Hello All,
After an 8 hour bus trip from Bangkok to Trat then a 40 minute ferry ride to Koh Chang Island followed by a 30km journey in the back of a shared taxi to Bang Bao beach village and a 10minute walk to Cliff Cottage we were a little disheartened to find that our cliff top bungalow was indeed as ´rustic´ as promised.We shouldn´t complain though because for 350baht or about 12AUD our bungalow sits perched high on a cliff top overlooking the Gulf of Thailand on one side and Jungle on the other.It seemed really hot and sticky and maybe it was or maybe it was simply the fact that we had been in air-conditioned rooms for numerous days but beneath our pink mosquito net the circulating air from the pedestal fan seems barely able to cause a ripple in the netting.We do get an evening breezes so that is yet another thing to be grateful for in our bungalow.The showers and toilets are at the base of the cliff so it is a rather steep climb down and back up when nature calls.It is so far down the hill that one needs to answer the call on the first ring ......
Koh chang is covered in rain forest that has been largely undisturbed at this point in time due to the mountainous terrain of the island unfortunately I think that that is all about to change because as Lonely Planet says ¨Just a few years back,Koh Chang was an out post near ´war torn´ Cambodia where hippies revelled in some of South east Asia´s best untamed forests and isolated coast.Then the world caught up¨ The Thai Government´s new plan is apparently to push backpackers out and bring luxury tourist in so bungalows are being bulldozed and resorts are starting to appear so we decided that there was no time to waste as we are the backpackers that ´they´are supposedly trying to replace.
Day 1
We decided that the best way to start our time on Koh Chang island was to start exploring the underwater world so with our new snorkelling gear ,untested underwater camera casing,coated in SPF50 sunburnt cream and zinc (remember these items) we headed out to the bay directly in front of our accommodation and plunged in head first. We were a little disappointed to find that the visibility in the water wasn´t as good as we had hoped.We could see that there were quite a few different species of fish around but we thought that visibility had to be better elsewhere so climbed out and decided that it was time to explore one of the many other beaches that were on offer around the island.We shook ourselves dry and walked into town and flagged down a taxi and headed to lonely beach to try our luck.We walked about 200m along lonely beach before coming to a headland where we sat down on the blindingly white sands to prepared ourselves for our next attempt.We slap on more sunburnt cream and encase all valuables with us including the sunburnt creams into multiple layers of plastic bags before putting the bundle into an orange waterproof bag.The water temperature is about 30degrees so it is easy to swim and swim and then swim some more without getting cold so that is exactly what we did we swam a few kilometres to Siam Beach .Visibility was quite good and there were many different species of tropical fish and brightly coloured clams to be seen so despite looking like wrinkled albino prunes we were happy with the decision that we had made to swim around the headland.We rested for a while on Siam beach in the shade of a coconut tree took in some sustenance reapplied the SPF50 and decided that we would try and walk back some of the way to Lonely beach where we had left a bag with towels and additional water.This plan was going okay for about 200metres before we hit a cliff with impenetrable jungle so we had to backtrack and climb down the rocks to reach the water.Unfortunately the rocks were covered in sharp oyster shells so the timing had to be just perfect for re entry into the water or you ran the risk of knowing exactly how a carrot felt when it was being grated.We came through relatively unscathed only to discover that the current was working against so we had to work twice as hard to get ourselves back to lonely beach.We were exhausted and relieved to round the headland to see lonely beach but were dismayed to see and least two white pointers sorry topless ´ladies´ on our beach.We reclaimed our possessions which were untouched and exactly where we had left them and headed into Hat Tha Nam (Lonely Beach) village to eat and then retreat back to the bungalow.The lady in the roadside cafe didn´t seen to mind that we were dripping wet and happily served us Seafood Pad Thai and Cashew Nut Chicken chased down with a banana shake/icy for David and a Lemon Shake/icy for Vanessa she even helped us by getting one of the taxi drivers to take us back to Bang Bao beach after we had purchased our daily ice creams at 7-11.
Later that afternoon we discovered that 7hrs in the sun and water has painful consequences.Severe sunburn on the back of our legs so much for SPF50 sunburn cream we may as well have been holding magnifying glasses to our legs the burns would have been less severe.We walked back into town purchased some coconut oil for Vanessa´s hair and some Aloe Vera to supposedly soothe our sunburn. We are schedule to snorkel with a dive boat tomorrow so we will have to be a little more careful than we already were!!!
Bye for Now,
Vanessa and David
