Thailand (Part 5, Day 8)

Day 8  Koh Chang

In typical fashion of Koh Chang at this time of the year, our morning greeted us with a downpour.  The nice part about it was that it took away from some of the heat and humidity but also forced us to change plans pretty frequently.  This was our last day in the Keeree ele hotel so we had to scramble to get out of there and find another place to stay.  Our original plan was to either head down south to the Phuket/Ko Samui area of the country or swing up north to Chiang Mai.  Thankfully we didn't book anything before arriving because the entire south of Thailand is under water with massive flooding to start the monsoon season.  As far as going up north, we took our German bar friend's advice and believed what he said about the length of time needed to fully enjoy the Chiang Mai/Chaing Rai region.

Upon checkout, I had a nice little 600 baht fine for the ruining the sheets of the bed with fresh tattoo ink but paying them was the least I could do given their hospitality and my destruction of property.  We did not want to lug our bags around all day so we went across the street, found a price that was reasonable and booked our room, although, when we got to the room, the stench was almost unbearable.  Nevertheless, we dropped off our bags and headed out for the day.

During lunch, there was an obvious elephant in the room but neither of us wanted to tell each other that the room was brutal and we needed to find a different place to stay.  The people that I went to see at the tattoo place had some street cred with the aforementioned hotel so we kind of did both parties a favor and checked in without taking a peek at our room.  When we finished lunch, my friend asked what I thought about the hotel room and it was then that I knew we had to get out of there.  We agreed upon telling the front desk that we just checked our emails at the internet cafe across the street and, due to an emergency, it was necessary for us to leave that day.  Lost in translation, they told us that there was not internet at the hotel.  With some broken English, I bluntly told them that we were leaving and we wanted our money back.

We walked down the street to a nicer place, liked a room but decided to wait it out and maybe check out one more spot.  Down the way a bit more seemed like a great spot and since we already knew the price of our potential hotel, there may have been some room to negotiate, as such is the essence of Thailand.  The receptionist said there were rooms available, so I went ahead and advised her that her 2400 baht a night price was too high for us and that we found a place that was cheaper.  She asked how much the other hotel was but I simply shrugged my shoulders and she quickly understood the game I was stubbornly going to play with her.  I am assuming that, since the high season for tourism was basically finished, her hotel was nowhere near capacity and any patrons would be more than helpful to foot the vacancy bill.  In a rather surprising turn of events, her price dropped by a quick 600 baht and we now had a place to stay for the next 2 nights.

All over the island, and Thailand in general, the motorbike is the choice method of transportation.  Neither I nor Dougie had driven a motorcycle in our lives and figured this would probably be the place to start.  We put down 200 baht apiece with an additional 400 down for insurance, grabbed our helmets, and away we went on the winding streets of Koh Chang.  It may have taken a little bit to feel comfortable on these death machines but soon I realized the excitement people get with motorcycles in general.  I suppose its quite a bit different on a Harley or a crotch rocket but the next best thing, I'm assuming, is the 120cc Honda Click scooter.

Since White Sand Beach is the most northern part of the island, we figured we would make the 20km journey south to the tip of Koh Chang.  The first leg was no problem for us and it was probably a godsend to give us our bearings on how to maneuver this thing because the second portion would have given a Rally Car driver a scare.  Once we got comfortable with people passing us on blind hairpin turns through the mountainous parts of Koh Chang, we felt like joining the mob and were soon doing the same.  On our way back we humored ourselves for a half hour watching a group of monkeys playing on parked motorbikes eating the scraps of food left by tourists earlier in the day.

After going to the south end of the island, we traveled back north, grabbed a bite to eat and used the remaining daylight to test the top speeds of our motorbikes.  Once we hit 99km/h, we called it a night, went down to our favorite local watering hole and made some last minute changes to our itinerary on our last day in beautiful Koh Chang.