Little Koh Chang - Chiang Rai

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And so were nearing the end of our stay on Koh Chang. It had been a wonderful time and we knew this was an island we would return to. The understated Christmas (with lovely chats on the phone to our three children). The surreal New Years Eve, the people we had met and the stories we had heard. One in particular that we will remember was from the Canadian couple staying in the bungalow near us. I would say they were in their 70's and not your typical couple of that age as is common in Thailand. They were an arty couple, he a musician and her an artist. They both had long hair down to their waist and were regulars on Koh Chang having lived and worked there in the past. They now stayed for Canadian winter, October - May each year. They talked to us about their interesting life and recounted how they were living on Koh Chang at the time of the tsunami. The first thing that happened early in the morning was two massive earthquakes. Oliver was already awake and Kay was making coffee. Nothing else happened for a while and then as they were sitting drinking coffee Oliver was looking out to sea as usual, a scene they looked at every morning, and noticed way out a wide brown line in the water. He didn't know what it was but he didn't like it! Living where they did they had their own personail tsunami drill with a bag of supplies always ready. Oliver said to Kay I think this is a tsunami we should run. Which they did, to the top of the island. They had made the right decision. It was very shortly after this that the tsunami hit Koh Chang. Kay said that for 6 hours at least massive waves came and pounded the island full of debris, houses, boats, anything in its path. They saw people out at sea who disappeared never to be seen again. They were cut off from the outside world after that day for two weeks. Army ships would bring them food and water but they couldn't leave. So they didn't know the extent of the tsunami until weeks later and this they found very hard to deal with. They both, particularly Kay, still suffer some ill effects of having lived through it. They can no longer sleep if they are in a bungalow on the beach as they can hear the waves and are listening for when it doesn't sound normal and they suffer survivor guilt even today. It was quite a story to hear!

For us it was time to leave with hugs and goodbyes for Chum and Gunter, still thanking me for helping Gunter when he collapsed we waited for the 8 o'clock long tail. So as it happens were Leibfraumilch and her hubbie. Me in my shorts and t shirt, no make up. Her in a little black dress, face done and hair flowing. We had as usual to wade into almost waist deep water and grab the ladder climbing on when it was safe to do so as the boat moved back and forth in the surf. So the little dress didn't stay dry long. Next as we bobbed through the waves there was a lot of spray so the side and front pastic windows were rolled down leaving Leibfraumilch on the spray side of the window at the front and hubbie protected inside. Was he the gentleman and change places! No! When we arrived at the pier at Ranong the hair and make up had suffered a little as well.

So one night noisy night was spent in Ranong before the early nail biting, thinking we would miss our flight, taxi to Ranong and then flight via Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We stayed at Finlay's Cottage where we have stayed on previous visit and it was like coming home. The area was very familiar and we visited Ratanas Kitchen for dinner, a previous haunt, had a wonderful pedicure and foot scrub. 1hr and polish for £3! Stocked up on protect and perfect serum at Boots. A third of UK price and got myself a Thai loyalty card. Reminded us of our time spent there after our time at The Elephant Nature Park when we met our friends Hannah and Sandy. Great times and great memories. Met a guy called Ben, Hungarian, who owned a bar Pregos near Thapai Gate who gave us some recommendations for Chiang Rai where we were heading.

Next day we were off on our 3 hour journey to our next stop, Tha ton, by local bus. These aren't the fastest but are by no means the most uncomfortable. It did in the end take 4 hours but in relative comfort. We were met by the owner of our guesthouse for the next few days. It was a lovely house with large terraces on the edge of the Tok river. We immediately liked Thai Suni and her partner, Dutch Joop And very quickly realised we would like to stay a little longer in this sleepy little town. Whilst there we climbed the hill on the river to a temple the Wat Tha ton. The most striking building of the temple complex is the newly built Chedi Kaew or Crystal Pagoda. Beautiful, and worth the climb. Steve went off in the afternoon to explore by push bike while i chilled as I had been given the most awful cold by our host at Finlay's Cottage!

In the hills surrounding Tha ton live many tribes. The Akhar, Karen, longneck Karen(the women where brass rings around their necks),Lahu,Palong and others. Many of these tribes are refugees from Burma and China who have been able to settle in Northern Thailand and many still live a very sheltered traditional life. We were very luck when Joop got us all up very early one morning to take us to one of the few traditional markets left. We wandered along the road in the early morning mist marvelling at the extent of the wonderful produce and trying all sorts of tempting street food. My favourite, sticky rice combined with fruit and rolled in coconut. There were all sorts of sausages. Crispy greens in tempura batter, Thai spicy pork flattened and barbecued on sticks. Yum!! It was a photographer and people watchers heaven. There were 7 of us and we only saw 2 or 3 other farang. Great morning.

That morning our time with Suni and Joop was coming to an end and we had along with to other couples hired a long tail boat with driver to take us the four hours along the Tok River to Chiang Rai, our next destination. It was a beautiful if rather noisy journey winding through the countryside. We, as we had hired the boat, didn't want to stop at any of the 'tourist' stops along the way so managed the journey in 2 1/2 hours but our driver wasn't very happy about that(probably gets something for taking tourists to them) and so very unceremoniously dumped us on the 'wrong' side of the river when we got to Chiang Rai. No probs, no tip! We all got a taxi together into town. Uncharted territory for us!!

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