OK, Let’s See Ko Si Chang

Last weekend we went to Ko Si Chang, an island only a couple hours from Bangkok, with Alisa and Stephanie. Getting there was something of an adventure, having never been there before; we missed our stop and had to catch another bus back, and then got taken for a bit of a ride in a songthaew which, upon hiring, was perhaps being hawked as potentially amphibious. After deciding that we did NOT want to pay some sketchy guy 3000 baht to row us to the island, we found a really nice hotel to spend the night at.
We got up fairly early the next morning and headed to the pier, where we promptly got on a severely overloaded ferry. About half an hour later we were on the island, being accosted by the usual crew of tuktuk and motorcycle drivers. We agreed to drive with one who sang and danced and professed his love to Stephanie (she called him crazy). We ended up, after another fairly decent amount of driving, at a nice hotel. A quick change and it was back in the tuktuk to the beach. Ko Si Chang is small and a mostly Thai visited island, and it has one smallish beach on the far side of the island. We spent most of the day there; the water was pretty nice, the sand was good and the view was amazing.
Our driver picked us up later and took us to a nice viewpoint to see the sunset. We arranged for him to come back in the morning and take us on an island tour.
That night we ate at Pan and David’s, a restaurant that I had seen online when I was searching for information about the island. It was fabulous- a wide selection of Thai and European food, everything we had was reasonably priced and delicious. They had maple ice cream and brownies and grilled vegetable sandwiches and real cheese and homemade pickles…needless to say, we were completely impressed and went back the next day for lunch.
Unfortunately, our driver from the previous day failed to show in the morning, so we found another guy and went on the tour. We stopped first at a Chinese Temple, leaving our bags in the tuktuk…which promptly drove off. With nothing to do but panic a bit and have a look at the temple, we walked up several flights of stairs and checked it out.
After coming back down, we discovered that our new driver was nowhere to be found. We cursed tuktuk drivers in general for a little while and then saw that he was cruising back up the hill towards us…so we relaxed a bit, checked to make sure that our stuff was intact and headed off to the next attraction, the old palace grounds.
We walked around and took in the scenery, which was interesting and pretty.
When we were leaving the palace we stopped at the Marine Research Center, which was small but fascinating. There was an interpreter on staff who showed us all the animals in the touch tank (not one single animal in there was something I was particularly interested in touching, but neat to look at…).
The tour also included the beach (which we declined, since we had already been there the day before) and the viewpoint that we had enjoyed the sunset at the night previous.
Getting back to Bangkok was easy- we headed to the pier, got on a ferry that left quickly after we boarded and caught a bus on the street where we had got off on the Friday night. Ko Si Chang is a close, convenient and beautiful place to visit: another weekend getaway to add to the list!

Until next time,
Heather