Arrival on Koh Chang.
After a somewhat adventuresome weekend in the sweaty city of Bangkok, Freddy and I have made it to Koh Chang – Thailand’s second largest island (though I think it is in close running with Samui).
As mentioned, Saturday night we headed out on the town. After stumbling into a high-priced pick-a-girl bar (280B/$7 a bottle of beer) we eventually settled nicely in a cool spot with good music just down the road. I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called… but it was on Royal City Avenue (RCA). We stuck to ourselves for the first while, but eventually started chatting to this Malaysian girl and her Thai friends. This seemed to open us up for conversation with pretty much everyone else in the bar.
We nearly had some problems when we innocently started chatting to two Thai girls (actually, they started flirting with us) and their boyfriends (something they both denied having) got a little pissed. I patiently explained to them that I didn’t mean any offence and I was quite happily hooked up with a beautiful girl and had no interest in their girlfriends… they reluctantly backed off…
As the night wore on my memory gets fuzzier and fuzzier about what happened. I do remember talking to a girl who studied in Hong Kong and then sticking around after the bar closed and watching Freddy play pool with this rough and tough Thai girl.
Stumbling out of the bar in the early morning hours we decided some 7-11 cuisine was well needed. In the shop we met these three girls who sparked our curiosity as they were all in their pajamas. We spent an hour or so sitting with them at our bus stop. The night has now been immortalized by a simple phrase that Freddy uttered to me shortly before we hopped on a bus back to Khao San Rd. As I was talking to two of the girls about this or that he had been getting cozier and cozier with this other girl – touching her face and stuff – when I hear him say, “Ryan… [I turn to see him caressing her adam’s apple]… is this normal?”
We spent Sunday recovering and trying without much success to figure out the sex of the person Freddy had spent the closure of the night trying to win the affections of.
Monday we headed down to the Chinese Embassy to make sure I have a way back into China. It took about 2 hours on the bus to get there, and I was a bit worried it would be closed – but I was in luck and my passport/visa will be ready tomorrow.
After the embassy we found our way to the Eastern Bus Terminal and got on a bus (230B) to Trat, the closest city to the port where you catch the boat to Koh Chang. We got to Trat at about 7 p.m. and decided that we were best to just wait until the next day to get to the island and we found a cheap guesthouse in town (130B for two double beds).
After a bit of dinner we met up with a South African guy named Adam and the three of us headed out to find a bar a Thai guy had told us about. After a bit of wandering, in the right direction, we found the place and it was rockin’. They had a live band playing and there was loads of people – and again we were left to fill the foreigner quotient.
After some Chang beer (gawd it’s strong compared to the Chinese beer I’ve been drinking for the past 8 months) we got dancing and chatting to the locals. Freddy ended up leaving with some girl (whose name he learned later from a kindly left note on the nightstand is Noi). Adam and I, I’ve no clear memory how, started talking to the bartender and her friend and spent a few hours in random places around town chatting to them. I vaguely remember a motor-bike ride and sitting in a room in some apartment-type place. I only wish I had woken up in time yesterday to ask Adam what the hell happened and how I got home.
The Changover made for a slow start, but we managed to get some breakfast in before catching a ferry to Koh Chang. Oh, and I had a chance to call Maggie, which was great – though the $10 (350B) pricetag was a bit steep! Well worth it though… as much as I’m loving it here, I’m really getting eager to get back. I miss her loads.
Sand and sunsets – is there more to life?
Anyway. We’re on the island now. The sea and beach and all of it is as beautiful as I remember. Today is a bit overcast and the sea is rough, but I think I’ll post this and go for a swim. We met some friends yesterday and stayed out having drinks on the beach until about 12:30. Pretty battered from the night before, I turned in early, but Freddy is still MIA. Last I heard Noi was coming to visit today too… gawd travelling with him is interesting!
Oh – as it’s like 2B/min on here (rather pricy) I will just wait until I get back either to Bangkok or to Dalian to sort out photos for all of this. Sorry.
