Koh Chang, Thailand

January, 2010

After touring Bangkok and Cambodia, we drove down to Koh Chang for 5 days of beach vacation. The drive was actually uneventful despite the fact that it took two taxis, a mini-bus and a ferry and we walked across the Thai-Cambodian border. The drive started with a ride from Siem Reap to Poipet. The new road made for a quick 1 1/2 hour drive through the Cambodian countryside. In Poipet we had originally planned to walk across the border and take a bus to Trat, where the ferry is located. But after crossing the border we noticed a taxi stand with official looking taxis charging around $60 for the 3 hour drive, so we spontaneously changed plans. Although our taxi driver had to ask for directions once and had to turn around twice he finally got us to where we needed to be to catch the ferry.

Together with about 30 monks (made for a very safe trip with all that good karma and considering the condition of the ferry) we rode about 1 hour to the island and then boarded a local mini-bus (some benches in the back of a pickup truck) to our hotel. While waiting for the mini-bus, we ate some of the best barbecued pork that I have ever tasted from a stall at the dock.

The AANA hotel was wonderful(check out the video I made), even if on our first night our room had a lot of mosquitoes (thank god for the net over the bed), and the restaurant staff was kind of lost. The mosquito problem was solved once we bought mosquito spray (where upon checkout in the pharmacy I was offered both Viagra and Vallium, I guess as a his and her combo?) and the restaurant became irrelevant because of all of the great restaurants on the island.

Other than hanging out on the beach and eating, we really didn't do much. We did take a two hour elephant trek through the jungle on the 3rd day, which was fun. Lisa also got a massage and a pedicure/manicure on the last day. Sam and I chose not to.

For the final leg of our trip we took a bus back to the Bangkok airport and boarded our Emirates flight back to Zurich.