Rain, Red Curries and Relaxing....our time in Thailand

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Koh Chang, Koh Samet and Bangkok have been our homes for the past few weeks. We've had a pretty mixed bag of weather consisting of mostly rain!.. buts its been fun exploring the infamous thai islands and sampling the most delicious Thai food (the best street food by a long way on our travels so far!)

Samet and Chang were very different to one another. Samet is a very small island with long white sand beaches, calm waters and a constant flow of people arriving from Bangkok, especially at weekends (being the closest of the islands to Bangkok). It wasn't busy, a lot of the bars were empty all the time, but compared to Koh Chang it didn't show the signs of low season quite so much! The accomodation is mixed between bungalows and guesthouses and more upmarket resorts, hence the clientele is also a mix.
Chang's beaches were a lot wilder and a lot more rugged, yet stll very beautiful. The sand wasn't quite that fluffy white stuff like on Samet, but with huge palm trees lining the beaches and hardly another person in sight, you really felt like you could be on a remote desert island. Chang is the largest of all the Thai islands so the only way to get around is by scooter really, which is what we did a couple of times. Inland the whole island is dense, inpenetrable jungle covering the hills and the roads are pretty fun also, consisting of seriously steep hair pin corners. Once our scooter lost traction with the road as it didnt have the power to take us both up the steep hill, so I had to jump off while Matt continued to take the bike up the hill at top speed of 2mph.
The clientele on Koh Chang is mixed, but at Lonely beach (the section we were staying at) the guests are 90% backpacker, 10% other, the backpacker variety being predominantly hippyfied.. hence really cool bars and a good vibe about the place!

Anyway, we'll let the pics do the rest of the talking........
N & M
p.s. next stop Malaysia

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Photos

Khaosan road, Bangkok
The highest concentration of backpackers we have ever seen! EVER!

Aerobics at sunset in the park, Bangkok
Prior to the start of the class the national anthem came onto the loud speakers and everyone in the park stood up in silence! surreal!

Our 1st night on Koh Chang
Most of the accomodation on Lonely Beach, consist of bamboo bungalows

Our 2nd bungalow at Lonely Beach
We moved to a more luxurious concrete bungalow with wifi & tv in order to have a confortable resting spot during the downpours

...the rains came
View from our balcony, during the 5 continuous days of rain and overcast skies (felt like home)

Matt playing in the post storm swell
Strong rip currents in parts of this bay (hence nat was too scared to go in!)

Gorgeous Long Beach, South of Koh Chang
This was the best day of weather we had while on the island!

Comments

[kelly]

gorgeous!
Matt looked pretty fit in that photo - he must be working out! No really the places look amazing and not a gecko in any photo! Amazing! Oh Oh news alert - Sarb rang me yesterday to let me know that she was booking the venue for wedding - it looks beautiful on website and she said it was either the frid 17th sept of sun 5th sept depending on teachers and days off - so think going for fri as would rather get day off if poss! How exciting is that!!!!!!!!!!!! xxx