceral, toast - i.e. some food you recognise to start your day before you spend the rest of it eating Thai food. and the best bread on Koh Chang. ( There used to be a great bakery nearby 'Crust' where we could get fresh bread every morning, however as of August 2008, it's closed - hopefully it will reopen before too long.) Some of our guests will opt to have breakfast at our place, others head down to the nearby beach restaurants to eat there instead. The choice is yours.

We also have a charcoal BBQ which is ideal for cooking fresh seafood. You can buy seafood yourself or tell us and when we go out we'll get it for you from the wholesalers and you can cook it up under the stars. So, just let us know if you want a BBQ

If you want to borrow the kitchen and cook your own food then go ahead, but it's usually a bit of a mess.

We also have a fridge full of beer, water & soft drinks at 'normal' prices e.g. Coke - 15 baht, Large Beer Chang - 60 baht etc. But, if you want to buy your own drinks from the supermarket you can keep them in this fridge too.

Tours

Nope, as you may have guessed, we're not a tour agent. Therefore, we've linked up with some of the better agents. 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. We can also arrange dive trips and courses through a small English run dive school where you wont be treated as just another customer. Also Baan Kwan Chang elephant camp should be on your 'must visit' list and if you want to get away from the beacha jungle trek is also highly recommended.

One trip that is popular is a day's drive around the island. 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. 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 in good inexpensive seafood restaurant and see the quiet, picturesque south-east of the island. Cost for my time, car & gasoline is 3,000 baht.

We have sea kayaks and a Canadian style canoe which you can use for free to explore the river estuary and mangroves - for free. There are six small islands just off Klong Prao beach. 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.

We had a speedboat for rent too, but sold than. However, we still plan to get another boat for 2008 high season, hopefully a RIB for personal use or maybe for taking people staying at our place on trips to nearby islands etc.

Laundry

We have an automatic washing machine which guests can use for 100 baht per load. (Each load is around 6 kilograms) Alternatively, reliable laundry services are available nearby for around 30-40 baht/kilo. We use Pu Laundry in Klong Prao for towels & our bed linen as they do a good job and we don't like ironing.

Other stuff

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 races. Pretty much the only thing they have in common is finding this website and looking for a place like ours 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.

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.

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 our on his own.)

Animals: We've got a Golden Retriever 'Santa' who will want to play with you. He loves making new friends, is fine with young kids and is probably the most photographed dog on the island. He gets quite a crowd when he's chasing fish in the shallow sea by the beach. There are also various cats hanging around, a couple that came with the house and others that stopped by for lunch and have never left.

Cancellation/No Show: If you have to cancel, please let us have as much advance notice as possible as it gives me a big headache if I've kept a room for you and you then have a change of plans 24 hours before you're due to arrive.

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 need a transfer booking for you.

From Bangkok: It can be easily arranged. If there are more than two people in your party, a one way transfer by private car or minivan booked through a reliable local tour agency is much cheaper than flying. More details of transfers from Bangkok & also Siem Reap & Phnom Penh.

Baan Rim Nam Guesthouse

Klong Prao beach , Koh Chang , Trat 23170 , Thailand.