Reunion on Koh Chang

When you move abroad loads of people say they would love to visit. The reality is, though, that a lot has to come together for most of us to make an international trip happen. My friend, Y, made it a reality this year! I was delighted when she booked her flights and we threw around a lot of ideas for our week together.

We decided to meet up in Bangkok at the start of my fall break and then travel southeast to a Thai island called Koh Chang. A few of my colleagues had been before and they suggested it based on beautiful beaches, a cool vibe and plenty of options for fun while still relaxing.

All went smoothly with both of our flights and we jumped up and down and hugged repeatedly upon meeting at the airport hotel on Friday night. We took an early shuttle the next day, which allowed us plenty of time to chat and catch up on the way to the island.

Our top 10 from the week (in no particular order):

1. Beaches! That's why we visit islands, right? Well, Koh Chang is one of the biggest islands in Thailand and it has lots of them. We stuck to the west coast on this trip, staying at three different resorts, which allowed us to see different spots on the island. The west is more developed than the east, but it sounds like there are some great spots if you want to get away from it all on the east side. I heard that one small town is only accesible by boat!

My classic feet + beach shot

At some spots the beach is rocky...still gorgeous!

2. Shoulder Season! This means that we paid very fair rates for some very fancy places… it also means that there weren't lines, crowds or sunburns… However, it does mean we had some gray skies and got caught in a few monsoon showers. Luckily, the weather is warm and you can swim rain or shine. Also, the sun really made an appearance in the second half of the week.

So where did we stay?

Mercure - I booked this hotel for our first few days so that we would have a place to head to right away. It was beautiful! We loved the beachfront location, TWO swimming pools and attentive staff. We didn't love the "hideaway" location since it meant we had to get all meals, snacks and drinks from the hotel restaurant and it made it more difficult to explore. 

We decided we were basically on honeymoon together!

Modern room

AWA - After some scoping out, we decided to spend our next few days in Kai Bai, which is a nice stretch of beach and has one main street with plenty of shops and dining options. We didn't love the hotel, but we did like the location.

Pretty pool

The main street

Ramayana - I found this one through its great Trip Advisor reviews. And it was a find! We had relaxing massages here, dined poolside, hiked to a waterfall and dipped in the pool and jacuzzi. The only downside is that it's not on the beach (but it operates a shuttle to and from). The grounds are carefully landscaped, the food is good and our room was cute! 

Y contemplates the water.

3. Thai Food! Y is vegan and I am almost vegan and gluten free… communicating these needs to folks who don't understand a lot of English and who don't have the same cultural concept of food preferences and allergies can be a challenge. Y and I had many successful eating experiences on our trip with favorites being coconut curries, phad thai (it's a classic for a reason!), fresh coconuts and fruity cocktails (hey, it's vacation!).

Drinking coconuts and waiting for veggie Thai food.

4. Hikes! Well, technically we only went on one true hike. But, we walked and wandered a LOT this week. On our last day we found Klung Phu waterfall. We walked here from our hotel, enjoying the local scene along the way and then the national park trail along the river to a gorgeous waterfall. We even saw a river turtle (photos didn't turn out) and lots of fish nibble visitors as they swim!

Starting our hike

Y dives right in

P.S. Dad, this one is a national park! We even stopped at the visitor center and signed the guestbook. ;)

5. Animals! We saw lots of fishies on our day trip snorkeling, but we were surprised daily by frogs, huge bees and lots of tropical bugs! A lot of the shop and restaurant owners also keep pets that wander their establishments.

Temple kitten

The most beautiful bee

He was hopping along the main street!

This one visited us on our hotel porch

6. Good company! As you may have noticed, I do most of my adventuring alone. It was a real treat to have a true blue friend's company this week. We realized that we had never been on vacation together before, but that we had similar travel styles. The week was an excellent balance of exploring, resting, reading and doing yoga together.

Hanging our feet overboard on our snorkeling trip

When in Asia...

Yes...

...we played peek-a-boo.

7. Coffee! Yeah, we are both big fans. It was super fun to wake up each day, giggle with each other and get our coffee as we got going. Coconut milk was our favorite option for creamer and iced americano the preferred drink.

Poolside selfie with caffeine :)

8. Swimming pools! We played in the waves and sand, but each spot we stayed had beautiful swimming pools - the Mercure had two!

Y takes her victory lap at the Mercure!

9.  Books! We are both big readers. My genre of choice is fiction. During the week I read…

Diary of an Oxygen Thief by Anonymous - This was a recommendation from a former student. It is an intense and quick read and it won't be everyone's favorite, but I thought it was excellent. It's been described as a modern Catcher in the Rye and I can see why - you get into the narrator's head, hearing his thoughts about his life and the struggles he faces.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt - a young adult classic! I don't think I ever read it growing up. Worth a read if you are young or old!

And Y was working on: The Rift: A New Africa Breaks Free by Alex Perry. It was a BIG book and covered a lot of history; she didn't quite finish it, but she said she had heard that the end was hopeful. I hope so.

10. Movie nights! Neither of us were looking for big parties or late nights and we enjoyed winding down with films on several evenings. What did we watch or re-watch? Kill Bill (1 and 2), Girls Season 5, Twilight Over Burma (and after viewing we both decided to read the book upon which the film is based) and a few episodes of Orange is the New Black.

On a much more somber note, Thailand experienced a huge loss during our trip with the passing of the King. There is no shortage of articles about his life and what is next for Thailand, but one succinct story is here. 

And I would like to congratulate myself for publishing a post about a trip that I took just a couple of weeks ago - way to go CassyBee!!!

Bye bye, Koh Chang, we hope to return someday!

Article of the Week:
Expressions are one of the more challenging parts of learning another language. Read here if you are curious about all the different ways we can use milk in Spanish. The article is in English! :)

Recipe of the Week:

I think that I have mentioned this blog before, but I tried their Spanish Vegan Fabada this week and it turned out amazing! The flavors were delicious and it really was simple to make. I didn't have sweet paprika, only smoky (from Granada, Spain!), but the dish still turned out great. 

Drink of the Week:
Another from the Simple Vegan Blog! If you want a non-caffeinated, comforting and creamy hot beverage this fall, I recommend a Turmeric Latte. Turmeric has many positive health benefits, including being anti-inflammatory. I used coconut milk for mine this morning and it was delicious. You could also add a dash of nutmeg, ground cloves or cardamom. 

I had to include one last sunset.

Til next week! ;)