Koh Chang

So my trip to Koh Chang didn't end up quite how I expected it to, however I still had a great time and I continue to fall in love with the people here in Thailand. They are just so nice.

Welcome To Koh Chang!

Trevor, Rachelle, and I arrived on Koh Chang on Thursday morning and took a taxi to Lonely Beach where we found a beautiful little bungalow right on the water.

Our view from our Bungalow

Seaflower Bungalows

That's me exploring the water, there were little crabs everywhere

The people who owned the Seaflower Bungalows were so sweet to us. Never pushy, always asking if we needed anything. After we got settled we checked out the nearby beach and walked along the shore.

Lonely Beach

Then we found a great, cheap place for dinner where I had an amazing noodle, stir-fry, seafood dish. It was quite spicy but I've come to find that my taste buds have adapted rather well to the spicy flavor of Thai cuisine.

Dinner at Baan Mai

That night we explored the nightlife a little bit. At this beach the police have an agreement with the bars so that one bar per night has permission to crank their music really loud in order to keep the music level down (so that not every bar has their music really loud because the combined noise would not allow anyone to get any rest). So each night one bar has a free barbecue, cheap drinks, and dancing.

Breakfast at Sunset Hut Restaurant, where the live band Filipino band played at night

The next day we went to Ban Chang Thai, an elephant camp, and rode and swam with elephants for two hours. The elephants were so cool. They were quite domesticated though, they reminded me of very well trained horses or dogs even. They listened quite readily to the men that instructed them and were never aggressive or violent. We got to ride them in the water, they would dunk you and roll, like bull riding but on an elephant... in the water.

That's us hanging out with Tukta, our 39 year old mother elephant

Our guide told us elephants live up to 100 years old and when they are pregnant they stay pregnant for 2 and a half years... yikes

Where we went swimming

Bottoms up

Trevor struggling with his elephant friend

Trevor was knocked off multiple times

Us laughing at Trevor

When we got back to the camp there was a monkey on a perch with bunch of pictures of people cuddling the monkey. So decided to take a picture with it, however this monkey was not quite as cuddly as the pictures displayed. He ended up stealing my hair tie and biting me. I'm currently not a fan of monkeys to say the least.

How it begins...

Attempting to pull my hair tie out of my hair

This is right before I actually throw this monkey because he decides it's ok to bite me

After the elephant camp we walked to Khlong Phlu waterfall. It was beautiful. It reminded me a bit of Dartmouth and the ledges only with more of a tropical feel. The dip in the pool at the bottom was quite refreshing.

Scouting the area...

... and jump!

For dinner we headed to Bang Bao, a fishing village at the Southwest end of the island. Houses, shops, and restaurants are all set up on this long pier protruding into the Bay, with fishing boats all around. We found a fresh seafood restaurant (literally the fish, crabs, squid, prawns were being hauled in and laid in tanks at the front of the restaurant). I watched the sunset as I ate a crab and curry dish, however the crab is not cracked for you, and they don't supply any kind of crackers, so I had a good time finding the crab meat before I ate anything.

View from Bang Bao Pier

Sunset at dinner

That night and the next we watched a live Filipino band play covers and saw a Muy Thai fight which ended with the two fighters flipping out of the ring (so intense!).
The rest of the trip we hung out at the beach and Rachelle and I enjoyed a nice relaxing massage at sunset. We managed to make it to one of the free barbecues, which was delicious.

Sunset and Massages

 I unfortunately had some money stolen from me so I spent a good portion of one of the days with a wonderful Thai couple, who helped me contact the tourist police and do everything I could to retrieve my money. Although nothing came of the efforts, the Thai people that helped me were unbelievable. They never asked for anything and they were genuinely concerned about me the whole time. Their attitude was amazing and was one of the only things keeping me optimistic. In the long run, I'm lucky it was just money and nothing else, and I'm honestly just glad to have met the couple from the Sunshine resort. We ate the rest of our meals from there while we were on the island. They are amazing cooks as well.

The last day we rented two motorbikes for the three of us so we could explore some more of the island, however the island's terrain was a bit treacherous and while I was driving the two person scooter down a very steep descent, the weight of the scooter was too much and I lost control and wiped out. So we headed back to town and I cleaned up the few scrapes I had acquired and just chilled out for the rest of the day until we headed back to Bangkok.

After the accident with a few more scrapes and bruises than I had anticipated getting on this island

Overall the trip was good. The island's landscape was beautiful as it was mostly made up of a jungle with beaches surrounding it, however, it's great to be back in Bangkok. I have a midterm on Wednesday and then Kayla Gebeck, a friend from school, will be coming to visit me on Thursday! I can't wait!