A Week on Ko Chang

After spending a week in Bangkok, it was time to leave the muggy city and head for calmer and more idyllic scenery. We had been planning to visit the island culture of Thailand, but with so many islands, it can be difficult to decide where to go. Ultimately we decided on Ko Chang, an island in the SE, but relatively undeveloped compared to its other large island counterparts. Ko Chang is the second largest island in Thailand and a lush National Park covers much of the terrain. There is a large tourist scene there, but no corporate presence (no fast food chains, no hotel chains). Plus, a friend of a friend owns a guesthouse resort on Ko Chang and there was the opportunity for Jason to play a DJ gig there.

So it was settled. We packed up and bought a bus ticket from Bangkok to Trat, a 5 hour ride to the ferry terminal... or so we thought. After a pretty comfortable and uneventful trip, we were dropped off at a random tourist office in the middle of a rubber tree forest. We were instructed to buy a ferry ticket there and then

Heather & Jason @ Viewpoint

were whisked away in a pick-up taxi to the actual ferry terminal. These pick-up taxis have two long benches on either side of the truck bed and a roof rack above. The driver threw our packs up on the roof (along with everyone else's baggage) and Heather couldn't help thinking, “He isn't going to secure our luggage? What if it falls off?” Well... as luck would have it, 5 minutes into our taxi ride, her pack went flying off of the roof and onto the road! A car behind us stopped and retrieved it for us and luckily nothing inside was damaged... but it was definitely a scare. Well, at least now we will make sure our packs are secure on any future roof rack trips... or we'll just keep them with us!

The scenery as we arrived on Ko Chang was beautiful. The islands here are mountainous and covered in lush green rainforest, with a mixture of rocky and sandy beaches. We went straight to our friend's guesthouse, The Magic Garden, on Lonely Beach, and got ourselves a room. It turned out that the DJ gig was a once a week booking, and we had just arrived a day after

Jason & The Dirt Bike

the last party. So, with 6 days to kill, we decided to explore the other more desolate side of the island. Jason proceeded to rent not a scooter... but a full-on racing dirt bike for us to make this journey on. Heather was skeptical at first, but in the end it proved to be useful on some rough terrain. In order to reach the other side of the island, you have to drive all the way around to the east because there is no road along the very southern edge of the island, connecting the SW and SE sides (see map here). Our destination was a place called Long Beach, which we heard was remote and beautiful with a really cool new guesthouse called the “Tree House”. After spending the day cruising around and visiting a picturesque beach, we set out for Long Beach, the most remote part of the island. The road to Long Beach was long, winding, and a mixture of pavement and bumpy dirt. This is where our dirt bike came in handy. We arrived at the Tree House at sunset only to find that they were booked for the night! Our disappointment was huge. The two

Chinese Temple

other guesthouses on Long Beach were also completely booked, so we glumly made our way back along the bumpy winding rode in falling darkness. To travel all the way back to our side of the island would have taken us close to two hours in the dark, so we decided to bed down at a guesthouse part of the way back. This turned to out to be a unique experience because the guesthouse we stayed at was geared towards Thai vacationers and not foreigners. This meant that our bed was as hard as plywood and that we had a non-flush toilet. All in all though it was a fine place to stay and we had two delicious seafood meals on their large veranda deck overlooking the sea and neighboring islands.

The next day we leisurely made our way back to Lonely Beach, stopping along the way at whatever seemed intriguing. One place was the Ban Kwan Chang elephant camp, where we arranged a trek for the next day. We also discovered a really cool private property at the end of the road that asked for 60 cents to hike up and explore the jungle behind their gardens. We

Jason Driving

went on a nice hike up through a gulch with several small waterfalls and a small pool where we took a quick skinny dip to cool off.

The next morning we woke up early for our 9 am elephant trek. The elephants at Ban Kwan Chang were relocated from Surin Province, where people have been working with elephants for generations. They were relocated to Ko Chang as part of a project sponsored by the Asian Elephant Foundation. For many years in Thailand, elephants had been used in the logging industry and many years ago the Thai army had an elephant corps. Now that these practices are illegal, tourist-oriented elephant camps have popped up all over the country advertising 1 or 2 hour elephant treks through the forest in their locale.
Our tour started at a small pond in the jungle that the elephants could bathe in. Our group (about 20 of us) were invited to jump in and help wash the elephants. Jason and I were kinda disappointed that we didn't bring our bathing suits to this one, and watched as a few other people jumped in and climbed on the elephants' back to help scrub. The animals were obviously

Heather Driving

very used to this activity and of course they enjoyed the cool water as well since it was already 80 degrees at 9:30 am. It was a cute little intro to watch the beasts enjoying their morning bath. However, much laughter broke out in the crowd of on lookers when one of the animals decided to relieve itself in the water. If you've never seen elephant poo before, it's HUGE!
After the bath, we were served pineapple slices and coconuts as we climbed aboard our animals to begin the day's “trek”. We probably only went a mile or two, but it took a good hour since elephants are not quick on their feet. Every elephant has it's own personal trainer called a mahout. Both man and beast develop a relationship and bond with each other over many years. Our mahout was different from the rest because he was not Thai, but from Myanmar. He had moved to Thailand with his wife and small children only a year prior and was still learning Thai and English. Since we were in the process of planning our trip to Myanmar we asked him a lot of questions and learned a few Burmese

Elephant Bath

words such as “hello” - mingalaow-bah - and “thank you” - jehz-u-beh. At some point during the trek, our mahout jumped out of the “drivers seat” (which is on back of the elephant's head) and invited Jason to climb up and “take the reigns”.
Voice commands are used to drive the animal, the main one being “Ah-HU-ah!” which means “Go!” There is also a metal hook that the mahouts use to “poke” the elephant behind the ear. This allows them to steer it in one direction or the other. You can try using your foot in the same manner first, but this does not always work. Initially we were apprehensive of this “poking” technique, but quickly realized that it was essential. These beasts are so big and their hide so thick that if you did not use the hook to steer them, they can easily head off the trail in search of a snack. Heather allowed our elephant to grab a few bites of tree bark, not knowing that this particular bark makes elephants sick. Our mahout was yelling for her to get it away from the tree, and within minutes the elephant experienced a bit of “tummy trouble”,

The Yacht

but was fine after relieving itself. So, after much yelling of “Ah-HU-ah!” and hooking behind the ear, we were both able to successfully drive the elephant on our own. It was an amazing experience to ride directly on the head and feel the power of this two ton animal beneath. We also learned that only females are kept at the camp because the males are too aggressive for the tourist scene. A few years ago there was one male in the camp and he became agitated and scared the tourists so bad they had to make a final decision to only keep females. So now we wonder - where are all the male elephants?

Later that day, our friend Nick arrived on Ko Chang from Bangkok to spend a few days with us. We wanted to explore the small islands to the south and decided to do it in style by chartering a sail boat.
The next morning we arrived at the dock to meet our boat and crew, and to our surprise we found a 46 foot beauty awaiting us! Our Aussie captain, Natalie, apparently thought we were going to be a larger group, but was happy

Yacht Hull

to have just the three of us, explaining that this gave us absolute flexibility in where we could go.
The islands in this part of the world are old, rugged and vibrant. Covered in lush rainforest with either rocky shoreline or inviting white sand beach, they rise out of the teal blue waters dotting the landscape like giant green turtles. Natalie spread out a nautical map of the waters south of Ko Chang and said, “Where do you want to go?”
We felt like kids in a candy store. The map was dotted with the same islands that we could see on the horizon, and so we chose to first set off to one known for it's snorkeling. As we swam through the waters with our masks on, we saw some huge coral and swarms of colorful fish. Unfortunately, a lot of the coral off the coast of the popular tourist islands is dead or dying, and Natalie partially blamed large groups of Russian tourists that visit. As she put it, “These big Russian men come and walk into the water and stomp all over the coral; they don't understand or care that it's a living creature.” Indeed,

Heather & J On a Deserted Island

the edge of coral closest to the beach was dead and colorless.
We also visited a semi-deserted island that had a Thai Navy outpost on it - and nothing else. We decided to visit this island because even Natalie had never been there and so it felt like a bit of an adventure for everyone aboard - she had no idea what we would find on the island, or if we would be welcome. Luckily, the Navy men were more than happy to have us and said we could stay as long as we liked. The short, pristine stretch of beach was a wonderful contrast to the busy, picked over tourist beaches of Ko Chang.
After that, we stopped off at two beautiful “sister” islands (Ko Lao Ya & Ko Lao Klang), situated so close to each other that there is a foot bridge linking them. A single resort is on the larger island, and the smaller island has a foot path circling it with short stretches of white sand beach every few meters.
Memorable moment here: we saw a group of Japanese tourists wading around in waist high water with life vests on. Guess you can never

Rockin' The House

be too safe!
Although there was hardly any wind in the morning to pull the sails out, by the afternoon it picked up and we were able to sail for the last few hours of the day. With the motor killed and the sails billowing, we experienced the full power of this amazing craft. We helped Natalie and her first mate Yu-ee tack back and forth as we made our way back to our point of origin. Learning more about the intricacies of sailing was very rewarding, and who knows, perhaps we will have a boat of our own some day. More than anything, it was just so great to max and relax for the day on the calm waters of the Gulf of Thailand, taking in the beautiful scenery and enjoying the luxury of being aboard such an amazing vessel. This was by far our favorite part of the day, just being on the boat and enjoying the scenery from afar. All three of us took a turn at the helm to try steering, which was more difficult than it seems! You have to maintain a good line of sight and even the slightest turn of the wheel

Magic Drink Fest

Buckets full of coke, red bull, rum and vodka are the drink of choice. Yikes!

will change course. It is definitely takes patience and finesse.

Before we knew it, the six days had passed and Tuesday arrived, the night of Jason's first international DJ gig. The Magic Garden throws a party every Tuesday night, organized by Mariano, an Argentine expat who now lives in Bangkok and DJs at various clubs throughout the country. The Magic Garden resort is a bit of an odd place. There really isn't a lot of activity there until “Magic Tuesdays”. The rest of the week is quiet with no bar scene or night time restaurant activity. However, once Tuesday arrives, they bring in a large sound system and begin preparations for the evening's festivities. Jason was very excited to play at this night, and kept himself busy the day of, burning cd's and downloading some new tracks to play. Finally the evening arrived and Jason traded off with Mariano every hour from 10pm - 3am. The night started off slow, but eventually filled up to a packed crowd. Although there were a lot of people there, it was hardly the crowd we were anticipating, and Jason found it difficult to actually play the type of music he wanted

The Magic Monkey & His Master

The caretaker at Magic Garden has a pet monkey, and apparently the monkey is a NY Jets fan!

to. He was haggled throughout the night by requests from European men to play faster and faster, and he tried to find a compromise between what he likes to play (and what's popular in the US) and what the crowd seemed to want. In the end it was a big learning experience for him. At some times, the island party crowd of Thailand can resemble MTV spring break, Euro style. However, instead of listening to commercial hip hop , the choice of music is commercial trance. Lesson learned, if you ever DJ in Thailand, be sure to have a large collection of progressive house and trance music at the ready. The Euro tourists love it!

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