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Published: February 22nd 2006
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- FOOD: Fresh fruit galore and my old pal sugared nuts; spicy papaya salad; Joy Cafe's excellent curry, free muffins, chicken with cashew nut noodles; muesli for breakfast; banana and coffee shakes;
- AREA: Excellent government bus to Koh Chang; green, lush island with luxury hotels in the process of being built but not quite ruining it yet; Siam Beach - perfect and ours alone - big waves, palm trees and relaxation; Thai massage.
- PEOPLE: Punctual Thais; lovely family with cute kids at Joy Cafe; very skilled fire throwers; Tiggy, the cat with balls; Lazy Bones the dog; Tania with her Reiki magic!
- ACCOMMODATION: Very basic wooden hut with hard bed still but good pillows!
- WEATHER: Some sun in between the clouds; BIG storms.
Sat 24th: We caught the Skytrain and government bus to the pier for Koh Chang (who needs travel agencies). We'd stocked up for this journey with pineapple, the green apple type fruit, some big strawberry type fruits and sugared nuts (my long lost friend) but still we were given a snack, coffee, water and a refreshing towel for just a 6 hour journey - what service!
At the
lunch stop a very friendly lady made up a spicy papaya salad for us from scratch which was really good - although probably smelt the bus out!
The Thais seem like a very punctual bunch and we were rushed onto the ferry the same way we'd been rushed onto the bus, even with plenty of time to spare before it left. From the Lonely Planet's description of Koh Chang, I was expecting a hugely built up island full of luxury hotels that are targeted just at the Westerners and not the Thais. It was very different to my expectation and yes, there is one beach area (White Sand Beach) which is the popular one that seems fairly built up and lots of big hotels are in the process of being built, but generally it's an incredibly green and lush island with hardly any ATM's!
We headed down the South of the island to Siam Beach (recommended to us by someone in the taxi) where we were dropped off outside a handful of wooden beach huts. The room was basic but big with a huge bed in the middle and nothing else. We watched the sun set over the
beach with the big waves, palm trees, scattered huts and only about 2 other tourists in sight. Bliss.
It was about a 10 minute walk along the dark road into the nearest 'town'. We ate at Joy Cafe - a really nice family run place with delicious food and a cute baby and toddler running around. The curry was very good and the owners very friendly indeed (they gave us free muffins).
We walked along the beach to get back and came across some fire throwers who were very skilled and mesmorising.
Sun 25th: The bed was hard but the pillows good so I had a lie in and then breakfast down at the next place along the beach. A nice place where you sit on the restaurant floor on cushions but more built up than our place and many more backpackers.
The day was spent lying on the beach all day, checking out the trees with their weird shaped roots, watching the waves splash against the rocks and attempting to face my fear about waves by going in the sea a few times.
We went to another place for dinner with another cute baby
to distract us the whole meal and more cats and dogs to play with. The owners seemed impressed with our extensive knowledge of the Thai language (ahem, well 'hello, thank you, goodbye, good, how much is it and numbers 1 - 10' is extensive is it not?!).
Back at the hut, our new friend Tiggy (the cat with balls) was waiting for our return. A VERY friendly cat even though we didn't have any food to offer him. Every time one of us sat down, he jumped onto our lap but as determined as he was, I didn't let him into the hut.
Mon 26th: I awoke with fresh courage to face the HUGE (Tania would disagree with this but she is from Sydney) waves and off we went.... Tania dipping in, out and under like a mermaid. Me coughing and spluttering but swimming under the waves too - if not in such a graceful way.
After breakfast of muesli and fruit (what a find) we spent another day lazing on the beach all day reading, sleeping, listening to the waves, contemplating life. Lazy Bones the dog stayed on our porch all day and Tiggy kept
coming to check up on us and jump onto us as soon as the opportunity arose.
As the Joy Cafe food had been so very good, we went back there for dinner - I recommend the chicken with cashew nut noodles. After more reading outside the hut and Tania practising her pois, we found Tiggy asleep in the corner of the hut. I felt too mean to move him so let him stay but got a shock in the night when the warm thing I put my leg against (thinking it was the blanket), moved. He'd found his way onto the bed bless him - oh well, he doesn't SEEM to have fleas!
Tue 27th: The rain was heavy again all through the night but instead of clearing like it usually does, it was still overcast and bit rainy. I was gutted to find the restaurant had run out of banana and coffee shake (I'd probably had it all) but at least muesli was still on the menu.
I spent the day in between the lying on the beach or sitting on the porch, depending on the rain and had a all over Thai massage for
an hour which wasn't as rough as I was expecting but it did make a few of my bones crack! Very relaxing but a shame a cold wind was blowing.
We couldn't be bothered to go into town for dinner so just ate at Nature - watching the whole poi fire dancing show - wow that woman is good.
Tiggy was even more cuddly and followed us everywhere - he was very sweet and shared us out equally, going from one of us to the other.
Tania did a long Reiki on me while Tigs was on my lap - she concentrated on my head and some of the rest of me. My whole body felt like it was vibrating madly and Tigs could feel it too as he kept moving about. What with him, a big storm happening outside, the little candle table Tania had made and the wind blowing through the open door, it was all very atmospheric. I allowed Tigs to sleep on the bed and he slept between us all night - ahhh.
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