Koh Chang is located in the Gulf of Thailand in the southeast corner of Thailand near the border with Cambodia. It is part of a 52-island, 250-square-mile National Marine Park. The island has steep, jungle-covered peaks. We arrived by ferry from Trat, the capital of this southeast province of the country. (We actually arrived after dark, but those pictures aren't much fun.)
The ferry came in on the northeast side of Koh Chang and our hotel, KC Grande Resort and Spa, is located on the west side of the island; we had an exciting ride to the hotel on a mountain road that hugged a cliff going down to the Gulf. The hotel is beautiful. It's located on White Sand Beach and like very many buildings in Thailand, the reception area is built to take advantage of the (mostly) beautiful climate of Thailand -- it's open air on most of its sides. That's the beach and Gulf outside the far end of the reception area.
The beach is very shallow for a long way out and the water is very warm. Some of the other islands in the Marine Park are visible from the beach.
Butterflies seem to like the beach.
Our room was on the top floor of the building shown below (the room with the curtains open) and had a view of several lovely swimming pools and, just beyond the pools, the Gulf.
There were some beautiful sunsets.
Our favorite dinner spot was the Horizon Restaurant on the top of an adjoining building next to the infinity pool.
And dinner was as great as the view.
Breakfast also had a great setting.
Dinner at the restaurant on the beach:
Island Tour
On Thursday and Friday, April 25-26, we went to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. That will be its own post. On Saturday, April 27, we went on an all-day tour of Koh Chang. We were supposed to ride in a songthaew (hot, windy and uncomfortable) for our 8-hour tour, but it turned out that only four were going (the two of us and a very nice couple from Canada), so we ended up being driven around in an air conditioned SUV (very nice on hot Thailand days). We had such fun with Michel and Diane; we had much in common, including a first grandchild. It was great to meet them and to compare notes about families, traveling, and retirement.
The first stop was the Chao Po Chinese Temple on the north end of the island. The local deity who resides there is believed to protect the island, and people come here to pay homage and find out their future. In the first photo below, the temple is in the background and Man, our driver for that day, is in the right foreground. It turns out that Man is from Khemmarat, our home base in Thailand!
A close-up of some of the artwork on the temple's exterior to the left of the entrance:
Ao Salak Kok Mangrove Bay
The second stop was a walkway through a dense mangrove forest. Mangroves are called the ocean's nurseries; they foster the next generation of marine species as well as resident birds and crustaceans. Villagers operate an award-winning program to preserve the environment and the traditional way of life. It was low tide when we were there. Mangroves have a structure of roots emerging from the tree trunk and creating a dome-like structure at the base of the tree. There are also pointed structures sticking out of the mud -- these are air-breathing roots that are used when the tide comes in.
We saw small crabs going in and out of the holes in the mud in the photo below.
We saw villagers harvesting oysters from the piers supporting the walkway.
We climbed a 3-story observation tower to look over the forest.
Mary spotted a resident bird.
The last stop driving down the east side of the island was the pier off Baan Salak Phet jutting into the beautiful bay bordered by humpbacked islands.
Then we reversed course and stopped at Than Mayom Waterfall.
It started raining as we turned back toward the car. There were ropes strung along the course at spots that were a little more challenging. Here comes Mary at one of those points.
And here come our new friends Michel and Diane.
Next stop -- Klong Plu Waterfall; first we noticed some beautiful flowers:
It was a 500-meter hike to the falls; Michel kept track of our progress for us.
Michel was a little braver than George and climbed to the other side of the river and got these shots:
The tour included lunch and we had that at what we think is Man's family home and restaurant. Lunch was good.
On the way to the south of the island, we stopped at Kai Bae overlook. We were looking west.
The final stop was Baan Bang Bao, a former fishing village built in the traditional fashion of interconnected piers. It has become a tourist attraction and villagers have rented out portions of their homes to souvenir shops and restaurants. The effect though is very much Thai -- like the sidewalks in Bangkok with vendors crowded together selling a wide variety of food and merchandise. One walks a long way out over the water through the vendors and reaches a pier out into the bay with boats alongside and beautiful views.
George failed to get a picture of the vendors' stalls lined up on the pier so we are borrowing this one from readerstripretports.blogspot.com. We hope they don't mind.
When we got back to our hotel after the tour, our maid had folded our bath and hand towels in the form of elephants and our beach towels into turtles.
The next day we visited Eung, the tour guide with OK.Diving who had arranged our trip to Angkor Wat and the island tour. We enjoyed both trips and appreciated her efforts to make them so pleasant.
We had been wondering about a bird that we saw a lot around the hotel, and suddenly we noticed a pair of them right outside her office door. She told us they are called Common Mynas and are often seen on Koh Chang and other parts of Thailand. Eung feeds them every day and they come faithfully every morning. On the morning we observed them, she brought a bag of treats, which the two of them shared. We asked if other birds try to join in; she replied that the pair chases away any other bird that tries to eat their treat. She added that she had been in an accident and didn't come to work for a month. When she returned, the Myna pair seemed overjoyed to see her again.
The bird is highly vocal at times and can also be identified by its ceaseless, loud chattering of various conversation-like gurgles and whistles, and it's even capable of learning to mimic human speech when in captivity. It looks very much like a mockingbird in flight, with the white markings underneath its wings.
We walked up the main street in town for our morning cappuccino and took a few photos. It looks a lot like some small beach towns we've seen on the East Coast of the US, except for an unusual number of motorbikes, the main mode of transportation for many Thais. Like the US (and most of Thailand), there is a 7-11.
At our favorite coffee stand , we noticed a display of recycled whiskey bottles. These contain gasoline for motorbikes and that is a pretty common way to sell that fuel. The bottles on the left contain flavors for drinks; hopefully they don't get mixed up!
We spent a lazy day in the shade by the pool on our last day on Koh Chang. A pair of Common Mynas kept us company -- here is one of them.
The beach looked beautiful for our last morning on Koh Chang.
Our trip home involved a ferry to the mainland, a flight to Bangkok, a second flight to Ubon Ratchathani, and a 1-1/2-hour taxi ride to Khemmarat, but all went smoothly. The topiary at the lovely little Trat Airport and the paint jobs on the tram and the plane were a great send-off.
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