Week 99 - Koh Chang, Bangkok (Thailand)

We checked out of our hotel in Bangkok and walked the short distance to the ticket office, near Khao San Road, where our bus was due to collect us for the journey to the ferry pier for Koh Chang. We hadn’t really taken the whole monsoon thing into consideration and chose Koh Chang as it’s part of the Trat Island group, near to Bangkok and the Cambodia border and neither of us had been there before. In August, Koh Chang is supposed to get the worst of the monsoon with 26 days of rain but we’d checked the forecast and decided it was worth a try.

The bus was extremely comfortable and the 6 hour drive passed painlessly. We took the 45 min ferry over to the island and then jumped in the back of a taxi truck to Lonely Beach, the main backpacker village on the island. Koh Chang is the second largest island in Thailand but is nowhere near as built up as the largest, Phuket. The mountainous interior is a national park, filled with jungle hiding waterfalls and wildlife. That’s not to say it isn’t marred by development and as the road passes through each town it’s lined with hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops and travel booths, all blocking the public access to the beach so that actually finding a beach can be a hassle. Lonely Beach is at the far side of the island and is one of the less developed areas. Off the main street, there are a few laneways lined with backpacker haunts, bars and cafes and a short walk from the village is a decent stretch of beach. 

Since we have a busy couple of months ahead in India, Nepal and China, have spent a fortune on visas and flights of late and have grown a bit blasé about tropical beaches and snorkeling (particularly when it’s the wrong season) having been to some mind blowing places recently, we decided not to do any trips to the nearby islands and spent five incredibly laid back days, mostly in Lonely Beach.

We’d reserved a room at Margaritaville, which came with shining reviews, for our first three nights and after arriving in the late afternoon, wandered out for a kebab to tide us over to dinner. We explored the village and walked over to the beach where we had a quick beer on a terrace overlooking the sea. Back at our room we took a couple of hours to relax and recover from the journey before heading out again that night to find a bar that i’m sure is heaving in peak season, but was dead as the majority of the village, where we drank free vodka buckets and watched Jackass.

The electricity tripped out in the middle of the night and the room became stifling. We rose grumpy and sweaty and only left the room to cool down. We didn’t go far and had an early lunch at a restaurant across the street while they fixed the fault. The electric went on and off all day and with it the water, and then when it did work we were only allowed the fan. After complaining, we received a 50% discount for our first night. For dinner we ended up at a Danish/Thai owned place eating mashed potatoes.

We rented a motorbike the next day to explore the island. First, we headed south to Bang Bao, a fishing village built around a pier that is slowly being overtaken with souvenir shops and handmade ice cream shacks. After a walk along the pier to the light house we bought ice coffees and yoghurts for breakfast from the 7/11 and went to sit on a beach on the south coast to eat them. 

Lighthouse at Bang Bao, Koh Chang.

View of Bang Bao, Koh Chang.

South coast beach, Koh Chang.

Back on the bike we rode north along the west coast to the ferry port, stopping at a small chinese temple, with the intention of beach hopping back down to Lonely Beach, after lunch in an Irish Bar. Rhys wasn’t feeling great though, so we went straight back to ours without stopping and Rhys settled to watch TV in the room while I went back out on the bike to try and find access to the beach at Hat Kaibae, failing miserably I ended up at the beach in our village where I spent a couple of hours lying in the sun and reading.

Lonely Beach, Koh Chang.

The next day we decided to move to a new bungalow complex. Although ours was brand new and nicely decorated it was expensive for what you got and for cheaper we got a pool, electric that didn’t cut in and out, light bulbs, a fridge and a TV. We grabbed a coffee by the sea before hanging out by the pool until our room was ready. Other than a short walk to the beach to paddle in the sea, we didn’t venture out again for long, spending the time getting everything organised for India and China. 

As the Premier League started that night we headed out to find a bar showing the games. After struggling, we ended up back at the Danish/Thai place where we set up base for the next couple of hours, celebrating Spurs first win of the season.

Our last day in Koh Chang was equally non-eventful. We woke late and continued with the planning while we had decent internet. We found a great cheap little cafe for lunch called Cafe del Sun with a pool table and ended up returning there again for dinner that night.

All up, we probably didn’t make the most of Koh Chang but it wasn’t really the right time of year to be there. It was more somewhere we could stay, outside of Bangkok, while waiting for our Indian visas. We were incredibly lucky that it only rained over night and apart from intense humidity, we had great weather.

The next morning we left for the return trip to Bangkok. We jumped on a truck taxi back to the port, then a ferry, then a bus and arrived at our hotel just north of Khao San Road in the early evening. We’d found out that our favourite Portuguese, Mario was in town, having not seen him since Ubud in June, and we arranged to meet up with him for dinner and a few drinks. After street food we ended up at our favourite bar, drinking buckets, eating scorpions, adopting French men called Quentin and taking photos wearing stupid hats, oh how we love Khao San, and Mario. 

Drinking buckets on Khao San Road with Mario, Bangkok.

Having got in late we enjoyed a lay in, in our tiny hotel room (beautifully decorated and great location but no room to swing a cat). We had some final chores to run before leaving Bangkok and jumped in a cab to the main shopping street. We stumbled upon a decent sports store and found me some bargain hiking boots (hiking gear is really really hard to find in Bangkok) before taking a trip to the electrical mall and then the MBK centre. Back at Khao San we chilled in our room before street food dinner. Rhys headed back to the hotel and I did some final shopping on Khao San, getting caught in a tropical storm, before bed.