Summer Vacation Part 4: Koh Chang

Koh Chang was part 4 of our summer adventures,  the final vacation destination and the highlight of our trip.  Koh Chang is a beach island in Thailand in the Trat Providence.  It's 70 % undeveloped natural rainforest and a mix between super commercialized (like Phuket) and practically untouched.  It's pretty laid back, but there is enough on the island to do and enough commodities that you don't feel like you are stranded.  In low season, there's not a ton of tourists on the island and you can get a good deal on hotels (which is why we went during low season).

We took a mini-bus from Bangkok to our hotel on Koh Chang.  It was about a 6 hour journey and cost about $20.  We left in the morning so we arrived on the island by the afternoon.  We met a really nice Australian woman on the van and ferry ride who had just been to Europe.  She decided on a whim to come to Koh Chang and didn't really know anything about the island -- which is totally opposite from me because I love to research my vacations well in advanced.

View of Koh Chang from the ferry

Me riding the ferry to Koh Chang from Trat

Of course that research doesn't always help, as we discovered less than a week before we were supposed to be on the island.  We had booked a hotel at the end of June because it had a nice beach, a huge pool with swim up bar, and was close to lots of restaurants and hot spots in White Sands Beach.  The night before we left for Tokyo, I was putting information together about our hotels and looked up the phone number on our Koh Chang hotel's website.  It was then that I saw that the hotel was doing construction on the pool during the month of August, which was not the case when we booked the hotel.  We debated about what to do and decided to look for something else last minute, because construction would be going on starting at 7:00 am.  Luckily, that was our last day to cancel our hotel reservation for a full refund!


All the hotels we found were missing something -- one didn't have a large tub, one didn't have a pool, one had a bad dirt road to drive down to get to, and one had a crappy beach.  So we ended up at Chivapuri Resort, which was a really nice hotel with a great beach, but a little rugged on the edges.  It is new and parts of it are still under construction (like the pool).  It's not quite luxurious in the sense of man-made landscaping and an abundance of amenities, but it was on a gorgeous beach and was beautiful in an exotic and natural way.  Much of the natural landscape (bushes and large palm trees) remain on the property.  The rooms were comfortable but not luxurious (for example, the floors made from natural wood and the bath tub that was large but not a jacuzzi).  It is located on the southern end of the island and at the end of an long, bumpy, dirt road (that was hard to navigate in a scooter after rain when the dirt was mud), so we had to take a scooter to get to restaurants.  Ironically, in the end we chose this hotel, but it had qualities that we rejected other hotels for --  long dirt road, no jacuzzi tub, no swimming pool, and construction.  What won us over were the pictures of the beach surrounded by rain forest.  And it was probably the nicest beach on the island.  An added bonus is that the food there was AMAZING and pretty cheap.  Also, because it was low season and because the hotel is still working on the finishing touches, we got a great rate on the room - less than $80 a night!

Ariel view of our hotel area 

Kris on the beach

Another shot of the beach -- I loved the natural landscape

Jealous yet? ;-)

We spent our wonderfully relaxing week on the island enjoying the beach and sand and sipping drinks at a beach bar next door.  We also had a few adventures, like riding on an elephant in the jungle and snorkeling around 4 islands.  We had also planned to go hiking to the waterfalls on the island and kayak around the island, but we didn't want to give up relaxing time on the beach.  And I didn't want to sacrifice the beach massages I got almost every day.  That's right, I got a one-hour massage on the beach almost every day -- for only $10!!!!!  It was paradise!  But Thai massages can be a bit rough and I actually got two small bruises from my massages.

Kris enjoying a fresh mango shake on the beach at Ernie's Bar

Us at the beach

   On the day of our elephant hike, the people from Ban Camp Chang picked us up.  They said they would pick us up at 9:30 am, so we were ready and waiting ten minutes early.  They didn't come to get us until 10:15 am -- coming from the most punctual country in the world, we were certainly not used to "Thai Time".  The drive in the open-back pick-up truck taxi was the scariest part - especially with the winding roads and the crazy way the islanders drive.  Kris said, "I feel like I'm on the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios," then made a scared face like he was posing for the ride camera. "It's funny because I'm actually scared for my life!"
   When we got to the elephant camp, we climbed a platform as they brought over an elephant, and then we climbed into a wooden seat on her back.  Our guide, who steered the elephant, looked like he was around 14 years old -- and he wasn't the first young worker I'd seen on the island.  The jungle that he guided us through was so beautiful. Not long after trek began, the skies opened up and poured on us for 15 minutes or so (since that's what happens in the rainy season).  We had umbrellas but still got wet.  I think our guide thought I was crazy because I was laughing through it, thinking to myself, "This is awesome!  When in my life will I ever again be riding an elephant through the jungle in a rainstorm?!?!"  Our elephant was a little stubborn; whenever the guide tried to get her to do something she didn't want to do, she would sigh with frustration and her WHOLE BODY would vibrate.  We thought this was pretty hilarious.
    We had the opportunity to swim with the elephant in a clear stream.  I was considering jumping in (despite not being prepared with a bathing suit, towel, or other clothes) -- until the elephant pooped right in it and 6 big coconut-sized blobs of poop floated to the top.  Swimming in elephant feces?  No thank you!
   My favorite part of the elephant ride was when the guide let me sit on the elephant and lead it.  The elephant's skin is rough and leathery, and the tiny hairs on its body are surprisingly stiff.  Sitting on the head of the elephant was more unstable and shaky than I expected -- but it was awesome!  When we started the ride in the chair on the elephant, I had been hoping to actually sit on the elephant; because it wouldn't feel to me like I had actually "ridden an elephant" without actually being on it.  When our ride was over, we bought some bananas and fed them to the baby elephants.

The jungle after the rain

Lauren at the stream with the elephant and guide

Our guide swimming with the elephant

Us riding the elephant!

Us with the elephant

Lauren feeding the baby elephant

Kris feeding our elephant

More beautiful jungle scenery

On another day, we went on a 4-island snorkeling trip to other islands around Koh Chang.  First we were picked up by a small motor boat and taken to the big boat.  We could see the big boats at the fishing dock from our beach. Since we were the first people on the boat, we got the best seats in the very front.  But on the ride to the island, a we rode through a big rainstorm that chased us into cover at the back of the boat.  When it died down, we returned to our seats, but an obnoxious French family stood in front of us and blocked the nice view. Since the boat was filled with people, we worried that the snorkeling would be overcrowded and we wouldn't see much: Luckily this was not the case.  The coral reefs were huge, the water was clear, the fish abundant, and the snorkeling beautiful.  I wish I had an underwater camera to capture the beauty.  A few times we found ourselves swimming in the midst of a large school of fish.  We kept trying to reach out and grab them.  A few times I was able to touch them before they swam away.  As we swam, Kris held my hand because I was nervous about seeing a shark and freaking out (I am terrified of sharks).  Thank God there were no sharks by the reefs!  It was a beautiful, fun day.  And despite having accidentally stepped on a sea urchin and getting some parts of it lodged in his foot, Kris said this was his favorite part of the trip.  (Don't worry: the sea urchin only hurt him for about 10 minutes and he didn't even bleed.  He's fine).

How beautiful!

Our first snorkeling site was this mini-island 

Ready to get our snorkeling on!

The beauty is unreal!

Most evenings Kris drove us on a moped (which he likes to say was a motorcycle) to other parts of the island for dinner and a little shopping.  One of these nights we had just sat down at a restaurant when it began to storm.  We were glad we had sat down and ordered our food when we did -- because about 4 other families came rushing in to escape the rain.  Another night, it started to rain on us on our way back to the hotel, and since the roads are difficult enough to navigate in the dark with the crazy way the islanders drive, we stopped at a bar to escape the rain.  It was run by a man from France and several of the people hanging out there were speaking French.  There were live geckos running all over the place, which was actually pretty cool.  I loved how much diversity we experienced on the island.  People came from literally all over the world to visit there.  Diversity is hard to come by in Japan, especially in Sendai (though its diversity is significantly higher than other parts of Japan).

"Gas Station" on Koh Chang -- yep, this is where we filled up our scooter!

Kris was very proud of his new hat.

Thai food is DELICIOUS!!!!  It is inexpensive and so flavorful.  My favorites were chicken with cashew, peanut satay, and chicken with pineapple.  The fruit on the island was always so fresh and mouthwatering - especially the pineapple!  We got fruit shakes every day -- fruit blended with ice.  They were AMAZING!  I really miss the delicious fruit.  We also enjoyed eating authentic pizza made by a man who immigrated from Italy and imported the cheese from there.  I haven't had a good pizza since we were evacuated to Misawa in March.  My favorite dinner, though, was the at the hotel the night we ate dinner on the beach as the sun was setting.  They put out candles around the table and it was so romantic.


It was a fabulous vacation that we were sad to see end.  Hopefully we can get in another amazing trip before our time in Japan is over.

Trat Airport -- open air terminal

Hedges made into elephants!  They are about the size of the baby elephants we fed.

If you're planning a trip to Thailand, I highly recommend visiting Koh Chang.  It is a great island for people who appreciate natural beauty and want options for activities or for people who just want to relax on a beach.  We loved this mix of relaxation and cultural experiences.  If you like a quieter vacation, check out the Chivapuri; but if you want a little more nightlife and action, you might want to stay further north (near white sands beach or lonely beach).  Going during "rainy season" isn't as bad as it sounds -- everything is cheaper and it only rained for 15-20 minutes at a time, once in the morning or afternoon and once in the evening (during the whole week we were there).

Summer Vacation Part 3: Bangkok

Before you read: Kris and I spent our summer break in Matsushima, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Koh Chang (an island in Thailand).  We left our camera charger at our hostel in Tokyo, so we have to wait to get it back before uploading those pictures and blogging about Tokyo.  Luckily we had the iPhone with us to be our camera, so we can post pics and blog about Bangkok and Koh Chang.  We'll just have to tackle our adventures in Tokyo at a later time.


After spending fun and exhausting days in Tokyo, Kris and I flew to Bangkok where we spent 1 1/2 days before continuing on to the island of Koh Chang.  Asian airlines know where it's at!  Airlines in America should take a lesson from them!  For our 2-3 hour flights, we were given meals, beverages, snacks, and we had personal movie screens (on 2 of the flights) and could choose from a huge selection of movies and TV.


Going from Japan to Thailand was a bigger culture shock for me than going from America to Japan was.  Japan is the cleanest country I have ever been to - even with the complete lack of public trash cans.  Everything in Japan is orderly -- from  the way people stand in lines to wait for the bus or subway to the way rules (even concerning jaywalking) are followed.  And everything is perfectly punctual.  When a train is scheduled to leave at 4:32, it leaves at 4:32.  In Japan, appearance is everything.


When we got off the skytrain in Bangkok and started to walk to our hotel, I couldn't believe my eyes.  There was trash everywhere; stray dogs walked along the sidewalk as if they owned the town; and during our stay the poverty of Thailand became very apparent.  I don't mean to sound snobby or naive; it's just that the difference between Japan and Thailand is so stark, it caught me off guard.  I forgot that Japan is different from most Asian countries.


What is ironic is that in Tokyo (a very clean  and expensive city), we stayed at the dirtiest, shabbiest hotel (Hostel Komatsu Ueno -- DON'T STAY THERE if you are planning a trip to Tokyo); but in Bangkok (a dirty and inexpensive city), we stayed in the nicest hotel (and it was half the price of our Tokyo Hotel).  If you are planning a trip to Bangkok, the Bangkok Loft Inn is a MUST!

Our $40/night hotel room.  Pretty nice for $40!

After checking into our hotel (and being welcomed with juice and cold towels), we went to MBK, a large indoor shopping mall with inexpensive stores (that you can barter in), movie theater, massage parlors, and a huge food court.  I had read about MBK and was really looking forward to shopping there -- Kris and I had both left half our suitcase empty in anticipation of all we might buy.  But by the time we got there and ate dinner, the vendors were closing down.  While the building was open until 10:00pm, we discovered that people were closing down at 7:45pm.  I was quite disappointed.


The next day, we had a private tour guide take us around the city.  We'd read about Tour With Tong on TripAdvisor, and it was the highest rated tour.  I knew that if I was only going to Bangkok once in my life and would only have 1 day to see the sights, I wanted some help!  And the tour was only $45!  Totally worth it!  We got to see so much of the city and didn't have to worry about finding our way around, reading maps, or people trying to scam us (which is apparently very common around the Grand Palace or with tuk-tuks).

Tuk-Tuks like the green one above are a popular way to get around Bangkok

This free bus serves the low-income in the area, but anyone can ride it.  It has no AC and has a wood floor.  Also, buses here don't seem to stop for more than 2 seconds so you gotta be quick!

We passed this vendor selling dried fish and other dried seafood as we walked through the market.  I'll take friend bananas instead, please.

When exploring Bangkok we saw several temples and Buddhas (so many that they began to run together).  I learned something interesting -- for Thai people, the day of the week that they were born is very significant.  The current Thai king was born on a Monday, so Monday is a day off for many people in observation of the King's day of birth.  Buddhists living in Thai (which are about 95 % of the population) worship a different Buddha statue depending on the day of the week they were born.  For example, if someone was born on a Monday, then they would probably have a statue of a standing Buddha; but people born on Tuesdays would have statues of a reclining Buddha.  And long ago, they kind of treatment that physicians administered for people depended on the day of the week that we were born.  Our guide asked us what day of the week we were born, and when we said that we didn't know, she seemed a little surprised, but then admitted that most westerners she talked to didn't know what day they were born.


First we went to Wat Trimitr 

Wat Trimitr

Might not look that big, but it's 5.5 tons of solid gold!  Talk about bling!

Me in one of the gold-plated windows.  Want one of these for your house?

The next place we saw was Wat Pho, a temple with a large reclining Buddha.  Apparently it is the most well known reclining Buddha.  It is 150 feet long and 50 feet high.  Also at Wat Pho is a traditional Thai massage school, though we didn't get massages there (we saved that for the beach).

Sign outside the temple.  To enter temples you had to take off your shoes.  We'd heard of people who had their shoes stolen, so we carried ours with us in our backpack.  We weren't taking any chances on the "Non-Thai Pickpocket Gangs".

Me in front of the reclining Buddha

The back of the feet were detailed with mother of pearl depicting the 108 auspicious signs of Buddhism.

These 2 guys were taking pictures of themselves from every angle in front of EVERYTHING.  So we took a picture of them.

...and we took a picture imitating them.  (There they are behind me!)

People could put 108 coins in these 108 bowls -- one for each wish they have.

The large temple was surrounded by 394 bronze buddha statues.

This is a painting of some spirits believed to watch over children.  Kris really liked the flying samurai elephant spirit.

The grounds of Wat Pho had several of these tall, elaborate stuppas.

Thinking this statue looks a little phallic?  That's because it is.  Yep, it's a statue dedicated to the penis. 

To get to Wat Arun, our tour guide took us through a small market area where we stopped at a vendor to eat some fried banana.  For 10 baht (33 cents) we got a nice big bag worth -- and it was delicious!  We took a boat to get to Wat Arun -- but it was a very short ride, as Wat Arun was right across the river.  It cost us 3 baht each to take to boat (9 cents!).  We found it quite amusing to be paying less than a dime for something!

Wat Arun, as seen from the boat

Wat Arun (also known as the Temple of Dawn, named after the Indian god of dawn) has a huge prang (tower) that is 282 feet tall and covered in porcelain mosaic tiles.  Our tour guide sat and waited for us as we climbed the prang.  Going up was easy, but coming down the steep, narrow stairs was a bit scary!

Us in front of Wat Arun

Kris on the prang (or tower) of Wat Arun

Chinese statues surrounding the Ordination Hall

Front entrance of the Ordination Hall at Wat Arun.  It is guarded by 2 demons (because they lost a fight with one of the gods so now they have to guard the temple).

Us standing beside the lucky buddha.  Is lucky a euphemism for fat???

View from the top of the prang.  It was cool to see a mix of ancient and modern in the skyline.

After finishing up at Wat Arun, we headed to the Grand Palace and the Royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha.  All around the Grand Palace were scheme artists.  Some dressed in suits and looking official, they told unsuspecting tourists that the Grand Palace was closed and offered to wave down a tuk-tuk to take them to another tourist site.  It sounds innocent, but the tuk-tuk driver and fake-tourist-guide work together and the tuk-tuk stops at several gem shops where tourists are convinced to by worthless fake gems.  The fake palace guide, tuk-tuk driver, and gem shop owners share the profit.  I wanted to yell out to all these tourists talking to these schemers, "That's all a lie!  Walk away!  The temple is open."  But it's Bangkok and yelling out loud as an American and causing a scene is probably a terrible idea.  Poor folks should have done their internet research.  Luckily we had a real guide with us so we didn't have to worry about being hassled.


The Grand Palace was built by King Rama I and was the royal families' residence for many years.  It has been renovated and added to by Kings and royalty through the years.  The royal family no longer lives there now, though.  Also, we couldn't take any photos of the Emerald Buddha, as cameras weren't allowed inside that part of the temple.

Behind us are a monkey and demon statue, guarding the entrance to the temple area.  The demons have to guard it because, according to a Buddhist story, one of Buddhist gods and flying monkeys defeated them in a battle. 

Me with some of the many demon statues surrounding the stuppas (small towers).  Like the hot skirt I borrowed from our  tour guide? Women had to wear skirts or pants at the Grand Palace.

View of temple area from Palace grounds

Us in front of one of the grand buildings on the Palace grounds

Following the tour of the Grand Palace, we went to a delicious Thai restaurant for lunch.  The total for all 3 of our meals and drinks was less than $7 (USD)!  Coming from Tokyo, one of the most expensive cities in the world, this was a sticker shock to us!  I had cashew chicken with rice and it was AMAZING!


We finished our tour with the temple of the standing buddha.  We had to walk through a back alley in the rain, and we saw several shacks in poor shape where some people live and work.  This was such a surprise to me because, living in Sendai, I'm not used to seeing this kind of need.  It's easy to forget about those in need when you are not faced with it on a daily basis.  I'm glad I was reminded to pray for those in need and reach out to others and not just live oblivious in my own little bubble.


That night we went to a mall that Thais frequent, but only bought dinner there.  Then we relaxed back at the hotel, called some family, and got ready for the next part of our journey that would begin the next day when we boarded the mini-bus for the island of Koh Chang.