After putting on our glad rags and have a few cheeky sang-soms ( rum ) at the hostel we headed out in search of some protein filled goodness. We weren't far along Kao San Road before we found a stall selling deep fried beasties. There were many to choose from including spiders(!) but we finally both settled on having a cricket. We ended up with a bit of an audience but both managed to eat (most of) our crickets. It actually didn't taste that bad, it was more the thought of what you were eating that was the difficult part. We had to have a few drinks after to try and wash away the taste.
Up early the next morning to get our bus to Koh Chang for some beach time. Our minibus was taking us door to door but we hadn't actually booked any accommodation and so we just asked the driver to drop us at Lonely Beach which is the beach area that most pack packers stay at. We managed to find accommodation quite quickly which was lucky as by this point, it was already dark, and I was getting hungry. We stayed at a place called Easy House which had cute wee wooden huts for only 550 baht. Bargain! The owner Mr Nang was lovely and always remembered our names. The wifi password for the bungalows was HAPPYHIPPY which was quite apt for the place I think. We went for some food and for whatever reason decided to walk past the busy restaurant and into the dead one. Rookie mistake, and one we don't usually make, but we certainly paid for it with our bland carbonara with plenty of raw onion. Yuk. Back to the bungalow we went to have a bit of a pamper night to get ourselves beach ready.
The next morning we went for breakfast at the restaurant across from our bungalow. This was a tactical move so that we could steal their wifi which was getting a better signal from our hut than our own. We then walked to the beach and enjoyed a day of doing absolutely nothing apart from topping up our tans. We had seen an amazing sunset the night before but because we were on the minibus, still on the way to our accommodation, we didn't get to see the full effects of the bright orange and pink sky. We had hoped to see the same this night and so stayed at the beach and had a cocktail while we watched the sun go down. Unfortunately it was not a patch on the previous night.
We were taking it in turns to go to the shop in the morning to get cereal and milk for breakfast. It was Kay's turn today and before she left I reminded her we needed more toothpaste. After having our breakfast I went to brush my teeth using the new toothpaste. Salty flavour. I kid you not, and it tasted exactly like you'd imagine, like you were brushing your teeth with sea water! Bleeuughh. Mental note made to buy different stuff later.
We decided to buy a snorkel set on the way down to the beach as there is only so much lying around we can both do. We saw signs for a festival that was happening at lonely beach the next night and so we decided then that we would stay another couple of days so we could go to that. There were loads of very tame monkeys down at the road sided next to the beach. Tourists were feeding them but I had read that you shouldn't as this encourages them to come to the road, which means they could easily get ran over. After another uneventful day of sunning ourselves we went to a lovely Greek restaurant for dinner and mojitos.
The following morning we decided to give the beach a miss and instead head for a nice waterfall which was meant to be about 7km away. Kay was taking so long to get ready that we had a wee fall out and I decided to just head off without her. On my way out I was stopped by Mr Nang who asked what my plans were for the day. I told him I was planning to walk to the waterfall and he just laughed and laughed and laughed. He told me that it was too far and that I wouldn't make it back in time for dinner. He also told me that because it was the dry season there wouldn't be much water. Regardless of this I set of, it only took me to walk up the first ridiculously steep hill before I got cold feet and turned back. Thinking Kay would head to the beach I went there instead. Kay, thinking I went to the waterfall, headed off about 20minutes or so after me. She managed to make it there and back well before dinner time and said there was plenty water. I was sad that I had listened to Mr Nang but I should have known better. The south east Asians, and Indians for that matter, have no concept of walking anywhere. They are genuinely baffled when you tell them that you are "just going for a walk".
We went to the festival that night which was called Winter Sensations and consisted of one stage and only 3 DJs, but it was still brilliant fun partying away until the early hours on a beach. The only down side was that they had absolutely no diet mixers and so we had to have Sang Som with soda water and lime. They only gave us about 3 wedges of lime in our bucket even though we asked for a lot. I had to go back to the bar and take a full cup of lime wedges in an attempt to make it drinkable. Before leaving for the festival Mr Nang told us to be careful, only have one or two drinks, make sure to come home early and we were to wake him so he knew we were home safe. This man was fast becoming our adopted Thai dad.
The next day was another spent lounging at the beach. It was very hot which wasn't helping the hangover and so we had a long lunch in one of the restaurants. We went to bed that night having still not arranged any forward travel. Beach life was making us lazy.
The next day we finally organised our travel to Cambodia. We were getting a bus which would take us all the way to Siem Reap. The bus was only costing £6 but we were advised that the reason it was so cheap was because the visa costs more from that border crossing. It sounded a bit shady but we wanted to start our time in Cambodia in the north and so we booked it. We made our way to the beach after that and decided to rent a kayak. We paddled to the closest island to the beach and on the other side found a nice secluded beach. We stayed there for a short while doing some snorkelling and playing on the swings hanging from the trees. We then decided to try and make it to an island that was further away. We made it about half way and then decided to stop for a wee rest. This "rest" turned into a full on nap and by the time we woke up we had drifted quite far out. The sun was starting to set and so we headed back to our beach to give the kayak back. When we went back to the hut we decided to check online why the visa would be more expensive at the border we were crossing at. This search brought back page after page explaining that there was a scam going on at this particular border. Aparently, the bus would drop you at a restaurant a few km from the border. There you would be told that you had to buy your visa there and that it cost $50. The visa is only $30. We read as much as we could about the scam and decided that we would tell them that we already had an E-visa. We read about other scams going on in Cambodia just to prepare ourselves as much as possible. There wasn't anything that terrible, nothing we hadn't already seen during our time in India. A another early night before an early morning departure.
At Winter Sensations
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