kO chANG!

Believe it or not the sunset last night was even more spectacular but I was not on the beach to photograph it.


Ok, I hate to rub it in, but this place is awesome.

This is my fourth day in Ko Chang now (third full day) and I must admit it really seems to be the Thailand everyone is looking for. Its cheap, insanely beautiful, unspoiled, wild, clean, safe, the locals are friendly and there's plenty to do or not do depending on how the mood strikes you.

I've been staying in a great little bungalow just off the beach (12 steps from the water) at "Lonely Beach" and it has been fantastic. The room has a fan but no air con and it is a bit musty as the humidity here is intense, but for the price you can't really complain!

The "Nature Rocks" resort is the most popular hang out spot at lonely beach. There's cheaper and then there are much nicer/pricer places but the young backpacker contingent congregates here. They've got the best food (anything you want) a little bar/night club, they have cheap internet acess, they have laundry service, and they rent scooters and kayaks for crazy cheap. Well the scooters anyway, you can take a scooter for eight hours for 150 bhat. (that's less than $4.50 US) you can keep it for 24 hours for 200 bhat. The kayaks believe it or not are a bit more but are still very affordable if you have a bank account with dollars, pounds, euros etc.

I've taken a kayak out to the further-est of the three little islands you can see in the top sunset photo and I've taken a scooter out to explore the west side of the island but I haven't ventured very far from "lonely beach" yet. In the next day or two I hope to do a more through scooter exploration with stops around the island to take little side hikes to waterfalls and other attractions and there is also a all-day snorkeling boat tour which goes around the island and stops at several other islands for snorkeling. I may even try a elephant trek.

I'm a bit antsy to see more of Thailand as this is my first stop outside of Bangkok, but I have it on good authority from more seasoned Thailand travelers that Ko Chang and "Lonely Beach" is about as good as it gets so I guess I will spend a few more days here before moving on. I still need to work on my tan. I got a mottled sunscreen sunburn on my first day that looks absolutely ridiculous.




My bungalow


Ocean facing view from my bungalow



Sorry Mom and Ravi, its probably best if you don't look at the prices. This place is immediately adjacent to my bungalow.


Ocean view from "Nature Rocks"


One of the little distant islands off Lonely Beach I kayaked to.


My own private island (Ko mak?)



Sunset



I thought this picture I snapped of my new Aussie friend Finn came out really well, but I miss my favorite subject.



Did I mention the fire dancers?



These guys would OWN burning man if they ever made it over. These shots were from a slow night. At beach parties they twirl two flaming balls of burning fire on chains while jumping two at at time double-dutch over flaming petrol soaked ropes. No kidding.