Koh Chang

Over a week in the busy Bangkok, it was finally time to head to a less populated location. Off to Koh Chang for a few days before going back home. The plan was simple. Unplug, explore, and relax. But, before we could do that, we traveled with a van from Bangkok for over five hours and then took a ferry across from the mainland right in time for the sunset. As soon as the sun hits the horizon it gets pitch black there which is what happened when we reached the island. The driver of our van was driving like a reckless maniac. The mountainous roads were almost not lit at all which at times felt as being on a blind rollercoaster ride, but we managed to get to our destination in one piece.

_{Yay! The resort had its private beach in the reach of a short boat ride or kayak ride down the river with almost no soul around. The timing was perfect for the chill, right before masses of tourists flooded in at the end of the week.}

_{I can see where the tropical patterns are coming from.}

_{Seaweed pretending to be an octopus?}

_{Sometimes people draw inspiration from nature. Perhaps these palm trees were the inspiration for hand-held folding fans?}
One of my hopes was to find an awesome bar. After a couple of complete failures, we found Monkeys bar & restaurant at the white sand beach. They played awesome music, had an amazing selection of cocktails, the best vibe, pool table, and Jenga, the coolest, quirky waitress Atti (I am not sure if I remember her name correctly, she was so cool tho) and last but not least the best freaking curry soup in the world! It was so delicious we went back to the place the next day just for that! In the end, the Monkeys, who we had already become friends with, gave us the goodbye shots and we left them a nice tip which felt great too! Too bad I have no photos from the place, I guess I was having a great time there, ha!

_{On the way to Klong Plu Waterfall}
There are several waterfalls on Koh Chang thanks to its mountainous terrain. Klong Plu Waterfall is one of the biggest on the island and it is in the care of the National Park. Because of that, it is strictly forbidden to bring snacks or drinks other than maybe water in the territory to minimize the impact of tourism on the unique flora and fauna that can be found there. The waterfall is hiding in the rainforest, in a distance of a short hike through a rugged pathway along the river. The hike was rather easy despite the heat, perhaps, a little more difficult for those wearing just flip flops because of the tree roots and the sharp rocks.

_{Oh, noes! What happened here?}
This lady was leaning over the edge to take a picture, lost balance and her phone slipped out of her hands into the water. At first, sure, the silly person for not being careful in places such as this one, but imagine going on a trip and losing all your photos, videos, the memories! You can replace the phone, but probably not the photography unless uploaded straight on to the cloud or have them backed somehow, somewhere. Poor thing. She seemed desperate to get her phone back. One guy with a snorkel mask even tried looking for it. No luck.

_{The nine-year-old baby was kept separate from other elephants, aww}
There are elephants on the island! I was so excited to learn before visiting Koh Chang. I imagined a sanctuary somewhere, where the elephants roam around freely and hang on the beach as per advertisement images. The reality for the elephants not so far away from the waterfall was a lot more different. They were kept on short chains with their tamers sleeping in hammocks waiting for tourists to come along and ask for a ride. Some might argue that is not so much different than keeping horses and riding them, but these beautiful, intelligent beasts are no domestic animals. While they seem so powerful and strong, their health can be quite fragile because of the stress, captivity, and the way they are cared for.

It was quite terrible to imagine that most of their days they spend standing there, unable to move much, and when they do, they have to carry the box type of saddle with people in them. You can see the marks on their bodies from chains and the saddle, some of them seemed to have issues with their legs being swollen up from the chains. Quite unfortunate and sad treatment of the animals, one of the symbols of Thailand and Koh Chang. We declined the offer of riding them and fed them some bananas instead. They seemed very kind and gentle souls. Later the tamers brought them some palm tree leaves and they seemed to have an interesting technique of plucking them off the stem, first waving the leaves around a bit and then eating them.

_{Want to go somewhere on the island? Go on the main road, the one that’s wrapped around the entire island, and wait for Songthaew to pass by. It couldn’t be any easier than that. Songthaews are upgraded pickup trucks serving as cabs. See one, grab one with almost no waiting time all, dirt cheap as well.}

_{Shops, pharmacies, bars, restaurants, and resorts crowded by the main road.}

_{During the night the water goes far away offshore, and restaurants and bars set up their desks and sitting areas right in the white sand.}

Time to leave, but not without one last adventure? Transportation is something to consider in advance when visiting the islands. They even have a website to take care of that if done in a good time, which was not our case as we got our booking last minute. As we began to head to the port, the driver asked tickets, tickets. What tickets? We paid for the ride. He did not speak English much. He began frantically looking through the papers repeating tickets, stressing out all of the passengers who were trying to understand what he meant by that. Then he pulled over at the side of the road and ran to some sort of shop, returned minutes later with what appeared to be ferry tickets. Began driving again only to start looking through his stuff again in a stressed manner now repeating phone, oh no, phone! He turned around and drove back to the store, but at that point, another guy on a scooter was driving after us with the phone in the hand to return it. After that our driver was pushing it to the metal through the mountainous roads, so this time the rollercoaster ride was not the pitch black blind kind, passing other cars, all to catch the boat that we missed in the end and had to wait for the next one. The rest of the trip was not so bad. Back to Bangkok, then going back home.

This concludes the Thailand adventures. I hope to visit again in the future! Thank you so much for stopping by and reading!