Centara Koh Chang Tropicana Resort

We need to extend our stay in Koh Chang but our hotel the Mercure Hideaway was booked full. This hotel is recommended by our motor rental guy who has been living in the area for 5 years. So without checking it out we just booked online.
Location is good. Smack in the middle of Kai Bae Beach. Restaurants and groceries all in walking distance. Two great Italian Restaurants at it's door step. Our motor bike rental just steps away too.
The Thai style room is ok. Air con is cold enough. There is a sitting area outside our room and we are close to the pool with swim up bar which is nice. We didn't get the villa type which I am grateful since those are pretty packed together. I like privacy and don't like people to see inside the room when they walk to breakfast so I would have to close the curtains all day. The sitting area outside the villas are also very small and open. And because I am a mosquito magnets the brown ponds outside the villas makes me queasy.
There are other things that I really do not like about this hotel. Firstly the smell! I can smell sewage inside my bathroom. I end up using the shower to wash the whole toilet and put loads of water down the floor drain and sink. Then I have to cover the floor drain and plug all drains to keep the smell out. Then every time we open the door to go out, we got hit by waves of swamp gas. There are areas of the hotel that sewage smell is so bad that I have to hold my breath.
The towels are of different shades of grey. The bed is rock hard which gives me backache. Pillow smells of men's oily head and sheets smell musky.
Breakfast is just mediocre although I didn't expect much it is still a disappointment. Even at really good hotel buffet breakfast all I need is a good cup of cappuccino, good croissant/bread and fruits. In Thailand I like boil rice or noodles. But here the breads are dry, western breakfast items are of bad quality while Thai breakfast items are luke warm and not tasty.
The beach is a smelly mud flat. The sea wall is packed with sand bags and littered with plastic bottles and garbage. It is surprising that a resort didn't even bother to clean up it's own beach. The two pools doesn't look very clean. The one at the beach is mostly occupied by kids so we retreat to the one with swim up bar and jacuzzi. The blue pool tiles look tired and yellow. That kind of sums it up. Bar tender is nice though.
Front desk staff is nice when I checked in but not so nice when we try to check out at 5:45am. Maybe because he was sleeping and we have to wake him up.
Overall I believe this hotel is more of a local tourist hotel. I do not recommend staying here.