Exploring the island

A gas station looking like it was home-made.

Yet another picture of the landscapes.

Fisherman's village Ban Bangbao.

Fresh seafood.

 White Sands Beach.

Ban Bangbao.

Joni went to get us a scooter yesterday morning. After staying in Lonely Beach for a couple of days we were excited about seeing more of the island. Renting the scooter for 24 hours cost us 200 bahts plus gasoline.

Koh Chang is a mountainous island so it was pretty cool to drive the serpentine roads. Parts of the route were very steap with several hairpin turns. The scenery was quite breathtaking as occasionally the road had jungle-covered peaks on both sides and then suddenly we reached an isolated lookout from which you could see to the sea and down to the beaches. We drove for almost 80 kilometres during the day and we could definitely feel it on our backsides..

We took the course to the South in the morning and drove all the way to the end of the road on the southwest side of the island. There was the Grand Laguna resort Åke was telling us about but we decided not to go in because we wanted to see as much of the island as possible during the day. Visitors can get in to the Grand Laguna Resort by paying a 130 bath visitor fee. There are swimming pools etc so it might be a nice way to spend a day in case you do not feel like lying on the beach anymore. On our way back we stopped at the fisherman's village called Ban Bangbao and stayed there for lunch. If you are staying in Koh Chang you should visit this village if you want to see something more local stuff for a change.

We had a little rest at our bungalow because it was starting to be so very hot during midday. We headed to the North during 3pm and passed thourgh the other beach resorts that are on the way to the Koh Chang ferry station. The biggest and the best beach in Koh Chang is called the White Sands Beach and it seemd like a nice place too. If you are looking for an easy and more luxurious vacation on this Island, White Sands is your location. Nevertheless, Lonely Beach is our favourite beach because it is rather small without missing any necessities. We drove past the ferry station but turned around quite soon because there did not seem to be that much anything there. We were back in our bungalow before sundown.

We have decided to start saving on our food expenses now that we are staying in one place for a longer time. This is merely because we would like to include all the travel expenses into our daily budget of 20€ per person. Saving does not mean starving however. We have breakfast at the bungalow instead of eating out, we will have a smaller lunch from the local kiosks or we will share our dinner because the portions are usually quite big. This way we spent only 200bahts for food yesteday where as we have spent almost the same amount of money at breakfast, lunch and dinner. One big saving comes from changing the drink at dinner from beer to water. :)

There will be some sort of full-moon party on our beach tonight. The party starts at 6pm and will continue until sunrise. The weather forcast promises rain showers for the next few days so we will see if the dancing on the beach turns into mud wrestling. Should be fun either way. :)