Thailand - Part I - Koh Chang & Koh Mak - 2011

Koh Chang & Koh Mak (islands in the northeast) and a Bangkok stopover

15.08.2011

Immediately after crossing the border we know we’ve arrived in Thailand. After the 4 hour bus ride on the Cambodian side, we walk across the border, and then take a minivan, pickup, ferry to Koh Chang and then another pickup. Of course, at any given moment you have no idea how you’re going to get there and most importantly when you are going to begin your journey. But somehow you just know you will get there in the end, so you just hang around and get to know your fellow travelers, in this case, two nice French chicks and a weird German sextourist. It was this way 14 years ago, it was this way 9 years ago and it’s the “same same” now.
We go back to Koh Chang after 9 years and it’s changed so much. We remember one reasonable place to eat and some very rustic accommodation. Now, it’s so big and so many nice hotels and all sorts of shops and restaurants. Well, what really matters is that the beach is still amazing. The food is still nice and cheap served in tiny portions by western standards. Thai massages are even better than we remembered. We stay at Paddy’s Palms Resort, a nice hotel with a big pool and nice buffet breakfast. If you are not overly sensitive to the sexual exploitation of young women in developing countries by old (or young but really weird), disgusting sexual western predators, you’ll have no problems staying there. We did! After 1 week in Koh Chang we move to Koh Mak. Only a pickup then ferry then pickup ride away and we find this secluded amazing little paradise. Please check out the pics. We meet a nice German couple on the boat, some new instant friends. The beach is so beautiful that makes you actually forget about the painful sandfly bites, the very rustic accommodation and the really scary electric storm at night. It’s really Thailand as it was 10, 15 years ago. After a few days in Koh Mak, we take a speedboat back to the mainland, one of our bumpiest rides ever. Then we catch a nice bus and head to Bangkok. And YES, it’s still one of the coolest, hippest, most cosmopolitan pumping capital cities ever.Welcome to Backpackistan!

This time we are just here for 3 days, but yeah, we’ll be back! Next stop Laos …..

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