KO CHANG 15TH OCTOBER 2006

We caught a 9am ferry from Ban Phe, Ko Samet back to the main land then 3hours in a minibus to get to Laem Ngop, the an 8km on a ferry to Tha Dan Kao, on Ko Chang. Ferries dock at the nothern end of the island and all but a handfull of hotels and resturants are on the west coast, where most of the beaches are. Hat Sai Khao, White sands beach, is the busiest developement and where we thought we would head to find some cheap accomidation.

Ko Chang is Thailand second largest island with misty peaks, one of southeast asia's best-preserved rainforests and gorgeous beaches which stretch the length of the west coast. New resorts and hidious hotels are popping up and being planned for Ko Chang and you can see that in no time it will become over developed and loose some of its character, which i hope doesnt happen.

The island of Ko Chang is a national park and chock-a-block with trees, snakes and waterfalls. Accomidation is all around the coast and you dont need to pay a fee unless you enter certain points of the interior.

We had read up on Ko Chang in the Lonely Planet before we arrived and decided to stay in a place called 'Boo's independent bungerlows' so it was just a case of finding it. We got in taxi to white sands beach and got a lot of blank looks when asking for the location of Boo's. It wasn't untill one lady by a stall said we were probably looking for Bo's independent bungerlows that we got on the right track. A miss print in the book! She told us to walk onto the beach, turn right, and we'd pass 2 rocks then find it. We walked along the beach for a few minutes to the sea was so far in that we could walk no further. I watched our bags while Lewis carried on though the sea and as the lady had said, there it was. The beach was gorgeous and we both loved the fact of having to walk through the sea to find it. Wash your feet and leave your shoes at the bottom of the stairs was the rule. This place even initially was amazing. A bar, with a up and downstairs chilling out area as you walk in, with bob marley playing in the background. There are about 25 bungerlows, all scattered from the shore up to the jungle and all conected by wooded planks and steps. The whole place is brightly painted with gorgeous artwork and everywhere is made up of an aray of different types of wood and unique decoration, not one bungerlow is like another. It is unlike anything we've ever seen, its a phsycadellic hippy community with no need for passport numbers just first names. Drinks on tab, just write down what you take and often food is cooked for anyone who wants it free of charge. You need to see the place to see it character and uniquiness. Bo owns the joint, he has a family in the mainland and a live-in Scottish gifefriend, Fiona, here. Also a young Thai guy, Yod, lives and works here, plus a reserved German guy, Frank, who does all the artwork.

We initially booked for seven nights but have just booked for another seven as we really like it. Its 200B (2pounds fifty) for a room with a bathroom. Our first day we just chilled out on the beach, had a bbq at Bo's in the evening, and got chatting to some of the other guests and walked down to a local club on the beach where a really good Thai band played. The next day us and 6 others from Bo's hired motorbikes and went on a mission to find waterfalls which took us on a huge detor into the jungle on dirt tracks with wild dogs and a handmade bridge where the road had fallen down. A bit of an adventure but we did finally find the waterfall and went for a swim. A lot of the roads seem to have a lot of weather erroision and are breaking away.

We've been trying to do something everyother day and beaching it on the others. The weather is so hot, 37 degrees C, so too hot to lay out much so we're normally in the water or shade at mid day. Its lovely and blue most days, it pours down for an hour about 4 or 5pm every 2nd or 3rd day.

On friday the 20th we went ona 3hour elephant trecking trip. Ban Kwan Elephant Camp. This was great fun, we got to go in the water with them and srub and wash them, then we went on a treck through the jungle upon them. This sounds relaxing and it was for everyone else as they got 40 year old placid elephants and we got put on a 19 year old female elephant called Cindy, who was naughty and very playfull. She walked up or down a slight hill and we were holding on for dear life, i thought i was going to fall off. She kept going off the path for a munch or rubbing on the rocks or stopping then running. It was fun though. After the treck we got to feed them bananas, it was a cool experience.

On Sunday the 22nd we arranged a snorkling and fishing trip to some close by islands with some other folk staying at Bo's. there were 10 of us in all on a small wooden boat with heaps of character, a Thai captain, a Thai women crew and a giant jack russell called Tia, who loved swimming and fish. It was a good day but very hot on the boat and very little shade. We caught about 20 fish in all with Lewis catching about 9 of them. When we got back they cooked them up and did us some rice, very tasty.

Less than a week left on Ko Chang so we'll keep up to date with our goings on and put some photos on when we get back to bangkok next week. hope everyone is ok. keep in touch and let us know how your all doing? xxx