Our next destination before we visited the southern islands of Thailand was Koh Chang. For a while we had hoped to get from Pai to Koh Chang in one day; however we soon realised that this was far too ambitious. The sensible place to stop on the way would have been Bangkok but neither of us was keen to stay there again so we took another option and chose to stay in Chiang Mai for a second time. Instead of staying at Mojito Garden again we decided to stay at a place recommended by my friend Sophie Kendrick called SK guesthouse. The guy on reception also remembered Soph and was really friendly, reminding me to ‘say hi to SK for him’. SK was perfect for us after staying in small hut style accommodation in Pai, we were now able to relax in hotel style rooms with a swimming pool next to the downstairs restaurant. It was also really reasonable and not too far from the centre of town (if you know where you’re going).
Having left Pai at lunchtime it was early evening by the time we had settled into SK. After getting some food we walked to the night market ready to spend, spend, SPEND. As with every time when you are actually looking to buy things we couldn’t find anything we wanted but did both end up with a pair of fake Havaianas. Strolling through the market I noticed Dibbs suddenly getting a little glint in his eye, turning to see what he was looking at I saw three ladyboys in full sequins, makeup and huge man-sized heels. Next thing Dibbs knew he was amongst them with me taking photos whilst they kissed his cheeks. The women/men were there advertising a show that night in the market square. I was keen to go and see this as I had heard that the shows can be really entertaining. Dibbs seemed a little more sceptical as we sat nearby watching them ‘do their thing’ to entice the crowd into the bar. Our particular favourite was a chubby, short, smiling character who was possibly the least convincing ladyboy I have seen so far.
At 9pm we sat down at the ‘free’ show with the most expensive drinks we had had since leaving the UK. We weren’t too worried however as 400 baht between us for a drink and a show was still fairly reasonable. The music began and a voice boomed out that we were about the see ‘the greatest caberet show in the world’, we both laughed and rolled our eyes and this as the performers began to walk out onto the stage. My eyes took in the vast amounts of sequins, feathers and glitter unfolding before me. The first song was fairly standard euro-pop and I had a feeling I knew the sort of show we were about to see, that was until the second song- Telephone by Lady GaGa and Beyonce- began and a GaGa impersonate burst onto the stage. Don’t get me wrong, these performers don’t exactly look like women and I certainly wouldn’t be mistakenly asking her for GaGa’s autograph anytime soon but I did tend to forget that I was watching a Thai man prancing around the stage in full dress. I laughed my way through this entire performance, through the entire show in fact, especially when a Beyonce figure joined GaGa on stage followed by Tina Turner amongst others. Entertainment is what we went for and entertainment is what we got. It was definitely worthwhile to go and see; I smiled
so much all the way through that my jaw ached afterwards.
After leaving the show we had a few more drinks and then attempted for about an hour to find our way home. This is the problem with Chaing Mai; it’s a complete maze. The old town is set in a square layout with canals running around the edge. This means that when reaching a canal it is easy to assume you are in one place but really be completely the other end of town. This happened for a long time before a local took pity on us after passing us for about the fourth time he took us on the back of his moped all the way to our hostel. Clearly not as street savvy as we thought.
We spent the next day by the pool, me reading Water for Elephants out loud for Dibbs. It was so nice to relax in the sunshine despite the shade quickly covering the main pool area in the afternoon. Reluctantly we packed up and were climbing on a bus again by 6pm. The overnight bus took us all the way to Bangkok where we arrived early in the morning to travel onto Trat and then Koh Chang. Horrendous sounding, the journey wasn’t as bad as we were expecting especially when we stepped onto (a very rusty) ferry and pulled up to the beautiful island of Koh Chang.
With no idea where we were going we climbed into an open truck taxi with some other travellers and picked a beach at random from one of the posters we had seen on the boat. We ended up in an area located on Lonely Beach and quickly sought a good meal; the last three had been snack meals bought from service stations and made up of crisps and Cornettos. After finding a place to stay called Magic Garden for 200baht a night between us and fueling up on some tasty seafood we went in search of a bar. It was a choice between dead quiet drinks in an empty bar or crazy loud music and expensive cocktails. A few cocktails later we were back to our little hut dubiously walking across the huge cracks in the floor well aware that cobras are native to Koh Chang.
The next day we hired out our second moped and set off to explore. The roads in Koh Chang we a lot steeper than in Pai and I clung on tight as we wound along, up and down. The first stop was a viewpoint of the road that displayed a stunning view of the islands close to Koh Chang as well as the turquoise and deep blue mixing of water below.
White Sands was our next stop but we ended up getting sidetracked at Kai Bae running onto the beach and diving into the sea where we were both thrilled to be after lots of dry land and trekking around in north Thailand. We had also impulse bought a snorkel each, although the reason for the ‘excellent deal’ we had for these became apparent as the salt water filled up our masks and stung our eyes. Three small fish later we ditched the snorkels and played bat and ball on the beach for a while, jumped in and out of the sea and sunbathed. Kai Bae beach was absolutely stunning, definitely top 5 if not the number one beach I have seen on my travels so far.
We didn’t get to White Sands that day but continued to cruise casually/me clinging on to the bike in terror along the coastal road.
That night we went in search of a highly recommended Mexican restaurant (bad of us in Thailand I know). It had recently been moved from Lonely Beach to Kai Bae, however, after driving up and down the street of Kai Bae about twelve times we finally saw the ‘coming soon’ sign and had to re-think our dinner plans. After finishing our meal I was highly grateful for the non-existent Mexican restaurant because I ate, instead, the best seafood of my life. We picked a restaurant at random with a selection of fresh fish displayed outside on ice and ordered a whole white snapper between us. It was beautiful, crispy skin, perfectly spiced, meaty fish. Neither of us could stop smiling on the way home and after a few drinks in the ‘Magic Garden’ bar we went to bed full and happy.
The next day we actually made it to White Sands which, while beautiful, was much more commercial than the other beaches we had seen. There are a lot of expensive resorts on Koh Chang where you will see rude, rich Russians parading the beach in front of fancy hotels and it seemed most of these were in White Sands. Where we were staying in Lonely Beach seemed to be the most backpacker friendly. That said, White Sands was still beautiful and home to lots of restaurants where I would have spent my whole time if I could have.
Our last night’s meal had been booked at another seafood restaurant which included a boat trip to see fireflies. With cheap seafood being so readily available we had to go for the lobster; this was actually the first time I have eaten lobster in a restaurant and I loved it. Hopefully I can earn plenty of money in Australia as I believe my tastes are becoming expensive. After dinner we climbed onto the boat for our promised firefly experience which was a little bit of an over-statement. To be fair we did see fireflies, about three. They didn’t exactly light up the trees as suggested in the guide book, however they were still a pretty sight after a tasty bite.
Koh Chang provided a serious contender for the top spot currently occupied by Pai. It is a beautiful, secnic island; not all of it is occupied because part is entirely covered in jungle. Noticeably quieter than the other Thai islands it was also a great place for us to relax for a few days. Relax we did. Whilst in Koh Chang we slept, ate, drank, swam and sunbathed. Repeat.
Having left Pai at lunchtime it was early evening by the time we had settled into SK. After getting some food we walked to the night market ready to spend, spend, SPEND. As with every time when you are actually looking to buy things we couldn’t find anything we wanted but did both end up with a pair of fake Havaianas. Strolling through the market I noticed Dibbs suddenly getting a little glint in his eye, turning to see what he was looking at I saw three ladyboys in full sequins, makeup and huge man-sized heels. Next thing Dibbs knew he was amongst them with me taking photos whilst they kissed his cheeks. The women/men were there advertising a show that night in the market square. I was keen to go and see this as I had heard that the shows can be really entertaining. Dibbs seemed a little more sceptical as we sat nearby watching them ‘do their thing’ to entice the crowd into the bar. Our particular favourite was a chubby, short, smiling character who was possibly the least convincing ladyboy I have seen so far.
At 9pm we sat down at the ‘free’ show with the most expensive drinks we had had since leaving the UK. We weren’t too worried however as 400 baht between us for a drink and a show was still fairly reasonable. The music began and a voice boomed out that we were about the see ‘the greatest caberet show in the world’, we both laughed and rolled our eyes and this as the performers began to walk out onto the stage. My eyes took in the vast amounts of sequins, feathers and glitter unfolding before me. The first song was fairly standard euro-pop and I had a feeling I knew the sort of show we were about to see, that was until the second song- Telephone by Lady GaGa and Beyonce- began and a GaGa impersonate burst onto the stage. Don’t get me wrong, these performers don’t exactly look like women and I certainly wouldn’t be mistakenly asking her for GaGa’s autograph anytime soon but I did tend to forget that I was watching a Thai man prancing around the stage in full dress. I laughed my way through this entire performance, through the entire show in fact, especially when a Beyonce figure joined GaGa on stage followed by Tina Turner amongst others. Entertainment is what we went for and entertainment is what we got. It was definitely worthwhile to go and see; I smiledso much all the way through that my jaw ached afterwards.
After leaving the show we had a few more drinks and then attempted for about an hour to find our way home. This is the problem with Chaing Mai; it’s a complete maze. The old town is set in a square layout with canals running around the edge. This means that when reaching a canal it is easy to assume you are in one place but really be completely the other end of town. This happened for a long time before a local took pity on us after passing us for about the fourth time he took us on the back of his moped all the way to our hostel. Clearly not as street savvy as we thought.We spent the next day by the pool, me reading Water for Elephants out loud for Dibbs. It was so nice to relax in the sunshine despite the shade quickly covering the main pool area in the afternoon. Reluctantly we packed up and were climbing on a bus again by 6pm. The overnight bus took us all the way to Bangkok where we arrived early in the morning to travel onto Trat and then Koh Chang. Horrendous sounding, the journey wasn’t as bad as we were expecting especially when we stepped onto (a very rusty) ferry and pulled up to the beautiful island of Koh Chang.
With no idea where we were going we climbed into an open truck taxi with some other travellers and picked a beach at random from one of the posters we had seen on the boat. We ended up in an area located on Lonely Beach and quickly sought a good meal; the last three had been snack meals bought from service stations and made up of crisps and Cornettos. After finding a place to stay called Magic Garden for 200baht a night between us and fueling up on some tasty seafood we went in search of a bar. It was a choice between dead quiet drinks in an empty bar or crazy loud music and expensive cocktails. A few cocktails later we were back to our little hut dubiously walking across the huge cracks in the floor well aware that cobras are native to Koh Chang.
The next day we hired out our second moped and set off to explore. The roads in Koh Chang we a lot steeper than in Pai and I clung on tight as we wound along, up and down. The first stop was a viewpoint of the road that displayed a stunning view of the islands close to Koh Chang as well as the turquoise and deep blue mixing of water below.
White Sands was our next stop but we ended up getting sidetracked at Kai Bae running onto the beach and diving into the sea where we were both thrilled to be after lots of dry land and trekking around in north Thailand. We had also impulse bought a snorkel each, although the reason for the ‘excellent deal’ we had for these became apparent as the salt water filled up our masks and stung our eyes. Three small fish later we ditched the snorkels and played bat and ball on the beach for a while, jumped in and out of the sea and sunbathed. Kai Bae beach was absolutely stunning, definitely top 5 if not the number one beach I have seen on my travels so far.We didn’t get to White Sands that day but continued to cruise casually/me clinging on to the bike in terror along the coastal road.
That night we went in search of a highly recommended Mexican restaurant (bad of us in Thailand I know). It had recently been moved from Lonely Beach to Kai Bae, however, after driving up and down the street of Kai Bae about twelve times we finally saw the ‘coming soon’ sign and had to re-think our dinner plans. After finishing our meal I was highly grateful for the non-existent Mexican restaurant because I ate, instead, the best seafood of my life. We picked a restaurant at random with a selection of fresh fish displayed outside on ice and ordered a whole white snapper between us. It was beautiful, crispy skin, perfectly spiced, meaty fish. Neither of us could stop smiling on the way home and after a few drinks in the ‘Magic Garden’ bar we went to bed full and happy.The next day we actually made it to White Sands which, while beautiful, was much more commercial than the other beaches we had seen. There are a lot of expensive resorts on Koh Chang where you will see rude, rich Russians parading the beach in front of fancy hotels and it seemed most of these were in White Sands. Where we were staying in Lonely Beach seemed to be the most backpacker friendly. That said, White Sands was still beautiful and home to lots of restaurants where I would have spent my whole time if I could have.
Our last night’s meal had been booked at another seafood restaurant which included a boat trip to see fireflies. With cheap seafood being so readily available we had to go for the lobster; this was actually the first time I have eaten lobster in a restaurant and I loved it. Hopefully I can earn plenty of money in Australia as I believe my tastes are becoming expensive. After dinner we climbed onto the boat for our promised firefly experience which was a little bit of an over-statement. To be fair we did see fireflies, about three. They didn’t exactly light up the trees as suggested in the guide book, however they were still a pretty sight after a tasty bite.
Koh Chang provided a serious contender for the top spot currently occupied by Pai. It is a beautiful, secnic island; not all of it is occupied because part is entirely covered in jungle. Noticeably quieter than the other Thai islands it was also a great place for us to relax for a few days. Relax we did. Whilst in Koh Chang we slept, ate, drank, swam and sunbathed. Repeat.
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