Koh Chang, Thailand 23 - 31 December 2010

It was time to move on, next on the itinerary was Thailand and the island of Koh Chang in the Gulf of Thailand, close to Cambodia. It took us a whole day to get there; a couple of flights, some mini-van rides and finally a ferry! When I first looked into Thailand, I wanted to go to Koh Lipe on the west coast, but I couldn’t get any decent accommodation and ferry connections that worked, and now in hindsight, it probably wasn’t meant to be, as it turned out that they got a lot of rain on that side of Thailand over Christmas.

We had 9 lazy days on the beach, staying at Koh Chang Paradise Resort & Spa on Klong Prao Beach.
Koh Chang is quite a large island, Thailand’s second largest, which has only one road that follows the coast all round the island. The interior is all mountains, waterfalls and jungle. The island is a big National Park where of 75% is protected area, also in the surrounding sea. People live mainly from fishing, gum tree plantations and recently, to some extent, tourism. It is still very much a laid-back unspoiled island, popular with back-packers, although recently a few larger resorts are being built. 


We were taken by surprise by the number of Swedish people that were everywhere! Restaurants were serving Swedish meatballs and Janson’s frestelse and one place even offered snus ( Swedish snuff)!! Even the staff in some shops happily spoke a little Swedish with us …no fun really!
We totally relaxed, spent the days on the beach or by the pool reading or doing nothing. There were some great wooden swings on the beach, from which it was fun jumping into the sea. 


In the evenings we went out to different Thai restaurants most of them where directly on the beach with candlelit tables – very atmospheric! Lonely Beach further south is a cool back-packer haunt and White Sand Beach is the busiest beach at daytime with lots of restaurants and bars, which in the evenings turns, into a big party place. Fun but we preferred our quieter beach. 


On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve the hotel had set up a Gala dinner with candlelit tables directly on the beach. There was firework and other entertainment so it was very festive, even Santa came by for a visit…




As a Christmas present we all treated ourselves to heavenly massages. To begin with, they put Matilda and me in a Jacuzzi bubble bath surrounded by candles. Then we each had a one-hour facial, Matilda a deep cleansing one and I had an anti-wrinkle one… This was followed by 1 ½ hour full body massage with our chosen warm oils. It was sooooo good! Elliot was happy with just a foot reflexology.

One day we got our adrenalin kicking by going to a Tree-top Adventure place in the jungle, run by a French guy. We fastened our double harnesses tightly and were swinging ourselves high off the ground into various obstacle courses. The flying skateboard was a favourite... We came across some real monkeys up in the trees and I swear I saw them laughing at us! Another day we went to Bang Bao, a fishing village on stilts, from where we went on a snorkel trip to Koh Mak, Koh Rayang, Koh Ran and some other beautiful islands. We saw some amazing fish, but the coral wasn’t too impressive.

The only unfortunate thing that happened during our trip was a nasty motorcycle accident. We had rented motorbikes to explore the island, not that I had ever driven a motorbike or a moped before, but I took it easy with Elliot at the back. He was a bit nervous and told me when to slow down or to stop beeping the annoying horn. We were doing fine, despite crazy traffic and stray dogs all over the road. It was Peter, with Matilda at the back, who lost grip in a sharp uphill curve, when turning out from a scenic viewing point. They came too far out in the gravel, which caused them flying. Scary!!

Luckily, there was no traffic coming and people quickly came running to our help. Matilda flew off, yes we all had helmets, and she landed on her bottom, miraculous unhurt. Peter had some deep cuts on his leg and foot, which were badly bleeding. A girl came with a first aid kit, cleaned it and put on some bandage. The motorbike was battered, but we managed to put back some parts that had fallen off and after some desperate tries the engine finally decided to start. We were all a bit apprehensive after what had happened and how much worse it could have been, that we decided to return back. It was late afternoon anyway and time for a very strong coffee!! 

In the evening we took a tuk-tuk to Bang Bao village to have a fantastic meal at Buddha View Restaurant. The restaurant was built on stilts over the water and at some low tables you were sitting on the floor on cushions and there was no floor under the table so your feet were  dangling free above the water - cool! The food was excellent and the service too.




The next day, on New Years Eve, we left Peter to lick his wounds and went elephant trekking through the jungle in the northern part of the island. The three of us shared an elephant, taking turns sitting at the front behind the ears and shouting “hua-hua “ to try and speed things up a bit… Our elephant was called “lilla älsklingen” no joke! (it means little darling in Swedish!) When we came to a river, we went in swimming with the elephant, he loved when we scrubbed his back with a brush and he showered us with water. The jungle was dense and there were so many sounds in the jungle, it was a truly fantastic experience for all of us. Afterwards the kids gave the elephant a banana to say thank you! They were about to peel it before giving it the the elephant...out of sheer habit....


Our last evening came and we went down to the beach to drink some bubbles as the red sun lowly disappeared  into the ocean... We were sitting there reflecting over the year that passed and all felt very satisfied and grateful!

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