Koh Chang - Part 2
2/22/2008
This is the kind of place that keeps me coming back to Thailand. This is second largest island in Thailand, but it is nothing like Phuket, which is the largest. There are no buses here, no traffic jams, no McDonalds, no Starbucks, no KFC. Lots of little cafes serving anything from overpriced western dishes to the much better and tastier local fare ranging from spicee to many spicee to HELP ME I'M ON FIRE spiceee!!!! This is good stuff, but if your stomach can't handle spicy food, then this ain't for you. I LOVE IT! There are the occasional trucks that come to deliver supplies on the one little road that circles the island, but mostly it's motorbikes and the little pickup truck taxis (songthaews). There are 5 star resorts, but there are also plenty of charming little guesthouses and cheap bungalows on the beach. It's a little more expensive than Bangkok or Chiang Mai, but again, nothing like Phuket.
I haven't met any Americans here - it's mostly Europeans and they're mostly Germans. Yesterday I was riding around on my motorbike and I ran into a bunch of bikers from the Ukraine - I know this because they were proudly displaying their colors - The Rolling Anarchy Motorcycle Club from Crimea. They had the look and the attitude, but they weren't riding Harleys - they were riding motorbikes - 125cc Honda Dreams! Hardly intimidating, they looked absolutely ridiculous!! This had to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. You can't make this shit up......
There are plenty of bars here with live bands trying to play rock and roll, but they just can't get a handle on it. It's like a bad movie! It's very hard to sit there and listen to them butcher song after song - NO!! NO!! NO!! STOP!!! OHHHHHhhhhhh..... NOT THAT ONE!!! OWWwwwwww...........I'd rather listen to them play Thai pop music, which isn't my cup of tea, but I think they'd do that a lot better. Needless to say, I havn't been hanging out in the bars.
A couple more slideshows -
Koh Chang Part 2
Koh Chang Part 3