Island Hopping

Me and Ben found ourselves a nice expensive bungalow with aircon in which to recover after the guys had left, we basically spent the next three days sleeping with the odd break to eat and party and plan our next move, which we decided would be to Koh Mak – a nearby smaller island from which we could get to Koh Kham, a tiny island with one resort. So we booked our boat and deflated our lilos and headed off.

When we arrived we got chatting to an older couple – Geordie Bob and Dutch Gia who’ve lived in Oz for the last 20 years but retained their accents! – and the four of us headed over to the south of the island and Monkey Island resort. It turned out to be very nice with little bamboo bungalows just by the beach at reasonable prices so we all checked in and then had a few beers together – however after we had checked in we met this poor guy who was COVERED in bites from sandflies!!! I lasted about 10 mins on the beach before I was being terrorised by the buggers so we decided we wouldn’t be staying long!

The next day we hired a scooter and set off to explore the island and even though there wasn’t much to explore, as its quite small and some of the roads were too muddy to go along, it was still fun zooming along on the scooter through the rubber plantations. It gave us a chance to see a place called Coco Cape which was on the north side of the island, Ben really wanted to stay there for a night as they have rooms on decking over the water – I hadn’t been too keen as it didn’t have any beach but thanks to the flies that didn’t seem so important any more!!

Ben had decided that morning to stop drinking beer, that’s it the end no more beer til we leave Thailand (about 2 weeks away) he had made his decision and nothing could change his mind. During the day he was driving so he couldn’t drink anyway but he did mention a few times, when we had stopped on the other side of the island for lunch, how great a beer would be! Early evening we met up with Gia and Bob for a few drinks before dinner, the three of us had a beer and sat chatting – Ben sat in silence, when he went to the bathroom they asked if he was ok and I explained that he’d decided to quit drinking however by the time he came back he’d decided the whole thing was a stupid idea and ordered a beer! Reminded me of the time Kate quit smoking, then decided she’d only smoke after 9pm then 8pm then that she’d just smoke 5 day then sod the idea completely cos thinking about it was ruining her travelling experience – all that was in about 4 hours!

The next morning we moved to Coco Cape where we had booked one of their cheapest rooms, however it is a very large resort and has a range of rooms from our 500 baht a night for a double with shared bathroom all the way up to 10,000 baht a night for a big wooden boat with 2 bedrooms. This meant that it had communal areas befitting a fancy resort including a lovely restaurant on decking over the water, a pier with comfy sunbeds, a big screen tv and a selection of dvds. Once we had checked in we went for a bit of a look around, we wandered down to the pier and followed the water line round the headland where we found the most beautiful beach I have ever seen!!!! Not only beautiful but also deserted! So we had a wonderful day at Coco Cape, snorkelling, sunbathing and Ben attempted some fishing off the pier – the only problem with it was that it turned out the sound of the water kept Ben awake all night!

In the morning we took a boat over to Koh Kham – it’s only 300m long and most of it is dense jungle but there’s a small resort and a beach that looks fantastic, however when we got there we realised that it was very similar to the one by Coco Cape except with lots more people and coarser sand! To say I was unimpressed with Koh Kham would be an understatement, the guy running the place has obviously been doing it for way to long and simply goes through the motions of his job like a pissed off robot. The rooms are horrendously over priced and when we arrived the shower didn’t work and the sheets were dirty. There is only one restaurant and the menu is VERY limited but the food is good and we were only staying for 2 nights so that was ok. Also they only have power between 6pm and 6am which only become a problem when the fan goes off at 6am and wakes Ben up and then he cant get back to sleep because of the sounds of the jungle and by 8am it’s so hot you want to cry!

Snorkelling off the beach was good though and I saw lots of colourful fish and sea urchins and these little white and brown fish that nibble you if you sit still for a minute – but then there was this shoal of needlefish that look like little barracudas and they kept coming too near to me so it became less fun. They were scared off though by this lovely big dumb golden retriever who would splash into the water and then try and catch fish – very cute. Ben tried some more fishing and after a short while caught a blue and yellow fish then he let me have a go and on my first attempt at fishing ever I caught one of the bigger white and brown fish, but we couldn’t get the hook out of his mouth and Ben had to cut the line and put him back with the hook still in so I went back to sunbathing after that.

We spent one evening having a drink with another couple, he was from Ireland and she was from New Zealand, he was alright - bit of a low talker - but she was awful and completely devoid of humour, so the next night we went to bed early in order to avoid them!

Then it was back to Koh Chang to pick up Ben’s contact lenses and book tickets to Cambodia. We headed for White Sands and to 15 Palms, a hotel across the road from the beach with a restaurant serving real English bacon and sausages - the place where I stayed with Kate 3 years before. It had only been 6 days since we’d been in a room with aircon and maybe 10 days since I’d had a good warm shower but it felt like forever and 15 Palms had those things plus tv and a fridge! Woo hoo!

We were planning on just staying the one night then heading for Cambodia, but unfortunately I suggested we go for a pint of Guinness at the Irish pub and then we met Mark, Richard, Lee and later Lee’s sister Wendy – and really I blame her as she was on holiday visiting her brother and kept buying us all sambukas – so needless to say we spent the afternoon and evening and early morning drinking Guinness, swapping stories, dancing and trying to restrain Wendy from getting on stage and singing with the live band! We later found out that she had thought they were miming and was determined to show them up – in fact they had just turned off the mike she was near so she couldn’t sing into it!

The next day was a total write off but luckily we were treated to a James Bond marathon on Star Movies – sweeeeeet

The day after that we took it easy and mooched around during the day then bumped into Wendy and Lee in the evening and went for dinner with them were joined by Richard and Mark and found out that it was a full moon so there was a big beach party, a few sangsoms later and we headed down to the party (the scene of the sand penis – Emma, Cathy and Jim) which turned out to be one of the best parties ever, this is because while I was dancing (to Jump by Madonna) the singers actually asked me to come up and dance on the stage with them and then when it finished I went to get down and they made me stay for another song (Pump It by Black Eyed Peas) it was too fab!

After that there was more dancing, a game of pool that seemed to go on for weeks and then another day of doing nothing but finally managing to book our tickets to Siam Reap, Cambodia

Koh Chang may be more expensive, more resorty and a little more tourist than traveller than it was last time I was there but the beach at white sands is still beautiful and not overcrowded, the sea is clear and calm and the atmosphere is fun and relaxed but most importantly I still love the place!