Time flies incredibly quickly in Thailand. I’ve been here for a whole month now, but it feels like 1.5 weeks have passed – no more. After home, I wanted not only to travel, but also to relax. I needed to live somewhere, relax and not think about anything. Koh Chang became the island on which we settled for a couple of weeks, or rather 17 days. In this post you will find a description of the island and my impressions of it. I will also write what we did and what we saw. Well, and, as always, a lot of photos of the beach, landscapes and other things.
Koh Chang is a fairly large island - the second largest in Thailand, after Phuket. You won’t be able to get around it on foot, like Koh Samet, for example. My attempt at night to walk from Lonely Beach to Wite Sand Beach failed 1/3 of the way... After walking for 30 minutes I met two Chinese 19-year-old girls who were also going to Whitesend from Lonely Beach and a Russian guy on a bike - Zheka, who knew everything in English Few words. Here we are already in company: three pedestrians and Zheka on a bike. We move slowly with pauses, sit right on the road, communicate with Chinese girls. Zheka knew the distance to Whitesend and called us crazy and said that we wouldn’t make it and he was right.
Roads
The main road is in good condition. A small area with potholes was encountered only in one place. The roads here are just rough. Continuous serpentines, zig-zags, descents and ascents. The road is not very wide and I was shocked how confidently the Thais drove along them. Before arriving on the island, I wanted to take a bike and learn how to ride it, but when I saw the roads, I realized that there would be nowhere to even learn. Once we saw an accident involving a bike and a tuk-tuk, and the desire disappeared completely. Taxis here are pickups. All prices are listed according to the price list. They don't deceive. Except that at night taxi drivers inflate their prices. For example, from Lonely Beach to Whitesend they charge 100 rubles per person. And in the opposite direction at night they asked us for 250 rubles. We, of course, refused, because all we had at that time was 240 rubles for two. The taxi driver thought a little and took him for the money.
Elephants. Ride an elephant.
Sea, beach, landscapes
The sea here is normal, but sometimes not very clean. There were days when all sorts of dirt and algae washed ashore. The sand on the beach is not very white and sometimes you can find garbage.
What to do on Koh Chang?
On the beach, for lovers of passive relaxation, you can rent umbrellas, sun loungers, air mattresses and circles. Fans of active beach holidays will be interested in catamarans, kayaks and paddleboards. I took a paddleboard. This is such a big board and paddle. You stand on the board, row the oar and it floats: It’s difficult to stand on it for the first five minutes, then you get used to it. Nothing complicated, but interesting. You can kayak or paddleboard to the neighboring small islands. They say it's beautiful there. But we never did it, although we wanted to. Elephant trekking here costs 500 rubles for 1 hour (walk through the jungle), 900 rubles for 2 hours (walk through the jungle + swimming in a pond with an elephant. We took it for an hour. They took us to the place, rode an elephant, took pictures with my camera, then They fed us pineapples, gave us water to drink and returned us home. On a local tour. points offer a 6-hour tour to the Koh Chang waterfalls. It costs 900 rubles. But we decided to visit the largest waterfall on our own - Khlong Phlu. Taxi to the waterfall 100 rubles + entrance – 200 rubles and taxi back 100 rubles. Total 400 rub. I wasn't particularly impressed with the waterfall, but I liked the path to the waterfall through the jungle. On the way we found a lake with a bunch of fish. If you put your feet in the water, small fish begin to bite your feet, biting off the old skin - here's a free spa fish for you.