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Published: July 24th 2010
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Koh Chang
So I decided I could journey to Koh Chang directly from Siam Reap in one day and what a journey it was. I think we used 6 different modes of transport and when news came through to the driver of our minibus that we were running late for the last boat it encouraged him to put his foot to the metal and turned an otherwise normal ride into something that rivalled Nemesis at Alton Towers… it should have been expected that when we got to the dock we had to wait an hour for the boat! I shared this whole experience with an Australian girl Rikki who was meeting her friend Liam from London there who had left her from Cambodia a few days earlier. Koh Chang is I think the 3rd biggest island in Thailand and has now become rather developed after a hippyish start to tourism a decade or two ago. The main beach is White Sands Beach, this is where most of the holidaymakers and families spend their time but a little further along the coast is Lonely Beach, what a gem this is. We arrived at the aptly named Paradise Cottage Resort to find
a very comfortable Liam in a hammock overlooking the sea, Chang-in-hand and wifi’d up, spot on I thought. Paradise became a proper home for me and I found it the hardest place I have had to leave. The people looked after us wonderfully, the food was fantastic and the setting idyllic with six hammock bays set out overlooking the ocean and perfectly aligned for the setting sun. The road and village are set back a couple of hundred yards from the water and nestled between the two is a network of little tracks through the jungle where bars laden with hammocks and comfy seating seem to just pop out of nowhere! The bars are really cool, often on a couple of levels, some up in trees, some right on the beach and the parties are bumping! OK… you will never hear the word ‘party’ used more anywhere than on Lonely Beach, it actually became a running joke. The parties are shared around so each bar has a party on a different night of the week, this is really nice as the same crowd follows around and you make some really good friends, also you don’t have to organise to meet
people or plan anything as everyone just chills on the beach in the day and goes to the party at night. It’s a fantastic little ever evolving community, I probably knew at any one time well over 50 people to stop and have a chat and a laugh with in passing, this place attracts a really good crowd of similarly minded people, those who are relaxed and very much like having fun! So the party of all parties (the biggest ever on Koh Chang) was to be held on Lonely Beach on the 14th of Feb, two big stages were set up on the beach and people were coming from all over Thailand for it, unfortunately I had to leave on the 13th as I still had to get my Indian visa sorted in Bangkok before flying to India on the 20th, doh! Everyone thought it a travesty as I had built up quite a reputation on the circuit in my time there, probably due to such antics as dancing on flame laced bars donning glowsticks and sparklers… among other things which I won’t go into here!
I decided I was going to stay in the night before my
departure as I was sure I had an early morning the next morning though after much persuasion I checked my ticket for the morning to see how feasible going out was and the ticket stated 11am, a cold Chang was in hand within seconds. I awoke a little dazed and stumbled to reception at 10.30am and the look on the receptionist’s face spoke louder than any words ‘What are you still doing here!?’. 11am was the time for the ferry back to the mainland from the other end of the island and the last ferry was at 12pm with the last taxi up there leaving in 5 minutes from the village, RUN was the shout! So with a 10 day hangover, 20+ kilos on my back in the sweltering heat I proceed at rapid pace through the jungle and just catch the last ride, as we arrived at the ferry they were just lifting up the ramp but I managed to get myself on! Result.
Bangkok... again!
It’s always quite nice to go to a familiar place again when travelling so arriving in Bangkok for the third time kind of felt like arriving home. A couple of months
before a friend of mine Martin, who I used to work with at RBS years ago had seen that I was around these parts and got in contact as he too was coming over to Asia so we planned to meet upon his return from the islands. What is strange though is that another friend, Adrien who also worked in the same office had got in touch a few weeks before and was landing in Bangkok only a few days later. Even stranger, a friend from Bristol, Scott who’s room I took when I first moved out to Clifton was on holiday from teaching in China and was also in Bangkok, now it really was like coming home! So couple this with meeting up with some Thai people who I had met on my previous times there, as you can imagine the partying continued! The whole week was pretty uneventful apart from the constant partying and sorting my visa out, only ‘sight’ I managed was Scirocco, the Sky Bar, it sits atop Bangkok‘s second highest building. It was really cool, a classy joint complete with brass band, the views were stunning. We didn’t stay long due to the prices of
the drinks! Though described as uneventful above, lads please ask for the stories of mine and Martin’s ’Outrageous Night Out‘, it’ll go down in history!
So a hectic few weeks, Koh Chang is the place to be and I must say I really warmed to Bangkok like I hadn’t expected to.
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