After 12 hours on a night bus we arrived in Bangkok earlier Monday morning, caught the first bus to Trat, which was another 5 hours bus ride. Then we had to take a small tuk tuk 45 mins to the pier, then a 30 min ferry to Koh Chang, then another 45 mins in a crowded tuk tuk up crazy windy roads. So in all it was a 20-hour journey to get there but as soon as I saw the island, I knew it was worth it. We were so lucky to have Dan with us so he could bargain and navigate us there, or else it would have been a lot more stressful.
Koh Chang was an amazing place. A relatively small island on the verge of becoming a tourist hotspot. You can see where they are tearing down the old hut bungalows and building large concrete resorts. It’s crazy that just 30 years ago the island was completely inhabitant by wild elephants. We stayed on Lonely beach, which has become a favorite spot for backpackers to chill out and relax, so there was tons of vegetarian food and everything was pretty cheap. There ended up being about 6 of us staying there, so all shared a couple of bungalows right off the beach for less then $7 a night. Don’t get me wrong; this was by no means the Ritz. Our bungalows were poorly put together by bamboo, wholes everywhere, perfect for mosquitos and geckos to get in. There was no AC just a small fan and one large bed with no blankets. You have to pretend that the mosquitoes net is really saving you from getting eaten alive at night but it’s really hard to complain when your surrounded by such beauty.
Beside the bugs, one of my favorite things about Koh Chang was all the animals. There was wild monkeys climbing on the telephone polls, elephants walking down the street and tons of stray dogs that just come and ate off your plate. At our bungalows alone we had two cows, a dozen cats ( a made really good friends with cat in particular he looked just like my child hood cat spunky but I called him boots) millions of geckos that make crazy noises at night and huge cockroaches. it really was a jungle!
A typical day: We wake up around 11, walk to our favorite breakfast place that is practically on the ocean, we lounge in our hammocks, order fresh fruit shakes and amazing curry dishes. Then walk to the beach and float in the crystal clear warm water for a couple hours soakin up the rays. The best part was once you swim out and turned around all you can see is white sand and the bright green jungle with rolling mountains, truly paradise. One day we even swan to this isolated island that must have been over a mile away. It was very difficult to get to shore because of all the rocks but it was quite the accomplishment to get there. We even found a fresh coconut that we broke open on a rock and drank the milk straight out of, it was right out of a movie screen. After hours of tanning and throwing the Frisbee or rugby ball around, we’d watch the sun fade into the horizon, take a short nap and shower, then we’d head to one of the local bars that are always putting on free barbeques (they even had tofu bbq). Every night one of the bars would host a party, the island was so small you were bound to see everyone from the beach that day and everyone you saw last night.
After 7 days in Koh Chang I had to say goodbye to my English boys. We’ve spent the last 4 weeks together all day everyday and I really become of the mates, for better or worse. They went off to Cambodia to hang out and look for teaching jobs. The girls and me stayed on the island too content to move, we even extended our trip by an extra day because we couldn’t imagine a better place to be or better people.
We meet some really cool people during our 11 days there. A couple of chill guys from Sweden, a group from South Africa who were so sweet and generous, a super friendly Canadian couple and of course a bunch of new English blokes. Its so crazy how we can all come from every corner of the world but we all have so much in common. Everyone is young, loves to travel, out going and completely liberal in all senses of the word. Every time we’d meet new people they were so surprised to learn we from America, they all said they rarely meet any while traveling Southeast Asia and that we were by far the coolest. It was so surprising to hear how excited and appreciative foreigners were to America for electing Obama, they really have a lot of faith they he can restore America’s name abroad.
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