take a break from writing for a bit, so I am writing this a day late.
We had one last breakfast at Paradise Cottage. I enjoyed their veggie
menu - once the chef even came out to confirm my order, proclaiming,
"oh, you are a veggie!" once he understood what I was asking for.
Actually, a lot of places recently have been veggie friendly and I
haven't had to order off the menu to get tasty food sans meat. I hope
this trend continues so I don't have to eat any more meat sticks.
Next we hailed a taxi to Bang Bao, a short jaunt down Koh Chang's
coast. Bang Bao is less a city than a giant pier, but you can find
anything you want on the pier: bungalows, seafood, shops, travel
arrangers, coffee...we of course indulged while we waited on the boat
that would take us to Koh Wai, our next destination, a very small
island nearby. We also saw tiger prawns - crazy looking giant
shrimp/lobster/praying mantis combination. Hopefully, I will remember
to take a picture on our way back through Bang Bao.
We arranged for a boat to take us to Koh Wai, a normal boat, the other
option being a private speed boat. Travellers came out of the woodwork
to get on the boat, which stopped at two other islands after ours (Koh
Mak and Koh Khood), but Koh Wai was the first stop and the least
travelled. The ride was uneventful other than strong winds, lots of
white caps and salty spray, but our boat was up to the task in size
and quality, so no worries there.
When we docked at Koh Wai, our boat actually just rafted to another
boat already tied to the pier. This made disembarking a challenge with
a twenty pound bag on my back, a camera round my neck and a water
bottle in my hand. Remember the white caps? Both boats were rocking
like crazy and I very nearly tumbled between the last boat and the
dock, rescuing my balance only by using my ear to push off the side of
the boat and tip my center of gravity over the dock, hoping my feet
would follow. Somehow no one died.
There were actually a fair number of people on the island so we
started to get a little nervous about finding lodging for the night.
We opted not to book ahead because using the telephone seemed too
challenging, but we are approaching high season and there are exactly
four places to get a room on the island. (Actually there are exactly
four business establishments total on the island, but I'll get into
that later.) We asked to see a room at the place right by the pier and
off we toddled behind a friendly staff person. The room was quite a
hike over rough, rocky trail, but it was clean and cheap. Still we
were noncommittal and went to explore the other options. The next
place was even farther down an even worse trail, and the place was
annoyingly twice as expensive for a shabbier room, we declined there
as well.
We did learn a few interesting facts. 1) one week ago, most of the
rocks were covered by sandy beach, but the waves have been
relentlessly relocating the sand. 2) "if you are worried about the
water, even at high tide it stays on the far side of the path."
(thanks, I hadn't been, but now I am) 3) no one else was staying in
any of the bungalows!
With our pick of the bungalows, we were going to be picky. We went to
a third place (amusingly also called Paradise, just like the last
place we stayed) and asked to see the rooms. Each bungalow was
individually priced so it was hard keeping the keys and prices
straight on our self-guided tour of the place, but once we saw the new
hut (named "new," not a number) and heard they only wanted 400 for it,
we looked at a few others just for fun, we were sold. We recorded our
passport numbers to book the room and ate a delicious lunch at the
Paradise restaurant. Later we learned they were charging twice as much
as the place down the way ($2 vs. $4) and serving inferior food, but
it was great at the time.
Over lunch we figured out why there were so many people on the island,
yet all the rooms were free - most people came for only the day! At
three, another boat came and everyone left. To be completely honest
there were four other guests on the island, but it was striking. We
retreated to our porch chairs to read and enjoy the rolling ocean and
strong breeze that apparently is keeping the butterfly-sized mosquitos
at bay.
Then we showered.
Angels sang when the cold water poured over my hair. If you recall,
the last place had ridiculously bad water, full of minerals to the
point that it curdled the Dr. Bronners soap and left my hair in
dreads. This water, although frigid, was wonderfully fresh. The little
things matter when you are traveling with little.
The rest of the night was just more food and sleep in our amazing
bungalow by the sea. We woke up several times though to the sound of
rain - palm fronds tinkling together in the wind. It is surprisingly
noisy here: rolling surf, rushing wind, chirping cicadas, but they are
pleasant, natural noises and once we realize that rain here is months
away, we will sleep like babies. This place is exactly what we were
looking for in our first destination, it just took us a week to find
it. If they had atms on this island and there wasn't so much of
southeast Asia yet to explore, we might not leave for quite some time.
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