Centara Chaan Talay Resort & Villas Trat

Beware of Trat.

by planxty

"It's deceptively seductive."

Trat is the Provincial capital of the eponymous state which lies to the extreme East of the ocuntry, bordering Cambodia. The state comprises both mainland and a chain of islands, principally Ko Chang, which make up the protected National Park. Trat town certainly does not give the impression of being a major administrative centre, rather a somewhat somnolent market town, and herein lies the problem giving rise to the title of this introduction.

There is nothing to do in Trat, and I mean nothing. I am writing this in a small cafe watching the world drift slowly by and, thus far it has taken me about a week to work out that there is nothing to do here. It is one of those places where you intend to stay a day or two to recharge the bateries after travelling and suddenly find you have been there a lot longer than that. There are a good selection of accomodation, eating and drinking options for the traveller, mostly centred around the "old town" which, in reality comprises of about two smallish streets but you can spend a very relaxing day just flitting from cafe to cafe, reading a book, enjoying a coffee and chatting to people. Come sundown, you can enjoy a meal in one of the several very good reataurants, have a beer and ocntemplate which cafe you are going to have breakfast in the next day.

Most people only ever fly through Trat quickly en route to or from Cambodia or the islands mentioned above. Stop here for a few days, you'll enjoy it.