Told you so! (Right after the break being now and yes there will be more posts I promise, really honestly). Time to sum up this holiday. Well let's just say that there was an abundance of sun, sea, sand and fish (on plates mostly). Having a beach bungalow on Hat Sai Kao (Beach Sand White) was a little different from four years ago. This one had all the trimmings, full bells and whistles and mod cons. Just like a whole string of new beach bars, resorts and farang restaurants geared to (back)package tourists as seen everywhere in Thailand. Luckily for us, most of them hadn't dared to show up yet. Too close to the rainy season. Any other part of the year you'd be better off going way down the eastern part of the island. Apparently Lonely Beach is the place to be. If you want some peace and quiet that is. Anyway... No idea what Hat Sai Kao looks like now, but we left it like in the picture. (Those shapes in the foreground are not from passing elephants. It's the Khmer-ish style in which Thai children build sand castles).
Of course we did not only lounge around on the beach. We also hiked up into Ko Chang national park. Only 0,5 kilometer, but still 0,5 kilometer (and back!) over rocks, small waterfalls and through damp vines of pretty dense tropical rain forest. Not only did the path lead up to an almost deserted sanctuary/swimming pool carved out in rock by the sheer power of water falling 20 meters, we had the added exhilaration of being there on the cheap. One of our fellow farang teachers showed us the trick (which works at any national park by the way): wave your work permit in front of the right guy's face and you will get in for the Thai price, in this case 20 Baht. A lot better than the 400 Baht a pop tourists pay. I've heard that the park officials complain that the number of visitors dropped dramatically. Hmmmm: I wonder why.... Just some stats. That amount of money could also get you a motor cycle for four days. Or get you on a day long cruise along all the islands with enough free booze to take out a herd of rhinos.
Told you so! (Right after the break being now and yes there will be more posts I promise, really honestly). Time to sum up this holiday. Well let's just say that there was an abundance of sun, sea, sand and fish (on plates mostly). Having a beach bungalow on Hat Sai Kao (Beach Sand White) was a little different from four years ago. This one had all the trimmings, full bells and whistles and mod cons. Just like a whole string of new beach bars, resorts and farang restaurants geared to (back)package tourists as seen everywhere in Thailand. Luckily for us, most of them hadn't dared to show up yet. Too close to the rainy season. Any other part of the year you'd be better off going way down the eastern part of the island. Apparently Lonely Beach is the place to be. If you want some peace and quiet that is. Anyway... No idea what Hat Sai Kao looks like now, but we left it like in the picture. (Those shapes in the foreground are not from passing elephants. It's the Khmer-ish style in which Thai children build sand castles).
Of course we did not only lounge around on the beach. We also hiked up into Ko Chang national park. Only 0,5 kilometer, but still 0,5 kilometer (and back!) over rocks, small waterfalls and through damp vines of pretty dense tropical rain forest. Not only did the path lead up to an almost deserted sanctuary/swimming pool carved out in rock by the sheer power of water falling 20 meters, we had the added exhilaration of being there on the cheap. One of our fellow farang teachers showed us the trick (which works at any national park by the way): wave your work permit in front of the right guy's face and you will get in for the Thai price, in this case 20 Baht. A lot better than the 400 Baht a pop tourists pay. I've heard that the park officials complain that the number of visitors dropped dramatically. Hmmmm: I wonder why.... Just some stats. That amount of money could also get you a motor cycle for four days. Or get you on a day long cruise along all the islands with enough free booze to take out a herd of rhinos.
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