From Koh Samed we took the minibus to Koh Chang, another Thai Island but closer to the Cambodian border. Another stop before we cross, we are dreading the border crossing a bit as we have read so many horror stories of being ripped off. We were told we would arrive around noon but this turned to be around 4pm. We are learning quickly to add a few hours to whatever travel time we are told. First we had to take a taxi to the boat, then on the boat to the mainland where we waited for our bus. This turned out to be an open tuk-tuk-like van. After about 30 mins into the journey, just as we wondered whether the whole 4-hour trip was going to be in this rickety thing, we were transferred to a huge bus on the side of the road somewhere. It all seems somewhat chaotic but somehow we always seem to arrive where we were supposed to.
We hadn’t arranged any accommodation but went to the busiest beach, White Sand Beach (sounds good hey?) and the first place we walked into luckily had a good room available. Only about 100 metres from the beach – we haven’t been able to afford to stay on the beach yet. It’s high season at the moment so everything is much more expensive than we had anticipated, maybe further into our trip we’ll manage it.
Koh Chang is surprisingly beautiful, bigger than we though and a nice place to hang out for a while. Obviously many different beaches to explore but also other things to do. There are several waterfalls inland and Elephant Island (Chang = Elephant) is also the place to ride on one of the big beasts. Which we did. Very interesting experience and of course, the kids absolutely loved it. They got the opportunity to feed them some bananas and sit on their necks. I was also happy to see that the elephants looked healthy and well looked after.
On another day, we hired a car and had a look around the rest of the Island. We visited a few remote beaches, saw a few collapsed roads and visited a temple. The day was slightly spoiled by me getting the runs and Amy throwing up. Perhaps a warning we need to watch a bit more carefully what we are eating!
All in all, Koh Chang was a very relaxing few days for us and can recommend it for a beach holiday.
