Rest, Relax, Reflect - Koh Chang in the Gulf of Thailand

After our 5 hour bus ride from Bankok and 20 minute ferry boat ride we arrived on the Island of Koh Chang.  This is the largest Thai island in the Gulf of Thailand. Mainland Thailand is to the north and Cambodia is to the east.  This was sort of a getaway for us... India and Bangkok really wore us out. So we had 6 days to rest, relax and reflect.

The island is much slower than a city like Bangkok. The center of the island is all jungle with mountains and waterfalls. The north coast is where most of the natives live. The west and south coasts are pretty much beach towns and fishing villages with hotels, restaurants, and resorts.  We stayed at a hotel on the southwest side of the island in an area called Bailan.  

After a long taxi ride from the port on the north side of the island we found our hotel. To our surprise it was really nice. There were lush green gardens, a nice sized swimming pool, a bubbly hot tub, comfortable lounge areas, and all the rooms were individual bungalows. Yeah, we were definitely on "slow down" mode. We found out that we could have paid less for our hotel but we were grateful to God that we could absorb that added expense by being dirt cheap on everything else we would do on the island.  "Taxi? No way, they're too expensive. Lets just walk the 4 km up and down the narrow mountainous roads, dodging cars and scooters that are going too fast and watching out for ravenous monkeys.  Oh, and the 90 deg F weather and 99% humidity won't be a big deal, we'll just run into 80 deg F water when we get to the beach."  Yeah, cheap I tell ya. :)

Despite our frugality we really had a great time.  We found a small restaurant where we ate everyday for about 200 baht (lunch and dinner... breakfast was included at the hotel - so gooooood). We rented a scooter for one day (100 baht plus 120 baht for gas) and rode all over the island.  We went on a 4 island snorkeling trip. We lounged at the beach. And most importantly, we got to spend a good amount of time reading our Bibles, praying and journaling.  It had been difficult to do so in the fast paced cities with all the sites, and sounds, and people and ....distractions! So yeah, Koh Chang gave us a lot of time to ourselves so we could have that time with God that we really needed.  It was also great for us because we could talk about our marriage, our future plans, our dreams, our goals, and the things we'd like to do when we get back home. Truly a blessing to get away... a vacation from all of our travels :)

Have a look at some of the pictures we took... we took about 200 on the island but here are our best/favorites.  Enjoy!

Welcome to Koh Chang

At our hotel

That's what I'm talking about!

First sunset

Little path to the beach

I think we could count the number of people at the beach.

Heavenly

The beach all to ourselves.

Pictures we took as we walked along the beach

A little rocky

Some monkeys we came upon.

Tranquility

Vernon's first scooter experience.  He did great.

At a view point

Lot's of little islands

White sand beaches

Another set of tourists just picked up from the ferry. Hang on man!

Some of the popular trips offered include elephant rides to the waterfalls

Baby elephant - chained up :(

Driving through town

Chilling at Lonely Beach

My first scooter experience. Ya, I need more practice.

Pier where we caught our boat to go snorkel.

The type of boat we took

Snorkeling Trip.  There were lots of different fish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins etc.

One of the islands we stopped at to snorkel

Seafood, corn and fruit offered on the boat.

One of the islands we stopped at during lunch

Fishing boat

On the snorkeling trip we stopped in the 4 islands - Koh Wai, Koh Kham, Koh Maak and Koh  Rayang.

After our time in Koh Chang we were off to Cambodia.  A bus ride to the border to get our visa and another bus ride to Phnom Penh.  Easy as pie...