The Beach

After leaving Angkor Wat, we returned to Thailand and headed out to an island in the Gulf of Thailand called Koh Chang (“koh” just means island, and “chang” means elephant). The island is so named because it is the second biggest island in Thailand. The island is also almost 80% national park, something that really attracted us to it.

We spent the first two nights on a pretty busy beach called White Sands. We stayed at a nice hotel that had an included breakfast at the beachfront restaurant, a pool, and lounge chairs and umbrellas all around the pool. While no one goes to the beach with the goal of hanging out near the pool, we were grateful for the set-up since, because of the way the tides were working, there was almost no beach in the morning (but a HUGE beach in the afternoon). So we were able to nab lounge chairs on the edge of the pool terrace that faced the beach – just like being at the beach… The only trick was that the hotel, like most of the hotels on White Sands beach, was filled with vacationing Germans and Scandinavians (we hardly saw any Americans or Canadians at all). And they got up early. And saved the lounge chairs by putting their things on them. But we were always able to find something.

Anyway, the beach was beautiful and amazing. Very peaceful and relaxing, and the water was a lovely temperature.

We walked the length of the beach several times, and while we didn’t stay in this place, I thought it looked pretty cool.Also, making use of the big beach that appeared in the afternoon and lasted through the late night, all of the restaurants would serve dinner at tables on the sand. The whole time we were on the island, I don’t think we had a single meal that we didn’t eat while seeing and hearing the ocean just a few feet away from us. And seafood was definitely the cuisine of choice.After a few days, we moved to different and quieter beach, Klong Prao. Here, we didn’t stay in a hotel on the beach, but in a renovated stilt house built out over the mangrove estuary. The beach was just a five minute walk away, and there were canoes and kayaks that we could use to explore the estuary.Our place also had a dog that liked to fetch coconuts in the estuary.Klong Prao beach was bigger than White Sands, but we walked the length of it several times, too. Because it was less crowded, the beachcombing was better and I picked up some amazing shells. Also, we didn’t stay at this place, although we did eat at their restaurant once, but again I thought it was worth a picture.

Mostly, though, we ate at this place:

And the food was AMAZING. I mean, the best massaman curry I have ever tasted. Ever. The potatoes were perfectly done, the spicy-ness was warm, but not unbearable. In fact, I think I had massaman curry four times over four days.

We also rode elephants on Koh Chang with a group that was partnered with The Friends of the Asian Elephant. We actually paid extra to get to bathe elephants, although only Mike ended up doing it (someone has to take the pictures, right?). You’ve heard of swimming with dolphins, well this is like swimming with elephants. I desperately wanted the elephant to shoot water out of its trunk, but it never did that, sadly.And then, when the bathing was over, Mike got to ride the elephant alone for a little bit.

Following the bathing, we set off on the real tour. We went through the jungle. And let me tell you something: those elephants, they are destructive creatures! That trunk is a serious tool! It’s amazing there’s any jungle left at all. Seriously. We’d be walking along and the elephant would see something it wanted, and it would just use its trunk to grab it – tree branches, bushes, clumps of grass, you name it – the elephants didn’t really strike me as picky. When our ride was over, we got to feed the elephants some bananas, and they were not at all shy about using their trunks to snatch the bananas right out of our hands!And with that, I conclude the narrative of our Thailand trip. I think Mike has a post to make about the innkeeper in the second place we stayed, but I’ll let him do that.