Blogs from Eastern Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 8

20th July - 23rd July. After leaving Kampot at 8am, we finally arrived on the Thai Island of Koh Chang at 8pm after a mission of a journey including 9 vehicle changes and a ferry ride. Luckily there were about 8 of us doing the journey so we were able to stick together and ended up at the same beach resort. Our rooms were all little cabins along the beach and the communal area and restaurant was situated right on the beach edge which was brilliant and we saw some great sunsets! The following day was largely spent on the beach with a break midday to explore the town of 'Lonely Beach'. The next day began with a 2 hour elephant trek which was great especially as at one point the seats were taken off and ... read more

Day 4 of our trip to South East Asia and you'll be glad to hear that we're all Staying Alive. Just. We seem to have finally mastered the art of Thai transport. Having battled our way from Bangkok to Surat Thani (who knew you had to book a flight that departs AFTER your first flight arrives?! mental, we know...) we then stayed for one night in the town and tried our first street food. We managed to avoid food poisoning by not eating very much. It wasn't exactly what you'd call gourmet food. We then went to an ice cream parlour and ended the night feeling very pleased with ourselves. The battle with transport continued the next day as we took 2 buses, a boat and a tuk-tuk to our hostel on Ko Samui, a beautiful ... read more

We had a couple of days of lovely sunshine, so I spent the first on the beach, and then on the second I visited nearby Bang Bo and afterwards went back to the beach. The beach in itself was relatively quiet, spent time just laying on the beach watching the waves, and jumping in for a dip when it got too hot. The tide comes in quite quickly, and there were two girls playing around in the surf. Unfortunately for them, before they noticed the sea had snuck up on their belongings, and there was five minutes of them frantically trying to save all of their stuff from being swept into the sea. Being the gentleman I am, I watched for a moment with a smile on my face. I got up to go and offer ... read more

Salí del hotel a las 5am para ir al aeropuerto, que sueño... Llegué en menos de una hora y el bus a Koh Chang salía de ahí a las 7:30, pero como no tenía pasaje aún hice bien en llegar temprano porque por ser temporada baja en lugar de bus hay minivan con capacidad solo para 10 pasajeros. Llegué como a las 2pm a Lonely Beach, la parte de la isla en donde están la mayoría de alojamientos baratos, y por ende la mayoría de los mochileros. Conocí en el bus a una inglesa que decidió en el último momento bajarse en mi parada y compartir un bungalow del tamaño de dos camas y media conmigo (por 200 baths cada una) en lugar de irse al hotel decente que había reservado ante el prospecto de encontrarse ... read more

Just a few more things about Koh Phangan ... i think anyone who has ever been on an island coverd with jungle and an unknown it's easy to get lost, however i put into practise what i learned 30 years ago from my dear friend Eric ... always use visual references, a mailbox, an orange painted house, a generator, elephant park, antennas etc ... and if you then still can't find your way it doesn't matter either as at one point u just hit water again and one look up to the sky and the Sun, moon and or stars will tell ya what part of the island u are (midst of course u can read these natural directions - which i actually can ..,) so gotta say a few times i got lost , ... read more