2 July  - Important stuff first, within the next 3 months this will be the site of the new 7-eleven in Klong Prao. That might not mean much to you but round these parts it has kept Michael Jackson off the front page.

The all new version of this site is now almost complete. Sometime, I think in the next 7-10 days, it will be online and all the links/bookmarked pages here will be history.

It's expanded a little - so far the new version is around 400 pages of content and 1,000 photos/images of various descriptions with a lot of the old stuff from this site deleted for good.

Lovely Weather
Still amazingly good weather for this time of year, lots of sunshine and only a handful of guests at even the largest of resorts.  Some beachfront resorts still have days with no customers, so no wonder even more small roadside resorts are putting out signs advertising lower and lower room rates. But  it isn't east to create demand very few visitors on the island. 400 baht/night still looks the cheapest for an ensuite AC room, it will be interesting to see if anyone goes down to the psychologically way cheaper 399 baht/night.

How nice is the weather?  This is White Sand Beach at around 11am this morning.  If you look closely it isn't deserted, there are four people in the sea:

Although it looks nice and clean there are areas you wouldn't really want to swim or sunbathe near, such as the mouth of the storm drain that was behind me when I took the above pic:

The steps on the walkway by the drain are also of an unusual design, as they slope downward.  Either DASTA, the who are the government organisation, behind such crap projects as this walkway/open sewer, know something about step design that the rest of the civilised world doesn't, or it's just f&@ked up as usual.

DASTA also recently organised a mangrove planting session in Salakphet Bay. I got emailed  a few photos from the event.  But as these all showed middle aged Thai blokes in local government jackets congratulating other middle aged blokes in sensible trousers on their mangrove planting exploits, I just deleted them.

I'd be more impressed if anyone bothered to try to protect the far fewer, far more endangered mangroves that remain on the west coast of the island on the river near my house.  But as these are situated near land owned by a couple of large, well connected resorts, who from time to time like to hack a  few mangroves down and add some landfill, I'd guess it's highly unlikely this will happen.

DASTA also now has a 'Vision' that reads like the title of a 'Borat' or 'Bruno' movie.  I don't make this stuff up, I wish I did:

Vision: Develop Designated Areas Conserve Natural Environment to Status of Excellence as Ideal Ecological Attractions for Worldwide Visitors

Not sure how DASTA's overseeing of the billion dollar, megaproject 'Ao Phuket', which would build a convention center, marina, dockyards, restaurants, hotels, resorts and a business centre on reclaimed land in the bay south of Phuket City, fits in with this 'Vision' though. I guess Phuket has all the mangroves they need.

New Van Service
300 baht will get you a seat in a new minivan which runs between Victory Monument in BKK and Ao Thammachat (Koh Chang Ferry pier) The service is currently mostly used by Thais at the moment and the one's I know who have taken it say it's fast and hassle free.  Vans leave every two hours on the hour from 0700 - 1900 from both BKK and Koh Chang.