Koh Chang

After six weeks of being in Thailand, it’s finally happened.  It hit me suddenly and without warning, not like the gradual creep that I had expected.  But I’m ready to admit now that I’m in love, and I don’t care who knows it.  I’ve fallen in love with this country and I don’t think there’s any turning back…

This Monday was the King’s Birthday, and a national holiday, so we got our first three-day weekend.  We decided to pack our bags and head to the beach. From Suphan, we took a van to Bangkok, and then caught another van to Trat (after getting McDonald’s first of course).  From Trat, we took a truck ride to the pier, then a ferry ride to the island of Koh Chang.  It took about 8-9 hours total, but after the first view of the island, the long ride was all worth it.  Koh Chang (meaning “Elephant Island”) is about 20 km long and is mostly mountains and jungle.  It’s starting to become a popular tourist spot, but not quite as bad as some of the better known islands.

Our hotel was called Blue Lagoon, and it was made up of one-room bungalows on the bank of a little inlet from the ocean.  It had a lot of character and was about 200 m from the beach (plus it was only $20 a night).  We walked to the beach when we first got there, and the only thing everyone kept saying was, “this just can’t be fair”.  It was unreal how pretty the beach was.  You could see other islands in the distance, and looking back towards land all you noticed were the jungle covered mountains.  We knew already that it was going to be a big struggle leaving the island to go home.  Words can’t describe the feeling of pure bliss we had as we took in the surroundings. Here's a video of the beach: Beach Video

A big group of our friends from orientation met up on the island as well, so we had a lot of people to hang out with. The first day was spent lounging on the beach and walking into town for food (we probably had about 10 mango/banana smoothies in 3 days).  And on Sunday, we learned a little more about why it is called Elephant Island.  There is an elephant sanctuary in Koh Chang, so we got to ride elephants through the jungle!  It was really crazy and really awesome.  They are so smart, and such big animals, it was an unforgettable experience. 

After the elephants, we rented motorbikes and drove down the coast to some other towns.  The roads were pretty steep and winding, but thankfully Cyrus had a lot of scooter experience from home, so he was pretty much an expert!  We had one minor incident, but I survived with only a scraped knee. Don’t worry mom, we were really careful and were both wearing helmets. 

 This picture is at a lookout spot we found on our motorbike ride:

Unfortunately, we had to leave early on Monday.  I easily could have spent another week there, but it was a good trip.  We had a long ride home, but eventually made it to Suphan and promptly fell asleep.  We have another three-day weekend coming up, so we’ll be heading somewhere new.

Paige, Cyrus, and Elephants