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As we described in our last post, the PAD protesters’ occupation of the airports forced us to abandon our plans of flying down to the famous beaches in the south of Thailand, leading us to instead choose an overland trip to Koh Chang. This island is a five hour bus ride from Bangkok, followed by a 45 minute ferry ride. We left late morning, and were there by dusk.
View from the ferry to Koh Chang
We arrived without accommodation, but knew that we wanted to stay somewhere along White Sand Beach on the west coast of the island. After taking a songthew to the center of the hotel strip along the beach and walking door-to-door checking out places, we finally settled on this beach-front spot:
White Sands Beach in front of our hotel
We spent the next four days relaxing. Each morning, we settled down on two beach chairs right between the hotel pool and the beach, and spent the rest of the day reading and taking dips in the water. Around dusk, we continued our South African tradition of enjoying a sundowner cocktail.
Sundowner, White Sands Beach
Our second night in Koh Chang happened to fall on Thanksgiving and also became one of the most memorable nights of our trip. After a beachside sundowner (photo above), I decided it was the right moment to ask Abby a rather serious question. After getting our bill, we walked out onto a small island that had formed as the tidal waters receded. It was here that I asked her to marry me and was delighted when she said “yes”.
Two people that just got engaged on the beach!
We went out for a celebratory (and Thanksgiving) dinner at Ton Sai, which is a fantastic restaurant perched up in a banyan tree. We had yellow curry, phad thai, and minced pork cakes while we thought about all that we are thankful for and how excited we are for the future.
We spent the rest of our trip relaxing, only leaving White Sand Beach once to visit “Lonely Beach,” which is a less developed part of the island further south. This area has more of a backpacker feel with a bunch of cheap bungalows, bars, and restaurants.
Lonely Beach
Another highlight of our excursion to Lonely Beach was this sighting of a mother and daughter monkey pair traversing the power lines:
