We haven't written in ages. We've been too busy enjoying our stay on the island of Ko Chang, in Trat Province, Thailand.

We decided on Ko Chang randomly after I was uninterested in our original destination of Kanchanaburi. We caught a 5 hour bus to Trat (or Trad depending on who's doing the spelling) and wound up in a great little guesthouse, The Windy Guesthouse. For $3 a night (that's for both of us) we were able to hang around and bump into some Scots we met back in Sukhothai, Caroline and Neil. They had just come from Ko Chang and raised our expectations of the island.

We were initially going to start with Ko Maak, because well, I went to school at Commack Schools and I thought it would be funny. However, because it was so close to New Years, many places were booked up. Fair enough. So we went back to the idea of Ko Chang, the main island. We caught the ferry and then caught a share taxi down to the south of the island. Ant had read about a few bungalow/hut places in the Bang Bao region. That didn't quite work out, but we did get a basic place at Jungle Hut down the road a bit. It wasn't really how I wanted to spend my New Years but we decided to go exploring. And were we glad we did....

About .5k down the super windy road we found a resort called The Mangrove. It's a brand new place owned by a Thai woman and managed by a French girl. We asked to see a room, and were told the price was 700B/night. That's about $17.50. It's more than we spent anywhere, but the place was SOOOOOOO worth it. In fact, we were quoted the wrong price, it was actually 900B ($22.50) but the owner stuck to the original price, which was honorable of her.

For the rest of the day we went to an herbal sauna. You basically hang out, get sweaty in sweet smelling herbal steam, then run into the cool mountain water shower. After a few times of doing this, we got some milk and tamarind which we mushed into a paste and painted our bodies with. Very relaxing for $2!!

Anywho, the next day we moved into our palace. The whole place was built with natural materials, all wood and stone. We spent a few days lazing around doing pretty much nothing except playing in the water. And then Ant made my life hell.

Kayaking seemed like a harmless idea. It really does. Unless that is you are going with some experienced Thais and a farang who sticks you in the back to do all the grunt work while going against the tide!!! On the way to this remote beach, I felt like my arms were on fire after 15 minutes. I just kept reminding Anthony how much I hated him. Finally, after an hour plus of paddling my ASS off, we get to a pretty private beach. I just wanted to die, I was so tired. After a rest we headed off again, back to the small village we came from. Ant kept saying how fun all the kayaking was, but I'm still not convinced.

What I am convinced of though is the fact that I do now enjoy a beach experience. There are several key factors though.

1. The beach needs to be sparsely populated.
2. A short walk to the water (as in not too much sand).
3. Warm water with stuff to look at while snorkelling.

Hence when we overheard a group of Seattlites planning to rent a boat to go out to some more remote islands, we asked if we could tag along. With that, we met up with Bill, Matt, Christine, Elizabeth, Erica, and Alison. Unfortunately, Alison and Erica had had a motorbike accident which ended up with them having 3rd degree burns on their calves and I felt bad when we all jumped in the water with snorkelling gear and they were stuck on the boat. They were troopers about it though.

So, we swam and snorkelled. I got to see rainbow fish, sea cucumbers, sea spikey things, and all things Finding Nemo-like. Brain corals and shimmery fish were all over and I could have spent hours floating around. It was great.

I even acquired a bit of color. Yes, it's true.