Koh Chang, July 6-10, 2008
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2008
1
11
18
Trip End
Ongoing
Koh Chang,
Thailand
Thursday, July 31, 2008
We took a bus to the southeastern coast and then a ferry to Koh Chang, where we hopped into the back of a pick-up truck, which took us to Lonely Beach. There are several beaches on Koh Chang that travelers tend to visit, but Lonely Beach caters the most to the backpacker crowd. We checked into a bungalow village called Magic Garden, which had cool, comfy common spaces and cute little bamboo bungalows with large porches. From there, we went to straight to the beach, which we had been craving after almost five weeks of traveling. The water was warm, which was a nice change from what I had been used to growing up in California, and we were able to watch the sunset from the water. That night we watched a fire dancing show on the beach, which seems to be one of the most popular pastimes for young Thai guys. Everywhere we've been in Thailand there have been fire shows, using poi (fire-lit balls on the end of chains) and staffs (sticks lit with fire on both sides of a handle in the center). It's really cool to watch, especially in such a beautiful setting.
We spent the next day lounging on the beach, taking in some sun. It's the rainy season in Koh Chang right now, so for our second and third full days there it rained off and on. We passed the time hanging out at our two favorite places in Koh Chang, the Treehouse--a restaurant/bungalow village with the most delicious food we had in all of Thailand--and the Ting Tong Bar, a 24-hour bar/restaurant. We became friends with the owners of and frequent visitors to Ting Tong, which was nice because they were the first Thai people we got to know. I became addicted to lassis, a type of fruit shake made with yoghurt. In Thailand they sell fruit shakes everywhere, usually with a choice between coconut, banana, pineapple, mango, watermelon, and a few other fruits, which I love. In fact, the ingredients in Thai food are almost all truly wonderful, consisting mainly of pineapple, seafood, peanuts, coconut, curries, and other good stuff. We've enjoyed eating richly, especially at $2-3 a dish!
On our last day in Koh Chang, it stopped raining around 3 pm, so we rented a motorbike and headed for Long Beach, another more secluded beach on the other side of the island. The roads were pretty scary at some times--there were parts with nearly vertical slopes going up blind corners that made me worry. But Dave was an able driver, and we made it to Long Beach just before sunset. It was a gorgeous little cove with soft sand and tons of beautiful seashells. We didn't stay too long, since we wanted to avoid driving in the dark as much as possible, but we enjoyed the tour of the island and the chance to try out a new beach.
We returned to Bangkok on July 10 to meet up with Charlotte before spending a few weeks in southern Thailand. Koh Chang was a great introduction to island life in Thailand, but it was only the beginning of many more to come!
