Elephant Island - Blogabond

(by Katie)

We're back in Bangkok again, after an amazing week on an island paradise spent fine-tuning our travel plans and unwinding from the craziness that is huge Asian cities. Ko Chang is a relatively large island off the south coast of Thailand, and its name means (as you may have guessed from the blog title) Elephant Island. Michael and I arrived the Tuesday before last, and stayed on the west coast at a place recommended by some friends and the Lonely Planet for the first night.

Michael, soaking up the beach vibe

Our view during dinner, our first night on the island

The first place we stayed

Me and the water buffalo that liked to graze near the bungalows

reading in the hammock we bought in town

Michael, in true "Survivor" style, managed to open a coconut using two rocks he found. It was yummy.

Well, I should say, we stayed next door. We realized shortly after our taxi driver dropped us at our requested location that it no longer offered any accomodation. Actually, it didn't seem it ever had. This would have been less confusing if we hadn't been referred to this place by multiple friends and our guidebook. Turns out, the owners decided about 6 months ago to pluck up all the bungalows and move them to Long Beach, on the opposite coast. Anyway, it all worked out for the best because, in our quest to solve this little mystery, we rented a motorbike and drove almost the whole 45 mile circumference of the island looking for the Treehouse's new location.

a picture we took when we took a little break from driving around the island

It's a beautiful place, with dense rainforest in the middle, and, yes, elephants. There's even an elephant training center that aims to (and I love this) give the elephants skills to help them contribute to society.

So, once we found the new Treehouse and made our way back with our backpacks, we weren't in any hurry to leave.

View from the other restaurant at Long Beach

The place is breathtaking: a deserted, huge white sand beach, bathtub-warm water, absolutely no pollution of any kind (light, noise, air), and individual little thatched-roof bungalows on stilts up in the trees.

The dining/hanging out area ( Treehouse)

Even better, it was only $7 a night for both of us. We met some interesting travelers who gave us some tips about places they'd been, and other than that, we just ate yummy food and soaked up the sun and the bliss.

Thai coke, in appropriate surroundings

Another view of our bungalow (Treehouse)

front view of our bungalow at Treehouse

doing a little hiking

We're back in the chaotic, past-meets-urban-progress juxtaposition that is Bangkok now, but we haven't done much in terms of touristy stuff here. Mostly, we've been taking care of things like making future travel arrangements. Next week is one of the biggest holidays of the year in Thailand: Songkran, or Thai New Year. It involves spraying people with water guns, so I'm really excited. Apparently the place to be for the celebration is a city in the north called Chiang Mai, so we booked what could very likely be some of the last tickets to get there. It's going to be a (gulp) 10+ hour sleeper bus ride that we had planned to break up a bit by stopping in some different cities. However, due to all the holiday traffic we were lucky to get any space on a bus (all the trains are booked) out of town at all.

Anyway, my time is about to expire and I'm all out of the correct coins to feed the machine to keep the internet going, so I'd better run. Michael is here too, having a great time also, and sends his best.

written by

katieandmichael on April 9, 2009 from Trat, Thailand

from the travel blog: Katie and Michael's Travel Blog

Send a Compliment

Sounds like you guys are having a great time. Dont know what kind of food you are eating. We are eating pizza here, cause we broke the barrier on our census today with a whopping 29 people. It is pretty crazy here today, lol. Good to hear from you. Stay safe and keep having fun!

Love,
Momma

written by Debi Williams on April 10, 2009

yay - what amazing fun. I would LOVE to have been there with you to see the elephants and swim in the beautiful water. i'm so glad you're writing all about what you're doing. happy 'new year'!!

written by Angie Merriman on April 10, 2009

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