Happy Songkran from Koh Chang!

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After an exciting few days in Bangkok, it was time to escape the stifling heat and hit the beach! Because of the "inclement weather" and floods in the Southern islands, we had to fiddle with our initial plan and the best option turned out to be Koh Chang (Elephant Island) in the Eastern Gulf of Thailand, near Cambodia.

The bus ride felt like quite a novelty and a luxurious one at that - plenty of leg room, comfy seats, AC and even a film! No honking and rather frustratingly a lot slower than Indian buses... Anyway, it did eventually get us to Trat where we hopped on a ferry then a sawngthaew (pick-up taxi) which took us to the lovely Lonely Beach. For those of you who don't know, this week was the time to celebrate Songkran or Thai New Year which in other words is not much more than an excuse for a 3 day water fight! We were vaguely aware of this but not that we would get absolutely drenched by buckets of water thrown at our taxi!

Up bright and early the next morning, we were somewhat disappointed by the torrential downpour - not exactly our idea of a relaxing few days at the beach! However, after a couple of hours reading on the terrace of our hut, the rain subsided and the sun finally made its appearance. As we were leaving our place, the owners asked us if we wanted to join them in their New Year celebrations. We agreed though without quite knowing what we were letting ourselves into... It turns out that slowly cruising along the island roads in the back of a pick-up truck with a bunch of kids and a 150-litre barrel of ice-cold water trying to wet anyone in sight and getting absolutely soaked and soaped is pretty good fun! Several hours later and exhausted, it was time for some delicious spring rolls and noodles overlooking the sea!

The following few days were a lot more relaxing it has to be said - after all our adventures in India and Nepal, we really did need just to mong (new favourite word!) on the beach and it wasn't too bad a place to do just that - white sand, clear turquoise water and coconut trees! We even got to try out Katrina's fancy underwater camera - a lot of fun and some hilarious photos!

Being New Year and Thailand, there was also plenty of opportunity to party and we made the most of cheap buckets, fire dancing and great music to have a good old boogie - on the podium no less!

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