Koh Trong Map

The Koh Trong island map is finally finished and hanging at the visitor information hut once you've arrived off the boat from Kratie.

A map was one thing that we thought would be of great benefit to tourists visiting Koh Trong. The map shows the trails their distances, plus the location of the various sights, home stays, and community growing projects.

Measuring out the lettering with chalk

We began by salvaging a couple of old wooden shutters from Wat Tay Param Kbal Koh, in the north of the island. These were then cut to size, planed on the edges and joined together.

Mey Haing helping out

All of the details of the map are hand painted in fantastically thick and bright enamel paint and it took around 4 days from start to finish to complete.

Hopefully no spelling mistakes

Koh Trong map

The signs now hung to by the entrance to the information centre which is where you're able to hire a bike and other transport around Koh Trong.

Koh Trong visitor information centre

Breaking Ground

On thursday morning we set about getting the navigation and sight signs put in place. In the morning Vana, Sophal, ad myself toured the island and dug the holes at the locations that had been approved by Mr Bun Ban. Then after a three hour siesta a tough little horse bore the burden of transporting the signs to their locations where they were set in place.

Small pony on a small island

Refuelling

The process was relatively straight forward and despite the rather hard earth all the signs were put in place that day. At the end of the day the team enjoyed a well deserved coffee at Koh Trong Cafe.

Vana packing the earth back in

Finally Koh Trong has signs

Signs For Koh Trong - Update

Following our meeting with Mr Bun Ban we have been busy finishing off the first round of signs for visitors from Kratie to Koh Trong.

We now have signs for directions on each of the four corners, KM markers, and signs for the two Wats, the Chedi, Beach, View Point, the Vietnamese Temple, and the Floating Village. Oum Ka kindly started his generator, hooked up his electric drill and helped us prepare the signs so they'll be easy to put up.

We had arranged for some posts to be delivered to start the process of erecting them around the island. Howvever it seemed that something was lost in translation and an ox-cart unexpectedly turned up a day ago carrying 8 large 2.5m tree trunks! So in order for these to be useable they will need to be  sawn in half down the trunk and stripped of bark.

Home delivery service on Koh Trong

These will next need to be painted 'eco' green and then we're ready to tour the island with a work crew who (after site approval from the government) will set them in place and secure the signs.

It's our hope to move onto another round of more specific signs and information boards next so it'll be a great motivation once these ones are finally in place. So stay tuned for more updates on the project.

Biffa keeping guard

Road Building On Koh Trong

As you leave Kratie town and travel into rural areas in all directions the roads quickly become dusty tracks. It is rare for there to be a concrete road other than the main highways.

Koh Trong is no exception but the island is gradually becoming fully paved. The main roads on the eastern and southern sides of the island are fully paved. The majority of the western road is dirt but is currently seeing some construction work.

Each year the city council of Kratie provide funds to build 600m of road - this is then allocated to different areas of the island in varying lengths. However the local residents still have to pay around 10% of the overall cost each year in order to have the requisite funds.

The roads are constructed in lengths of a anywhere between 50m and 200m. Before work begins piles of sand and shingle are laid out along the route. The workmen then use 3m sections of boarding to make a frame for the concrete which is mixed and poured in situ. Each section is 1.5 m wide, and leaving a gap of 3 m the next part of the road is framed and concrete poured. This process is repeated and in a day 3 or 4 sections are made. The following day the gaps created in-between the new sections are constructed thus linking all the short sections together.

The first roads were built back in 2009 so the process is fairly stop start and will take a few more years before the 9 km of roads are fully sealed. Once the entire island is paved the next job is to widen the existing roads to 3 m.

Although the dirt roads do give areas of the island a very rural and timeless feel, the benefits of the paved roads with regards to dust and ease of transport is a massive boost to the local people.

At the end of a hard day's work the only blemish for the worker's is the obligatory trail of dog paw prints. However last week were were told that despite the best efforts to stop them, a tourist cycled straight from the dry path into the wet concrete section.