Hello :)
So after leaving Bangkok at 9am, our 7 hour bus ride, 1 hour boat ride and 30 minute taxi ride finally got us to Lonely Beach at Koh Chang (elephant island). After a quick scout around for a hostel we ended up staying at a place called KL KL Hostel. It was a fairly basic room with a private swimming pool but at 200 baht a night, we couldn't complain. Well, except that there was no toilet roll, only the bum gun...... nice.
We ended up eating at a place called the Magic Garden, the food was sooo good we decided to eat there every night. Chicken chashew nut being the highlight and best meal of the trip so far. The next morning we needed the day to rest, so a day out on the scenic and sandy shores of lonely beach was just what the doctor ordered. Definitely the most scenic and stunning place I have seen yet, paradise seemed almost possible! But before too long, we saw it fit to book a jungle and elephant trek the following morning. So with yet another early start, we promised we wouldnt drink much at the beach party later that night. However, I guess promises are made to be broken, I think you can see where I'm going with this :p
So later that night with a few cocktail buckets and flame throwing lunatics, we didn't stand a chance of a quiet night. After chatting to a few of the local travellers, Zoë met a Swedish guy. That's nice, or so we thought.... It turns out he jumped on a bag snatchers motorbike in Cambodia and accidently killed the theif! Feeling somewhat safe after that, we made it back at 3am and were up again at 7am for the jungle and elephant trek.
We got picked up in a truck at 8am and started making our way to the north of the island. Lucy ended up throwing up during the journey there haha. Feeling a bit tender, the last thing we needed was a 5 hour trek through the jungle, scaling almost 750 meters. It was so hot inside the jungle all the alcohol was sweated put in minutes. Despite the hard work it was well worth it once we reached the top - the view was incredible. And reaching the cold water fall on the way down was a relief too! The day was nicely rounded off with an elephant trek and a chance to feed the elephants - definitely a worthwhile experience :)
It was another dinner at Magic Garden and an early night (I promise), as the next day we planned to get out of Koh Chang and head north to Chiang Mai.
Some travel advice:
Try haggling for the price of the room as they gave it to us cheaper on the last night.
Take some extra food and some spare clothes when you go jungle trekking - you get hungry and very sweaty.
Have a look at the local attractions, there are normally great day trips to do.
Look around at different tourism offices for best prices for travel to your next destination. We were quoted 3100 baht for a bus and flight to Chiang Mai. We managed to get a bus to Bangkok for 450 baht and a flight to Chiang Mai (whilst at the airport) for 1800 baht, saving us 850 baht which is worth a lot in Thailand!!!
Ayden
