Koh Chang With James & Christine

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James, Christine & I wanted to go to Koh Chang after leaving Cambodia. It looked as if we were going to have to go pretty far out of our way to Bangkok, then catch a bus to Koh Chang, but luckily we found a minivan service that went direct, saving us 7 hours of travel, a night in Bangkok and some money.

The only problem is we had to get there before the last ferry left from Trat (on the mainland) for the island of Koh Chang. We didn't realize this despite our near perfect grasp of both the Thai and Khmer languages. The guy was was driving super fast through these back country roads trying to get us there. Towards the end when he really let loose, he put on some type of Thai heavy metal music. It was hilarious watching this guy get in to it; he certainly was determined. Sure enough, we got there with time to spare. This is when I began to believe in the ability for Thai Metal to warp the space/time continuum.

Koh Chang is the second largest island in Thailand after Phuket. It is popular with foreigners and Thai vacationers alike. To be honest I was not super impressed. The beaches were mediocre and everything was more expensive. There were nicer hotels and restaurants, but its not like we could afford them. We stayed in a section that is supposed to be a "fishing village".

The highlight was finding a great restaurant on the pier with excellent food and a few waiters from Cambodia that were super nice. We ate there every night and got to know these guys, plus having just come from Cambodia, I had a few Khmer phrases down.

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