Meet the neighbours
Since Trat’s Khlong Yai and Cambodia’s Koh Kong share a heritage and a border, their potential as tourist destinations is being explored
The sandy beach of Hat Banchuen in Trat’s Khlong Yai district stretches out many kilometres, but there are not many visitors. Apart from a few locals, it is hard to find foreign tourists. As I strolled along the beach trying to catch ghost crabs, a group of children were building a sand castle. During the half an hour I spent on the beach, there was no passing food vendor nor masseuse to interrupt the serenity.
“Khlong Yai has many beautiful and quiet beaches,” said Sutarak Sunthornviphart, acting managing director of Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (Dasta)’s Area 1 Office overseeing Koh Chang and its vicinity.
The beaches are low profile and are not on the tourism radar. Tourists travelling to Trat tend to go to the famous islands of Koh Chang, Koh Mak and Koh Kood instead, he said.
Some visitors may want to travel to Khlong Yai to visit the Ban Hat Lek border market or to cross the border to Cambodia’s Koh Kong, famous for casinos.
There are communities in Khlong Yai and Koh Kong that have the potential to be developed as tourist destinations, said Sutarak.
Dasta surveyed the coastal area along the bordertowns and found four potential fishing communities. They are Laem Klat, Mai Rud, Khlong Yai and Hat Lek. Dasta helped each of them form a community-based tourism club and designed tourism programmes.
“Our aim is to help locals to have sustainable tourism development and to encourage visitors to Trat to spend either one or two nights in the local communities,” he said.
According to Ban Laem Klat village headman Rawee Silaart, the fishing village has activities for visitors like fishing or learning to make artificial habitats for marine life.
Apart from promoting local communities, Dasta wants to develop a tourism network between the two bordertowns in Trat and Koh Kong province in Cambodia.
The agency has worked with the Trat Tourism Association to launch the Khlong Yai- Koh Kong route after a memorandum of understanding was signed by Trat and Koh Kong governors last year.
Visitors who cross Khlong Yai to Koh Kong can explore local fishing communities, as well as a large mangrove reser ve in Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary.
Visitors from Thailand can also travel by land to other cities in Cambodia, including Phnom Penh, the capital, about 300km away, or to coastal cities like Sihanoukville, also known as Kampong Som, about 200km away.
The road to Koh Kong is in good condition. There are not many cars on the road except for passing trucks from time to time. Along the way, I saw farmlands and forests and sometimes people when we were close to villages. It was a scenic ride.
After one and a half hours on Road No. 48, our van stopped at a restaurant close to the Virak Bunthan Bus Station. A few vendors spoke Thai and greeted us with a “sawadee kha”. They were selling cooked venison and boar meat.
Our guide said that Koh Kong also housed Thai communities. Historical records show that Koh Kong was once governed by Siam and the province was called Prachan Khiri Khet, during the reign of King Rama IV before it was returned to Cambodia during the French colonial period more than a century ago.
I met a married couple named Pad, 73, and Riang Photiwan, 72, in a hamlet inside the Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary. They are fisherfolk who farm fish and clams. Although they have a house and children living in Khlong Yai in Trat, they do not want to lose the business of their ancestors in Koh Kong.
“During my parent’s time, we were not allowed to speak Thai,” recalled Pad, adding that it was illegal.
Things have changed since the end of the Cambodian civil war. The baht is accepted by local restaurants, convenience stores and even by vendors selling coconut water.
After lunch, we reached a pier in Kiri Sakor where a huge beachfront resort offering three 18-hole golf courses, owned by Chinese investors, has recently opened.
We took a boat to Koh Sdach (King Island, which is also known as Koh Chao in Thai). The island is about 1.5km off the coast of Koh Kong and is a resort island for Cambodians, according to Phutsa Siri, deputy village chief of Koh Sdach.
“Cambodians love to visit the island for fresh seafood. During the long holidays, accommodation is always fully booked,” she told me in Thai.
Koh Sdach is home to a fishing community. They built their houses or huts on stilts. While I wandered around the village, I found that the locals are friendly and not camera-shy. They always smiled or teased each other in front of my camera.
It was a pity that we did not have a chance to try their seafood, but I tried the fresh coconut water (30 baht). The sweetness helped cool me down from the almost unbearable afternoon sun.
From the deserted beaches fringed by coconut trees in Khlong Yai in Trat to the unspoilt fishing villages in Koh Kong, the two bordertowns have something to offer to tourists other than casinos.