Alright, time to complete the task which I have been procrastinating from long time (one week, that is). Yup, it’s been week since I travelled to this faraway land and I’m not able to forget the serenity and beauty of this place (not that I haven’t travelled to any seaside place before but this has been a particularly memorable one). And, this post is gonna be a long one!

Ko-Chang (meaning Elephants Island) is a district in Trat province located around 310 km from Bangkok and second largest island of the country (Source – Wikipedia……. Who goes on a fun trip and asks for geographical data?………Well, at least, I don’t)

Since, I’m living in Saraburi, I’ll describe my journey from here only. We went to Bangkok from our company taxi (which, obviously, cost me nothing). Reached Bangkok, roamed around, visited some malls and blah, blah, blah……..

Bus time! We took 11:30 p.m. VIP bus from Ekamai bus station to Trat. Awesome and comfortable journey. Good condition seats and AC. Best part, you have got toilets on board!!! (For Indians, it is a new thing). Four and a half hours and we reached Trat bus station (must have been the closest district to Ko Chang island but I forgot to see the name……. anyway, it will drop you at the right place, if you are in right bus, so don’t worry). Our ferry to Ko Chang was around 6 in the morning, so we decided to wait at the bus station itself, but the driver who was supposed to take us to ferrypoint kept pestering us to hurry up, hence, we had to leave the place earlier. It took us about half hour and we made a stop at the ferry ticket counter (which was about 15min away from actual pier). This lady, who was booking tickets, was very helpful (and real business-minded, I must warn). She not only booked ferry but convinced us to book ‘open’ tickets for returning bus from Trat to Bangkok, since 12^th, Monday (the day we were supposed to return home) was holiday all over Thailand in honor of The Honorable Queen’s Birthday and many people would be going back. Since the ferry and bus tickets were both open, we weighed our options and decided to go with it. We just needed to inform the lady when we would board the ferry while coming back so that she would confirm our bus tickets. Not bad. Now, no tension and no hassle of buying tickets to our way back.

We were taken to the pier and we were lucky enough to see the sunrise (bumper bonus!). See for yourself. Although it was cloudy, sun came out for enough time to get clicked by us.

Ferry took around half an hour to reach the actual island! Although slow, it was a fun ride, giving us a chance to feast our eyes on beautiful sceneries, never seen before.

Oh, prices…. I’ll make sure to ask coz till now everything was paid by one of my friends and I just received the cumulative bill in the end (Oops! that reminded me, i still haven’t paid her). From now on, I can tell you. After climbing down the ferry, we took a taxi who’s driver was charging 100 Baht per person from foreigners till our hotel (which was quite far, I must admit).

And trust me, that was one hell of a ride. Why, you ask? If you want a roller coaster ride without an amusement park, this is the place. The roads are so steep, so steep, that at some places, you are literally at a perpendicular plane to that of the sea you can see from there (Sorry if you are bad at maths, but this is the only way I can say that). Since we were moving, we couldn’t click the exact thing but I hope that these give you some idea.

The downward slanted road as can be seen from side wall

The angle !

The dangerous turn

Is it same as second one?

So, somehow we arrived at the hotel “Bai Lan Beach Resort” at 8 in the morning but our check in was at 11. And while my friends were talking to the receptionist, asking for information, I had a look over the place and it was really breathtaking scene.

Ok, so the resort was good. We had already booked the rooms since we were afraid of holiday season. We relaxed a little bit and rented motorbikes (scooties actually) and tried to find veg food. Now, it’s not like we were not getting veg food in the resort but it was a little expensive for people like me. Again, the roads are really up and down, so until and unless you have confidence to drive on such roads (where you can barely control the speed of the vehicle while going down), I would suggest you sit behind some expert. Keeping this in mind, I opted to be the passenger rather than driver. There are a lot of marts out there where you can buy various kinds of bread (without egg too) and frozen food. Meanwhile, we stopped in between to have a look on other small waterfalls and beaches (our resort’s was a rocky one). Here-

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A little more masti, some more clicks and we went to the resort again. Oops! 11a.m. was check out time for previous customer and check in time was 12 noon. One more hour we waited.

Rooms were good, clean bathrooms, mini fridge (equipped with beer which is NOT included in your room rent), TV, AC etc. Our room was with garden view and a double bed, so the price was around 1000 Baht for one night and it included one time breakfast and all the service taxes. Time to freshen up and leave all the tiredness of the whole night journey behind, to enjoy the day’s endeavours. And then we went for kayaking, since it was free and available at that time. Other sports were far away and their time was in morning. We had nothing to do so we went kayaking. And the whole team – amateurs! (Since there were no trainers or anyone like that….. you were free to go by yourself, which we did). It’s easy to see someone and analyze how they do the things they do but very difficult to do it by self, which was the case here too. We turned the kayak upside down a hundred times (a little exaggeration) but still had loads of fun. Then we went to a beautiful whitesand and clear beach called ‘The Lonely Beach’ (and it was exact opposite to it’s name). The tides are a little high in the afternoon. There are massage parlors too (genuine ones please, not those kinds). So while having a good view, you can have a good massage too. Lunch at 5 and then we took our motorbikes to explore more. A little unfortunate accident stopped our little expedition then and there, but you can still find lagoons, small streams and waterfalls to visit by the road itself. Many people were taking a bath too, in these fresh water streams. Went back and had dinner at some peaceful place. The place was a little empty, so it was nicer atmosphere. The prices were reasonable too, not very expensive but not very cheap either. Came back and relaxed on lounge chairs by the seaside till midnight. Had some drinks and the day finished. The accident did upset us a lot and how we wished, we could go further up ahead but, oh well.

Now, my dear vegetarian friends, if you are worried about your food, I suggest you don’t. When we were planning our trip, many people told me, I won’t get anything since I’m a person who doesn’t take egg even in cake. But, I did get fantastic food there, that too pure veg. Thai people call “no egg, no meat” food as “che”. All you have to do is, use this word, if they don’t understand, while ordering food and they will prepare it for you or tell you what are the dishes suitable for you on the menu.

Next part – Elephant Jungle trekking….. Coming soon