7th - 21st Jan 2008 : Kao San To Ko Chang - The Journey Continues

---

Following a busy Christmas break visiting all you lovely folk back in sunny *cough* old England, it was with great anticipation that we set out again to complete our ‘World Tour’. Our nine months in Lamerica had been a spectacular opener, full of ancient culture, majestic monolithic ruins, colourful peoples and very special memories all of which culminated after completing the arduous Inca Trail and savouring the lofty mountainous idyll of Machu Picchu. I must confess that this leg of our journey is somewhat unfamiliar to me, or should I say that I really don’t have a clue as to what I want to see, the real draw here for me is Angkor Wat and its temples in Cambodia - a place every traveller we have spoken to talks about in reverential tones. So without a game plan, and probably with more of an open mind we begin our latest instalment in Thailand and the sprawling metropolis that is Bangkok.

Stepping out of Bangkok airport we jumped into a taxi and headed for Kao San Road, dubbed by many guidebooks as the backpackers mecca. Our taxi driver however seemed to think we needed to book a hotel via a ‘Governmental Accommodation Bureau’ as the hotels will all be full for some reason or another, being new in town we thought nothing of it. Be warned THIS IS A SCAM! We found out a few days later after reading local literature that this is a popular scam for new arrivals at the airport - Doh! Although to be honest this scam didn’t really leave us out of pocket - the so called ‘Travel Agent’ didn’t come across as being overtly dodgy and they must have made maybe two dollars on the hotels actual tariff so considering we only booked a couple of nights in advance we were SCAMMED for the grand total of two pounds something a parking meter on your high street in England will happily fleece you of in half an hour, so be warned folks! Needless to say two pounds sterling will actually go a lot further in this part of the world, even further than it stretched in Central & South America so while us stupidly ‘rich’ Europeans lost some loose change, some poor scammer could have fed the family for a few days - I say fair play to them - food for thoughtlessness.

Anyway enough of the governmental wealth warning, we arrived at Kao San Road and wow…. it’s a big old zoo. For all of you (like me) who have never heard of it, it’s a street rammed to the gills with bars, clubs, restaurants, Thai girl pick-up joints, knock off designer clothes, leather wear, dirt cheap high quality tailored suits, DVD’s, CD’s, MP3’s uploaded to your iPod, fast food stalls, beer in buckets, noise, rowdiness and insanity. Basically everything here is cheap as chips, and every traveller from every continent has to put in an appearance to marvel at the overwhelming variety of ‘funny’ slogan T-shirts, big name branded beach shorts, flip-flops, or sunglasses, or to just wander its length and pick up some amazing bargain because its just about impossible to resist the tacky neon shopping nirvana that this area of Bangkok provides. What a great place to start our new travels in, everything is here, and after settling into the hotel for a good few days and stocking up on a whole library of DVD’s to be watching in the near future, we decided to get out of this crazy town and head for the coast to fully unwind after Christmas in England. I know, England wasn’t really that bad, expensive yes but bad, not really. I just felt I needed to settle somewhere for more than a few days and a stint on a tropical palm fringed shore line certainly beats the frenetic energy that Kao San Road was pumping out, and due to it’s prime central location we realised we were going to be using Bangkok as a springboard on more than one occasion in the coming months. Claire had an unsettled time over Christmas too, so after pouring over the local travel guides for a while we settled on the Trat Island of Ko Chang as our first get away, somewhere with peace and quiet to stitch together our South East Asian adventure. Time to chill with the still.

I love the sea, I love beaches, I love it here already, certainly beats the shit out of smoggy downtown Bangkok. Proper slice of paradise this, following a good days travel out of Bangkok by bus we were dropped at the ferry port late afternoon to catch our boat over to the largest of Thailand’s eastern coastal Trat Islands - Ko Chang. Yay beachy! Fabulously calm, clear coral seas, soft white sandy beaches and lush tropical rainforest frame this rugged mountain isle. This still developing tourist destination has charm in abundance and according to the travel literature it’s the Thai’s favourite getaway too, it’s not hard to understand why. The Thai government apparently earmarked this vision of heaven on earth as a future cash cow and realising the importance of sustainable eco tourism readily slapped a national marine reserve status on its crystal clear waters and mightily impressive coral reef network. So although this once sleepy fishing village is undergoing a massive transformation into a dreamy eyed ‘got to get to’ holiday destination hopefully the eco-savvy government have curtailed the wanton destruction of beauty that us overly eager travellers inadvertently bring when we stampede towards a new paradise. That said, I firmly believe that everything has a shelf life, and it may just be a matter of years before this island reaches a zenith before it is just another luxury holiday destination, at the moment the island is available to everyone, every budget is catered for from the ultra chic spa resort for the overindulgent six star business class to the humble bivvy on the beach with communal wash facilities for the one star, hairy, unwashed backpackers on a budget - but hey there seemed to be a lively party scene in that district - so whatever floats your boat.

The party people most definitely have the least desirable stretch of coastline at the moment, whereas the new mega resorts have safely muscled their way into the most tranquil beautiful beaches and begun to seclude themselves from the rabble. I envisage the concrete corporates will eventually take over the whole western coastline, pushing up land prices, squeezing out the independents, the party scene will move elsewhere… as it always does, but for me, for now, Ko Chang seemed to offer the right blend of wilderness and modernity, of shabby and sleek, of having just enough roughness around the edges to appeal to my sense of adventure without being too remote or unforgiving and having enough refinement without being too lavish. All in all a great place to unwind, and having started off at a little resort that was just too far from the rest of islands civilised core (and too near the party scene) we cut loose after a day and headed to Kai Bae which happily nestles itself between the uber swish overly developed Whitesands, and the party peoples Lonely Beach. Kai Bae offers a fantastic array of restaurants, boutiques, dive shops and tourist agents blending in casually with a terrific beachfront and following an exhaustive search we managed to bag a mid priced beachfront bungalow complete with fantastic pool and stunning views, we were more than happy to pay a little extra for this little bit of luxury, after all this was the start of the holiday so may as well live it up a bit and get into the right frame of mind.

For the next ten days we didn’t exactly do a lot, sunbathing, swimming, snorkelling, eating out and watching some of our stock of DVD’s bought from Kao San Road, the highlight of our batch was Dexter (a series about a serial killer) we managed to watch both two series over our stay and all I can say is it’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. We took a five island snorkelling trip to see some of the finest tropical fish and coral beds I have ever witnessed putting my previous Caribbean trips to shame with its still thriving sea life. Eating out was pure heaven, fish and monster shrimps cooked to your liking over barbeques, and all at incredibly low prices. All in all Ko Chang is a winner on all fronts, and having spent a good two weeks just getting some major R& R we were fully refreshed to let the tourist adventure begin again proper. Claire had a week’s meditation course booked up at some retreat in north Thailand, and I was going to catch some local flavour around Bangkok whilst she was away - so we said farewell to paradise and headed back to Kao San Road. So until next time I say ‘sawatdee’ or goodbye in English :o)

---

Comments

[Emma]

Sawadeeka
Hey Hey Oh you make me jealous, brings back memories for me. Defo head to Koh Toa if you want to do some diving! Notice your still staying in better accomodation than I ever did, get in... Take care mate.x

[Jackie]

accommodation
Hi what was the name of your bungalow in Koh Chang