Morning flight out of Trat

We%26#39;re coming to Ko Chang in a couple of weeks%26#39; time and have been carefully digesting all the great info here but wonder if anyone can advise on something I can%26#39;t actually find an answer to (although if I%26#39;ve missed it - feel free to point me in the right direction!)

We%26#39;re rather taken with the Nirvana resort which definitely looks like our kind of place but due to its distance from the ferry ports in the north, I%26#39;m rather concerned as to whether we%26#39;re likely to be able to make it to Trat for the 09.45 flight back to Bangkok when we leave...

Would be very grateful if anyone could advise whether this is practical and if so, if there is any particular best way of doing this. Also how long IS the drive from the north to Bang Bao? (I hear the roads are not that great so don%26#39;t particularly like the idea of someone breaking any speed records to get us there in time... I consider myself a fairly intrepid traveller but cliff roads are a particular phobia of mine!)

And if Nirvana is likely to be too far... any suggestions for somewhere similar ie. smallish with character but fairly luxurious?

With very many thanks in advance.

Morning flight out of Trat

Any tour agent - and almost certainly Nirvana - will sell you a ticket for the airport minibus, they%26#39;ll pick you up and you%26#39;re guaranteed you wont miss the flight. Dont worry about it. You%26#39;ll probably be picked up around 6.30am or earlier. It%26#39;ll be around 300 baht/person

It%26#39;s around 40 minutes drive from hte ferry piers to Bangbao but the minibus will stop at hotels to pick other people up.

Morning flight out of Trat

Hi Ian

Sorry for the delayed response but thank you hugely for your insight. That sounds perfect!

NOW all I have to do is get them to answer their emails ;-)

I would prefer to book direct if possible but if you have any ideas on best way to communicate with them, that would be great.

With very many thanks again.

PS. I don%26#39;t care what anyone else says - I think you%26#39;re doing an amazing job here!

They can put a moon on the moon, they can cure cancer , they can even train a small dog to water-ski . . . but so far no-one has successfully managed to train Thai hotel staff to answer emails promptly. (At least that%26#39;s the feeling you get given the number of complaints similar to yours.)

Fax is probably the best way, phoning often depends too much on the person actually answering, whereas sending a fax gives the recipient time to see who should be answering it and think about the reply - they aren%26#39;t expected to make decisions immediately.

Telephone No. : +6639 558 061 to 4

Fax No. :6639 558 065

E-mail : sales@nirvanaresorts.com

Thanks again Ian... you%26#39;re not wrong about Thai hotels and emails!

The email you gave just bounced back but a weird thing... I just got a reply to one of my emails which I thought was sent direct to the hotel, however the response came from ko-chang dot com. Is that normal? Are the hotel perhaps forwarding emails there? I%26#39;m not too happy about not dealing direct but unless I can find a fax machine it seems I don%26#39;t have much option!

With many thanks again for any insight.

Hi - if you install the windows fax accessory at control panel / add remove programs / add remove windows components / fax services , you can turn your windows computer into a fax machine, assuming you have an analog modem...

Anyway I have PM%26#39;d you as well. maybe we can help if you%26#39;re still stuck.

Thanks for the fax hint Cocodeebo... unfortunately we%26#39;re all digital here... always seems a bit daft that it%26#39;s so difficult to send an email to fax machine but I guess the two are just not THAT compatible.

Anyway, this probably isn%26#39;t the right place for such a moan but many thanks for the pm... you also (as they say) ';have mail'; ;-)

Some of the big Thai online agencies grab domain names which are very similar to the actual resorts themselves and put websites up which appear to be from the hotels themselves. So you Google for a hotel site and think you%26#39;ve found it but in reality you haven%26#39;t - Koh-Chang.com have loads of sites like this for hotels on KC.

The email I gave is the one on the %26#39;genuine%26#39; Nirvana website - but if they cant get their act together and get it working, let alone answered, then just book elsewhere. Eventually the penny will drop and someone will realise that they have been getting zero enquiries from their site and it%26#39;ll be fixed.

Well I must admit, I%26#39;m in the travel business myself and used to trying to seek out the ';official'; hotel website but this one definitely had me fooled. Won%26#39;t publish it here but it certainly looks like the real thing until you check the copyright notice... I don%26#39;t believe I%26#39;ve ever come across this before but definitely learnt something today...

Thanks to Colin, hopefully we can get something sorted... if not, yep I%26#39;ll have to look around a bit more...

Once again big thanks to you both, I owe you one (or two)!

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