Ko Chang, Thailand 3

Christmas 2007

Christmas Eve Beach Party

Big barbecue, fire show, fireworks, happy hour, free vodka red bulls, midnight swim, stumble back to bungalow.

You need a tolerance for drunk North Americans to stay here, which we discovered on the first night. We didn’t get much sleep, thanks to our neighbors. There were only two. But it only takes two. Also, being next to the parking lot, the motorbikes kept us awake too.

Bob Marley is at every beach party in the world.

First time in the water was after midnight. And man oh man, did that feel nice.

Lonely beach at night is Escondito without cops taking your money.







The Beach Barbecue

Christmas Day

At certain times, I’m told, the undertow can make swimming dangerous here. Other times, the water can be too shallow for swimming. We seem to have hit it right on. The water is deep and clear for swimming all day long. Then the tide goes out for the night and the water is knee-deep for half a kilometer.

I spent nearly all of Christmas day in the water, about 6 hours, and got my first Thai sunburn. The back and shoulders are now in serious pain.

Went on a little trip to Kai Bae for supplies – mosquito repellent, sun cream, tp, etc. 7-11 is your one-stop shopping in Ko Chang. Had a wicked plate of pad thai noodles.

The Christmas Beach Party was much tamer than the Christmas Eve party. Same on offer, but everyone must’ve been partied out. Actually, the cove mellowed out to how it normally is. An early night. We had the presence of mind to stay clear of the big buckets.

We upgraded to a better bungalow – in a better neighborhood – closer to the beach and farther from the parking lot.

Walked south on the road from the beach to the “town” part of lonely beach. The walk on the road was dark and creepy. Lucky not to be hit by a speeding taxi or motorbike. Could have used my flashlight but it was back at the cabin. One of the camp dogs guided us all the way to town and even waited there to walk us back to the beach.

The strip is seedy for a beach town. More go-go bars, which are like sports bars with girls. They show premiership soccer games on big screens, have pool tables and play good music.

There’s a stench of open sewers. They don’t run deep enough. There are ATM’s and a 7-day (rip off of a 7-11).

The town is a good hang-out for long term backpackers looking to chill and share stories or make friends to move on with. If you’ve only got a week, better to just stay on the beach.

We checked out a room at “Ploy Talay Inn”. Nice place. Nice room. But the cockroach next to the bed was one of the biggest I’ve ever seen.

We found what I figure to be the sweetest deal at lonely beach. They’re cool bungalows on the hillside running from the strip to the water, called “Katchapura”. Cheap and clean. Say no more.

Siam Hut has the coolest beach party. Loud, yet laidback and safe. You feel very safe on the beach here. Almost no element of shady characters. The islanders who are Thai are very laidback and friendly. And the tourist scene was cool too. Nothing at all like Cancun Spring Break. On the other hand, nothing at all like a Rainbow festival either. It was just a perfect mix of mellow couples looking for a cool Christmas. Great.

The cove of white sand beach here is small. You can walk the length in 10-15 minutes. I swim the length of it in an hour – and I’m not a strong swimmer. Yet it’s not overrun with people. There’s plenty of room in the sand. You never feel crowded. There were times, especially in the mornings, when I’d look around and realize that I was the only one in the water.

Boxing Day

First sleep-in in Thailand.
Got up at 9am. Slept like a baby.
A day, first day, with nothing scheduled, nothing planned in the books whatsoever. A day of pure leisure. It’s boxing day.

Instant coffee in my mickey mouse cup. Pad thai noodles and then a morning swim.

My breakfast was very relaxing. Thai noodles with tamarind sauce. The restaurant on the beach was chilled out. Two drunk and obnoxious American girls stumbled over to my table to smell my food. They both stuck their noses into my plate of food, spilling beer from the one litre bottles they were tipping back, their dirty hair dropping into my noodles. “Oh smell this! Smell this!” And they sat at my table. A British guy who was babysitting them pulled the girls away and apologized. It was the same two who’d kept me up the night before. I sound like an old man. I’m just not twenty anymore.

At noon, we rented a sea kayak – which they call “tri-yaks” ‘cause they seat three, and paddled south down the coast. I was hoping to find a cool little white sandy cove or coastal pub to park for a rest and a cold one. Didn’t find much but rocky coastline and palm trees. We covered quite a distance. Seems like, in this area, our spot is the coolest.

There are 4 small islands off the coast of lonely beach that you can kayak to – maybe a 3 to 5 hour trip in total. They haven’t been developed. They are pitch dark at night. So I figure there can’t be a lot of prime white sand. Probably rocky coastline that’s good for snorkeling.

Three main beers in Thailand – Singha, Chang and Leo. The 7-11’s carry all three, plus Carlsberg, usually. Singha has the golden lion label. I like this one the best. Chang has the green label with two elephants. It’s slightly cheaper at the corner store but tastes pretty good. Bars sometimes have both. Other times you get one or the other. Leo is ok. Nothing to write home about.

I feel sorry for the couple who shared our taxi from the ferry. Their stop was the first – a massive luxury resort. Possibly a trip that cost a fortune. But the resort was under construction. The concrete cutters, drilling, sawing, hammering and pounding, sounded like downtown Seoul or Tokyo. This, just a few metres from their picturesque postcard swimming pool. One thing to keep in mind if you book your honeymoon here. The island is under major construction. There are work sites everywhere along the route south from the ferry all down the west coast. All of Thailand, for that matter, is changing so fast. Kao San Road in Bangkok is another good example. Any travel book or website that hasn’t been updated in the last year could be irrelevant.

We walked all through the dirt road alleys of lonely beach. There must be a hundred little bars here, most of them really cool spots. Basically thatched roof palapas with Christmas lights strung throughout and every imaginable scrap piece of whatever hung for decoration. I saw at least twenty pictures of Che Guevara.

We had dinner at a little family spot with four tables. There were five Thai women and a little girl all wearing yellow T-shirts. They barbecue chicken rotisserie style. We also ordered the papaya salad, which was delicious but burned the tongue off of me.

Walked past dozens of massage tables and bamboo tattoo shops. At the very end of the dirt road is the coolest bar on the beach, called the “Treehouse”. It sits on stilts out over the water. There were two Thais in long dreads, looking like Marley and playing lots of Marley on their guitars. Classic rock tunes all slowed down to the point where the music barely moved. The Treehouse is a massive bar of straw huts linked together on stilts over the water. There are dozens of hammocks and most tables are low with cushions on the floor boards. People aren’t really partying so much as they are lying around.

Again, free vodka red bulls. I sat and drank with an Italian backpacker while Sera slept in the hammock and his little Thai girl from Bangkok slept in her hammock. He talked non-stop of Cambodia, as does everyone it seems.

We took a long walk on the beach back to our hut – much safer than the dark walk on the highway. Then called it an early night.

We have a massive lizard living in our shower – about a foot long if you count the tail. It’s grey with black markings but he changes colors. When he’s in the shower, he’s grey. He looked like a statue or a wall decoration, until he moved. He’s there every time we come home. And he shits in the shower, which we have to clean up. A rude pet.

Day 7

A lazy day of beers and beach.

At our place, “Nature Rocks Restaurant” has a barbecue every evening. I ordered the Red Snapper.

I missed a chance to try Red Snapper in Mexico because I was living cheap and thinking of the budget. It’s an exotic fish in tropical counties – always the highest priced on the menu, like the lobster back home.