There are very few boats now going even from the mainland to Koh Mak and a private speedboat from Koh Chang to Koh Mak is very expensive so I decided to go diving with BB Divers on their trip to Koh Mak with the proviso they drop me off at a hotel pier.
The Koh Mak Cococabana was in need of maintenance as are almost all tourist hotels in Thailand since there are almost no tourists and no money coming in to do the maintenance. It was a pleasant place and the food was OK but it was not inexpensive.
I booked this hotel because it has a drop off pier for the dive boat skiff and I knew I would be fairly tired from the amount of time in the sun and rain and the two dives. The diving was fairly good and the coral is in fairly good shape and lots of fish.
I booked the less expensive room knowing it was in front of a large pond. My experience is these ponds, especially when there are not an abundance of fish in the pond, tend to be mosquito breeding grounds. My concerns were well-founded but I was prepared for this and spent the evening resting inside the room and enjoying a movie, the French Exit.
One dog was very clean and friendly and the other dog, the black one, was not very clean and was too shy to approach me. And all I saw of customers was one couple. It’s impossible to run a business with this little amount of tourist traffic. It’s a very sad situation for most of the tourist business here in Thailand during the Covid crisis.
The next morning the hotel provided free transport to my next bungalow, the Sea View Resort, but I gave a tip to the driver knowing the difficult financial situation everyone faces. Then begins my second day on Koh Mak.
