We have been chilling out on the Thai Island of Koh Chang, which was a welcome mini holiday to recover from all the 'stress' of travelling! Mind you, getting there was enough of an effort - it took us a whole day to get there from Siem Reap: a flight to Bangkok, then another one to Trat (south Thailand), a 1 hour boat ride to Koh Chang and to top it off a 30 minute car journey to our resort. A long trip, especially as you take into account that the distance, as the crow flies, is only 350 kilometer (which by car would have taken even longer - dirt roads).
Fortunately, the trip was broken up by some new experiences - Trat airport was nothing than a few wooden huts, while the transfer to the plane was via a seaside resort train-car. The airport handles only 3 flights per day, which is just as well, as the runway doubles as a through road for the locals for the rest of the day.
Upon arrival at our accommodation (an Indonesian-style wooden hut (in Thailand!?) - but with mod cons including the needed air conditioner), Nicola checked the bathroom only to find a 10 inch red and green lizard sitting above the shower! It disappeared pretty quickly (so we realised it wasn't fake!) and only resurfaced on our last night.
However, that wasn't the end of our animal encounters as later that night we found out we had mice. They made their presence known by running across the beams in the roof on each side of the hut, by poking their head around the bathroom door or just scurrying under the bed. Back to nature! We decided (wisely or not?) that since it was our choice to stay in a hut in a tropical garden we couldn't really complain but to be certain we slept under the mosquito net every night - obviously to avoid the odd mosquito but also any mice falling off the roof!!!!
With the exception of the second day (as we had had too much sun the first day) our time in Koh Chang consisted of chilling out at the beach, reading in the shade (it was hot!), swimming, the odd massage and eating.
The beach we were staying (Liam Chiachet) is relatively quiet and has one of the nicest beaches - a long stretch of sand shaded by palm trees. The water was warm, relatively calm and we only swam out of our depth once at high tide - and this was still a good walk out!
We ate some pretty good food, the highlights of which were fresh curried crab on the BBQ and a yellow curry. We also had the biggest prawns we have ever seen - but unfortunately they were not as juicy as their smaller counterparts! The crab and prawns were eaten at a beach side cafe - all very idyllic!! - which also included a fire show, which was actually pretty good.
The second day - our only non beach day - resulted in us - surprise surprise - doing a 5 hour walk around part of the Island. We started off by walking to a waterfall (the only one on the west side of the Island). We thought the entrance of 6GBP/9EUR each was a little steep, but as we had walked an hour to get there we coughed up! A 20 minute walk led us to the waterfall and a deep rock pool where we had a refreshing dip in the cool water - a lot of fun and JP's first swim in a waterfall rock pool. Following on from there we walked either along the beach or on the road when this was not possible. There is just one road around the Island, which is very steep in parts. Which we experienced at the last section of our hike where we walked half an hour up a steep road and then a dirt path to a view point. Let's just say we were knackered when we arrived at the top! On our way back down (to find the Island bus service) we found another view point, which we realised was the one we were aiming for! Never mind - we are getting good legs!!!!
We enjoyed the remainder of our time in Koh Chang, but we were ready to leave the beach life behind - although maybe not the Thai food. Next stop Penang, Malaysia, the first predominately Muslim country on our travels and where we will meet up with Tammy and Ian for a few days.....
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