Koh Chang (Elephant Island)

After our tour of southern Thailand, we had five days to travel to one of the nearby beaches before returning to Chiang Mai. Most of our group, including myself decided to go to and Island near Cambodia known as Koh Chang which means elephant island in Thai. We took a bus down from Bangkok, barely made it onto the ferry in the nick of time, and before we knew it we were in a whole new world of beautiful tropical forests and white sand beaches.

Koh Chang is a little more off of the beaten path as far as tourism goes, so everything was actually quite cheap. I think that I only spent $212 for all five days including transportation, food, hotels, and even some souvenir purchases. A couple of nights I stayed in a nicer hotel with air conditioning and running water, but the last two nights I tried out one of the beachside bungalows right on the water. Most days we went swimming in the ocean, explored the beaches, or just relaxed on the beautiful sand. The water was incredibly warm, and most of the time, I would only get out to reapply sunscreen.

At night, we would usually get some cheap fried rice off the street and then go swimming again out in the water. We saw a lot of jellyfish, but they turned out to be a variety which didn't sting very much so it wasn't a problem. One of my friends even licked one. Additionally, there was bioluminescence in the water, which was beautiful. Every time you would move your hand, the microorganisms in the water would glow green. It was not extremely strong, but I never got tired of watching it.

My favorite day in Koh Chang was when we went on a snorkeling tour to some surrounding reefs for a day. The entire trip cost just over $20 a person and we had an entire boat to ourselves. In addition, they gave us lunch and even provided all of the snorkeling gear. The water around the reefs was beautifully clear and we saw all kinds of cool fish. My favorite were the parrot fish and trumpet fish. We also saw a couple of octopi. Overall, it was an incredible trip and the entire experience seemed surreal.

Here are some pictures that hopefully give you a little taste of what our time was like:

This is the dock which we took our snorkeling tour from.

Here is the boat that we went on for our snorkeling trip.
I think it was supposed to look like a pirate ship or something haha.
The best part was that they let sit up on the prow while the ship was
moving and do flips off of the top deck into the water. 

Just trying out the underwater camera.

Many of the hotels were tucked away in beautiful little coves like this one.

Some variety of starfish. 

Chaco Tan

This was my favorite place that we went snorkeling. We could stand in most
places and the water was incredibly clear.

Two octopi and a really cool fish that I don't know the name of.
I will get back to you after I take Marine Biology next year.

Underneath the misty mountains. This was our first day in Koh Chang
when it was a little bit rainy.

This is the Bungalow that I stayed in the last
two nights. It cost me $7.

Lonely beach where we spent our last two days. There were usually
more hippie European tourists on the beach, but I think they were
all still asleep when I took this picture.

Koh Chang was an incredible place and we had a ton of fun together. It was also great to be able to speak with all of the locals in Thai and they really loved us compared to all of the other tourists . I left the island tired and sunburnt, but definitely planning on coming back sometime.