While strolling the shoreline just north (to the right) of the Bang Bao pier, I couldn't help but notice the Remark Pu-Zi Bungalows. The huts were built on stilts about a meter high and looked very crude and basic - constructed of shaggy grass and bamboo. Of the twenty or so huts, some had western toilets and cold-water showers while others shared a common bathroom. It looked like most had fans. They all had a small veranda for stringing a hammock to nap, read, enjoy the watery view, or just chill out. But it wasn't so much the bungalows that caught my attention but the manicured grounds that they perched above. It was the first time that I had seen anything on Ko Chang that resembled a lawn. Palms, plants, and fruit trees decorated the surroundings nicely and the place emanated a clean, fresh, and serene atmosphere. I think I misunderstood one of the staff telling me that the better huts rented for 1,000 Bhat - that seemed a bit high. Being on my way home I did not persue the matter further but if I ever get back to Ko Chang, this would be a nice spot to spend a few days.

Over the last three years I have spent more time at Siam Huts than I have at home. Ko Chang Island lies off eastern Thailand close to the Cambodian border and like all of Thailand, especially the islands in the south, has developed dramatically during that time. While most of the island's inexpensive bungalows have been demolished to make room for high-dollar resorts and condominiums, Siam Huts had the good sense to renovate yet continue catering to the low-budget traveler. Though prices have continued upward each season, their beach-front bungalows are still a bargain and manage to maintain some of the old-time charm. Their crude bungalows have all been recently torn down and rebuilt from the frame out with new solid walls, new wiring, and glass windows. Some even have air conditioning now which may be handy after February when heat and humidity begin to soar. The new bungalows are still basic - very basic. Besides a cold-water bathroom with shower, sink, and toilet, the huts contain an electric fan and a mattress -that's it - not even nails in the wall to hang things. On month-long stays I would gather scraps of wood, twine, and short lengths of bamboo to fabricate small shelves or an ash tray. An empty Singha beer box makes a fine little table. The lack of amenities and furnishings can be frustrating but most time is spent out on the beach. Siam Huts has an inexpensive restaurant with Thai food. Every evening they put on a barbeque which is very good. With their new small bar and extended chill-out deck Siam Huts has entered the circuit of late-night parties which rotate from one establishment to another each night of the week. As fast as Thailand is commercializing, it looks like the family owned and operated Siam Huts will thrive with the low budget traveler as that market continues its steady shift toward Cambodia and Vietnam.

It made for somewhat of a long day but I was able to leave Sihanoukville at nine-thirty in the morning and get to Lonely Beach on Ko Chang, Thailand, just after nightfall. Two boats make the 4 hour run between Sihanoukville and Koh Kong now - one going and one coming. I found a spot on top of the boat as far forward as possible. If seas became rough, the pilot-house cabin would deflect spray and keep me dry. But the ride went smooth. Just a few miles before we reached the  island of Koh Sdach, we met the other fast boat racing toward Sihanoukville from Koh Kong. We stopped briefly at Koh Sdach to off-load the usual bags and bundles of produce and groceries as well as a live pig and a motorbike. Young girls boarded our boat to sell bread, fruit, and meals of rice and fish.

The longer leg westward along the Cambodian coast went equally smooth. There weren't as many fishing boats out as on the passage in November. As soon as the boat docked at Koh Kong I commandeered a motorbike taxi to the border for $2 and managed to beat most of the other Thailand-bound boat passengers who pooled a taxi for $5 a head.

But the border crossing went alarmingly slow. I bee-lined to one of the two windows at Cambodian Immigration and handed them my passport along with the completed Departure form.  While officials studied my passport, four other travelers processed through at the other window . The two or three Cambodian stamps in my passport for each of the preceding two years had probably caught their attention. Or perhaps it was the continuous stream of sweat rolling off my head, face, and arms by the sweltering heat and humidity that drew suspicion. Finally after more than twenty minutes I was cleared to leave the Kingdom and continue to the Thai Immigration Post, a hundred-yard walk west. There too, my passage was delayed an unusual length of time as my passport was carefully scrutinized. Neither country asked me any questions but typed in numbers and studied their computer screens.

By the time I was permitted entry into Thailand, most of my fellow boat passengers had already processed through and  I watched the tenth traveler fill a blue mini-bus and its dusty departure for Trat. I had to wait another twenty-five minutes for the next mini-bus to fill.

I was going to spend the night at Pop's Guesthouse in Trat but the one available room  looked much too cramped and dingy for the price (300 Bhat) so I took a taxi to the boat dock. The sun set as the ferry made the one-hour crossing to Koh Chang. By 7:00 p.m. I was checked into Siam Huts on Lonely Beach. The regular price for a bungalow was up to a staggering 700 Bhat which was very high for this time of year. Normally after February the prices plummet. Like before, being a 'regular,' my price was 300 Bhat which too was way overpriced.

BB Divers has several locations on Ko Chang. The friendly staff provides a wide assortment of dives from the introduction level to full certification. For boat trips and courses, they provide a pick-up service from your hotel, lunch, use of all equipment, teaching or guiding by a certified instructor/dive master, full insurance, and PADI certificate and course book. If you are staying at the Treehouse on Long Beach or on the island of Ko Wai, they can furnish instruction on the beach right in front of your bungalow. Their establishment at Lonely Beach is located in the town on top of the hill opposite Magic Gardens and includes low budget huts, a restaurant, and bar. Their small swimming pool is open to bar and restaurant customers when it is not in use for dive instruction. They also offer free wireless internet access. The BB Divers facility offers a peaceful, scenic setting and a friendly, knowlegable, western staff. Whether interested in diving or not, the place is worth a visit while in the Lonely Beach area.

After the long trip, I was too fired up to sleep and made my way to several of my favorite bars to enjoy a few Chang beers with old friends; both locals and foreigners who either remained the entire year or come back each season. I woke with a smile to the sound of small waves lapping the shore just twenty yards from my crude hut.

I was stunned to see the many changes that had taken place in just the seven months since my last stay. Many of the low-budget huts further down the beach were gone and in their place; high dollar resorts. Of the two popular party spots, Nature Rocks has toned way down by complaints of noise from a neighboring resort; the other, Sweet Zone, closed altogether. Once known for being the 'Party Beach', Lonely Beach seems to be going the way of the popular islands of southern Thailand where cheap bungalows had been replaced by expensive resorts and condominiums. I saw that happen on Ko Samui, Thailand's finest, after the airport had been constructed and now it was happening here too.

I am glad to see that Siam Huts opted to keep the backpacker atmosphere by rebuilding all of their existing huts.  That work is still in progress and should be completed by the beginning of the season - December 1st. Siam Huts also completed a nice expansion of their 'chill-out' deck which is a popular gathering spot for spectacular sunsets. Ko Chang has several somewhat-low-budget years remaining, but last winter I began exploring further east into Cambodia and Vietnam.

I only intended to spend an hour in the sun on the first day but it quickly became two and I slightly burned. But I don't mind, it is great to be back in paradise and time is on my side.

Though I remain loyal to Siam Huts for a couple of sunset beers, an occasional barbeque or restaurant meal, I take breakfasts at Nature Rocks. Nature has regular tables and chairs scattered on outside tiers. Yellow and white Singha umbrellas cover most areas but I prefer the proper shade at a corner table on the top tier. The new menu reminded me that it is the first of December and my Thailand visa expires tomorrow. The first also marks the beginning of 'the season' and ensuing rise in prices of food and accommodation. Though my rate over at Siam Huts remains at 250, my ham and cheese omelet cost forty Bhat, up from thirty. Two pieces of toast with butter and jam packets are still twenty, as is coffee. Nescafe. When Thais mix a cup, they tend to make it strong. American coffee, like American beer, is rather weak by world standards but I am accustomed to it and don't mind mixing my own light cup. As for the American beer however, I'd prefer a real Budweiser in Prague.

On the stretch of beach between Nature Rocks and the Siam Resort, along the coconut grove, I laid out my beach cloth and went for a few final swims, quickly drying in the mid-day sun. As the tide slowly rose toward a mid-afternoon high, I clicked a few photos of the beach peddlers and the far end of the beach.

The final day passed quickly. In the evening and into the night, I made rounds to my favorite bars from the main road to Nature Rocks to bid friends, old and new, farewell. With the building boom in full swing, there would be many new places to explore when I return in March.

Lonely Beach is rather crowded for this time of year. Usually the season begins December first, but heavy rains, flooding, and rough seas in southern Thailand sent many travelers and vacationers here to wait out the weather. November is the tail end of the rainy season. There seems to be large numbers of French and British. Scandinavians will swarm the beach around December. Days now are just partially sunny which makes for an ideal time to ease into the tropical sun and acclimatize. Evenings are slightly cool and afternoon breezes fairly common. Dwindling days of humidity are followed by light rains.

Fourteen years ago, Lonely Beach was an isolated coconut grove, only accessible by walking a steep jungle trail over the hills from Kai Bae Beach. Siam Huts is located on the southern end of the beach where the sand ends and the rocks begin. Tree House, a hundred yards further south, above the rocks, was the first set of bungalows to appear. The beach itself is only a few hundred yards long. Next door to Siam Huts lies the pricy Bhumiyama Beach Resort followed by Nature Rocks bar, restaurant, and low-budget bungalows. Further north, a coconut grove lies between Nature Rocks and the massive Siam Beach Resort which dominates the far end of the beach. When the tide is high, the beach can narrow to just a few yards. Of what remains of the original coconut grove, some of the trees are being attacked by caterpillars or other insects and slowly dying off. Their eerie remains stand monument to a world gone bleak and colorless.

While white clad ladies greet passersby in an attempt to lure them to their outside massage platforms, hawkers trudge the daytime sands toting bundles of boldly printed cloths, red panels of seashell jewelry, fresh pineapple and coconut, or photo albums of temporary tattoos which are drawn on. Others peddle beach toys - Frisbees and paddle balls appearing to be the biggest sellers. Colorful printed hammocks are also popular but I will wait to get another of those until I come back through here on my way home in March. I always bring one home to add to my own deck whenever I am there in summer. When one peddler finds a potential customer, others mosey toward them; all desperate for a sale but never pushy or overly aggressive like those in India or western Africa.

The sun sets fast in the tropics - straight down and not at a lingering angle as in the higher and lower latitudes. With water and palm trees in the scene, sunsets are always different and always spectacular. It is the time of day that friends gather on the chill-out deck to share a spliff or toast a beer and exchange tales of the days events or activities. One of the low tables is already filled with forty or fifty drained Singha bottles. The empty rum glasses had already been collected by the precautious staff. Cheer and laughter flows from the two fun-loving 'firecrackers' from the Midlands of England and Dublin, Ireland, and the friends they draw to party.

As the day nears end, Thai fishing boats head out to sea. Their lights will dot the horizon and others glow from beyond; white or lantern-yellow for shrimp, green for squid. I've counted as many as fifty but only a few on the nights when the wind howls. The mornings after those rare times often reveal one or two of the boats anchored close to shore off Lonely Beach. They remain all day then belch black smoke as they fire up their diesels and chug back to sea.

A double decker boat makes a sunset stop and drifts several hundred yards off the beach while its towed outboard motorboat shuttles people to shore near Nature Rocks. The snorkelers and partiers are returning from a day in the waters around an outer coral reef island, and a visit to a beach on Ko Wai. I enjoyed the adventure earlier this year and would highly recommend it. On this trip, I intended to spend a week on laid-back Ko Wai, but it is difficult to leave Lonely Beach.

While the sun goes down, hardwood fires send smoke, heat, and glowing ambers into a darkening sky. It is surprising that the dry straw roofs of adjacent bars and restaurants have not ignited on windy evenings. Barbecues gone wild. Any resulting fire would probably be intense and rapid at first then,  after the roof burns away, controlled by buckets of water. By dark, dynamic tunes intensify to kick off another night of parties. Tony over at Sun Set and the western guys and girls at Nature Rocks seem to crank out the best tunes, for this old fart anyway.

Up until two years ago, I had spent winters living in Africa and South America. Sometime during my fourteen year absence, fire twirling had become popular on Thai beaches. Diners enjoying sunset barbeques at Siam Huts or Nature Rocks are often treated to fire shows which are usually performed by their employees. Thai waiters find moments of fame under twirling sticks of fire. They perform their skills while world-wide music pounds a background beat and tropical breezes stir the air. Flaming sticks and chains twirl and hurl high into the night sky and manage to be caught without changing the path or speed of their fiery arcs. They swirl pairs of yellow and orange fire from each hand behind themselves and overhead.  Many of the twirlers are in various stages of experience as younger boys learn the skills from their older friends and brothers. Those with more experience seem to attract a devoted following of pretty foreign girls and feel the life of a western pop star.

One night after the Siam Huts bar had closed, I noticed a small group of foreigners gathered around a late-night twirler on the beach. I walked down there to join them while enjoying a final Singha beer since Siam Huts does not serve Chang. A Frenchman from Paris twirled two short chains suspending flaming wads of fire. The man performed slower than the Thais, but well, as three couples looked on and cheered. The couples too were all French-speaking; from Montreal, Canada; Dakar, Senegal; and from the French Caribbean. Toute le monde.

I wanted to learn the name of a music that I had only heard one time - in a local bar in Abidjan about ten years ago. It was a Latin-type of music with French lyrics; a nice upbeat blend of Latin and African rhythms. I had since forgotten the music's name (genre?) but remember being told that it had originated in the French Caribbean. Until now, I had never run into anyone from that part of the world.

Only the Canadian couple spoke English but I had consumed enough beer to recall the little African French that I learned while working in the frontiers of Ivory Coast and Togo. When I spoke of the music in badly battered French intermixed with an occasional Spanish word, the Caribbean couple eventually understood and proudly shouted a response then spelled it out in the beach sand: SOUK. After ten years, my simple question was finally answered.

When my Singha emptied, the group passed me their large water bottle filled with Pastis, the anise flavored liqueur which is popular in France and all of the world's former French colonies. Much of that world was right here on the beach that night, brought together by fire. You don't have to go far on Lonely Beach to travel the world.

Loy Kratong is celebrated on the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month which occurred last night. Small banana tree platforms called kratongs are elaborately decorated with coconut and banana leaves and flowers. They often contain morsels of food, locks of hair, fingernail clippings, coins, nuts, and always sticks of incense and a lighted candle.  The Thai word loy means float. The kratongs are set adrift on any body of water throughout Thailand. 

The festival is believed to have originated in Sukhothai, Thailand's original capitol, in the 13th Century. Nang Nopamas, a royal consort of King Ramkhamhaeng, made the first kratong and set it adrift so that it floated past the king. The king was elated and Loy Kratong was instituted as an annual festival. The festival is seen as romantic. Couples make wishes then set their kratongs adrift. Those that float for a long way with a lit candle are seen as a good omen for relationships. If it sinks, people just shrug their shoulders and wait for the next Loy Kratong.

The festival also has several religious interpretations. To some, kratongs are seen as an offering in thanks to the goddess of water, Phra Mae Kongka, for a plentiful supply of water. Some Buddhists see the kratong as paying respect to Lord Buddha or to one's ancestors. Others believe that it has Hindu origins as a means of paying homage to the god Vishnu. Regardless of its origin, Loy Katrong is a festive event and visitors are welcome to participate.

Last night around midnight, in front of Nature Rocks, groups of Thais and foreigners gathered to launch their kratongs. While some drifted into Bai Lan Bay beyond visibility, others slid beneath the surface. Parties at all the bars thundered late into the night.

Bang Bao is the main fishing port near the Southwest corner of Koh Chang. Much of the island's fishing fleet sails from here as well as dive boats and shuttle service to the outer islands such as Koh Mak and Koh Kood. Those, among many others, are much more laid back than the developed beaches of Koh Chang; much like the southern island of Koh Samui was years ago, before its airport. Bang Bao is built over the water and contains numerous seafood restaurants, gift and grocery shops, dive shops, and tour operators. Several guest houses offer rooms or huts built on stilts. The high quality restaurants display the days catch in small tanks and aquariums.

The Y-shaped pier was under construction one year ago and completed when I came through again last March. It was said that cruise ships would eventually make port calls and link Pattaya or Bangkok with Cambodia and Vietnam. Several high dollar resorts have been completed since then along the 6 kilometer hilly stretch between Lonely Beach and Bang Bao. I don't know if the one named Dusit Princess is related to the cruise ship company but its luxurious style looks as though it could very well be. I was pleased to find that Bang Bao had not really changed and maintained its small port activity.

I've never had a tattoo but if I were to ever get one, this would be the place.  Koh Chang probably has more tattoo parlors than dive shops. Many of the artists use traditional bamboo as opposed to a machine, including Blue and Tom at Siam Huts' Bamboo Tattoos. I always believed they used bamboo as in ancient times, but actually it is a needle attached to a bamboo shaft by rubber bands. The needles used are available in assorted sizes and are heated until glowing orange for sterilization. A needle is used only once.

During early evening beers on the deck, I met a group of Europeans having tattoos. I followed the progress of a rather large and complex design on one Austrian's left arm from shoulder to elbow. He explained that bamboo tattoos do not require healing since they don't tear the flesh like the machine process.  Their colors are not as shiny as modern methods giving them a more 'natural' appearance. However, the technique is much slower and the Austrian's colorful design took nearly forty hours to complete. His sessions were spanned across twelve days.

The temptation to get one myself was haunting. I scanned several booklets of designs and even picked one out; a palm tree, beach, and shoreline in sunset. The colorful, compact design included green, brown, yellow, red, orange, and blue.  The scene included a wave which I would have replaced with calm seas. No waves. I could add a snappy phrase later, maybe one that I remembered from a Harley rider pig roast in Upper Michigan: It's never too late to have a happy childhood.

But my selection was too compact to make smaller without losing detail and just too big for my liking. Blue said he could install the scene in an hour for 1,500 Bhat. It's probably not a good idea to barter over the cost of a tattoo. I was told by the Europeans that it would be a good deal.

I haven't owned a Harley-Davidson yet either but my tattoo would be on the outside of my right forearm; a small tropical scene visible to those I pass while riding south. I'll ponder the idea until I come back through here in March, on my way north.

As on all of the beaches of Koh Chang, the main road through Lonely Beach has numerous shops which all seem to sell the same t-shirts, hammocks, printed cloths, sea shell jewelry, and other souvenirs. Several bars, restaurants, internet offices, and two small convenience stores line the narrow, hilly road.

I stopped at the 7-11 to buy a three-pack of Oreo cookies - the ones with a white filling instead of chocolate. The basic Oreo is chocolaty enough for me. I never buy them at home but here they make for a fine snack with a bottle of cold water after a late night of beer drinking.  As I scanned a back shelf for the western treats, I noticed a snake slither under a white cooler in the far corner of the store. It seemed out of place in that air-conditioned building and appeared to have little traction on the white-tiled, spotless floor. It actually sidled more than slithered - almost like the sidewinders I had seen in the scorching desert sands on hot Iraqi nights.

Like most of the 7-11's in California, the clerk spoke no English. I held my hands out about two feet apart,  wiggled my right one in a forward motion, then pointed to the floor toward the white cooler. After performing the gestures two or three times, he understood and promptly approached the cooler on  hands and knees carrying a small flashlight and a short bamboo broom.  When he began jabbing the broom handle beneath the cooler, I recalled the same scene countless times in western Africa where small spitting cobras found their way into our houses and hotel rooms. I didn't know if this snake was poisonous or not, but stood well back while the clerk quickly killed the cornered reptile.

I'm replacing the old entry here with one I wrote on Oct. 7 on the boat which is a bit longer-

So here I am in Ko Chang, where we have been for about two weeks now.  We were only supposed to be here for a couple days, but the morning we left our engine died just as we raised anchor.  The problem turned out to be a bit bigger than we’d thought, so Jim has brought in mechanics from Marsun and Caterpillar and has even flown to Singapore twice himself.  I think (knock on wood) that we are on the verge of it being fixed… maybe we will leave tomorrow?? I actually haven’t minded being “stuck” in Ko Chang.  The island has some cool little towns and our own little dock area is fun to walk up and down.  But I understand that not everybody likes to poke around in little shops for days on end, and of course I want to get to Ko Samui, so the sooner we leave the better!  But because of the engine problems we have gotten to do some cool stuff that we wouldn’t have otherwise, like some hikes and of course the trip to Cambodia.  I think I already wrote about our first day there.  The second day we got up at 4:45 to go see the sunrise at the main temple.  It was a bit overcast but still pretty and I’m really glad I went.  We spent that morning at a temple farther out of the city, had lunch back in town, and then spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the main temple.  It was nice and sunny so that was good.  The only different thing that I saw this time there were the monkeys.  I went up to see what a Cambodian family was staring at and stood with them watching as they threw the monkeys some food.  Except that the monkeys kept coming closer and closer to them to get the food, so we kept back up onto this ledge, and pretty soon there we all were huddled together screeching while the monkeys just stared at us.  They got bored though and wandered away again, only to terrorize the next group of tourists that came by (or our group of shipmates, as I found out later).  Dinner was back at the hotel and then it was early to bed after a long day.  The next morning we met our guide at 9 and went for a short bus ride to the Tonle Sap lake.  We boarded a rickety old wood boat (that could describe 99 percent of the boats there) that was operated by a father and his three kids, and spent the next hour in a pleasant motor around the lake.  I thought the boat’s steering mechanism was really funny, literally a car’s steering wheel and pedals in the floor that led to wire cables running down each side and to the engine in the back of the boat.  The driver made the boat go faster by stepping on the gas pedal.  The feature of the lake was supposed to be the floating village, a real village all on sort of pontoons that just sits in the lake, but I just liked the boat ride itself the best.  Kids paddling around in big metal bowls came over to see us, as did mothers and babies in wooden canoes.  We stopped at a fish farm (aka tourist farm) and saw some fish and crocodiles, and some souvenirs and other tourists.  Next we stopped at a place called Artisans D’Angkor, a sort of school that takes people from rural villages and teaches them a craft to take home to support their villages.  After lunch we went to the land mine museum, which I was really looking forward to.  It was made by this one dude who has made it his life’s work to clear land mines.  It consisted of a bunch of wooden huts with pathways in between and old land mines strewn about as landscaping.  On the walls of the huts were newspaper articles, maps, letters, pictures, official documents, etc. about land mines in multiple languages.  The stories were all very moving, especially the section about the child victims who the museum guy takes in and sends to school.  That was it for the day, the afternoon was free to do as we pleased, but I ended up going back to the hotel to look at some of my provisioning paperwork.  We decided to do something a little different for our last dinner, which meant we met in the lobby and took our bus to a local restaurant that had a traditional Cambodian dancing show while you ate.  Besides feeling extremely ill from eating too much buffet dinner, dinner was really cool and the dancers were beautiful.  To top off the evening we had an extended curfew and went and hung out at a local bar in town til 11.  The next morning was another bright and early 5:45 wakeup, as we had a long day of border crossings ahead of us.  We did the same thing in reverse pretty much, except this time I slept most of the way.  We got back to the boat (in rain, no less) at about 7 at night.  After a quick dinner prepared by the guys already onboard, it was unpacking and bed time.  The next day I was off the boat for the whole day again.  The grocery store we needed to go to was on the mainland (it’s the only one big enough for our needs and takes credit cards), so Mike and I left the boat around 7:30am to catch the 9am ferry.  We joined some Swiss German tourists and some locals in a taxi bus to the neighboring city, where we were dropped off at the bus station to take a minibus to our final destination.  The minibus still hadn’t left at 11 and I was getting a little nervous because the last ferry back to the island was at 6, but at that point there wasn’t anything I really could do.  Eventually it left and an hour and a bit later we were finally dropped off at Tesco.  Mike and I did a whirlwind shopping trip in about an hour and half and were relieved to find that the store had managed to find a taxi that would take us and all our food straight to the ferry.  Fifteen minutes later all the food was packed in a very small truck, and I squeezed in beside it while Mike rode in front.  It was a good thing I had just purchased a 60 baht ($1.50) raincoat at Tesco, because it poured on me during our drive.  But I (and the food) stayed mostly dry and we made it in time to the ferry.  We ended our day finally back on board at around 7:30.  The next morning was no break for me though, as it was my turn on the wheel to be head chef.  I got up at around 6:30 to start chopping some fruit for breakfast and my sous- chef and I made oatmeal and fruit for our 7:30 breakfast.  At 8:30 I started boiling water for the potatoes I was making for lunch, and didn’t stop cooking again until lunch at 12.  We had baked potatoes with butter, cheese, broccoli, bacon bits (cooked and chopped ourselves), onions, and sour cream, and salad.  It was exhausting but well worth it.  At 3 I started cooking again, and we made cake/brownies, two pans of lasagna, salad, and garlic bread.  Dinner was at 6 and everyone was very appreciative.  I did one final clean of the galley before bed, and just about passed out.  I had spent about nine hours in the galley total, and wondered how I managed to do that every day for five months on Tabor Boy.  I don’t think I could do that again.  Today has been pretty relaxing, I’ve done some work on the computer, went into shore briefly, helped cook lunch, and now am just typing and hoping my computer won’t break on me again.  Hopefully the next time I write will be in a few days in Ko Samui!

This morning I woke up still feeling a little sick as I was the day before. I can't quite figure out what it is as I haven't been physically sick as yet, hopefully it'll subside soon (its probably due to too many beers). I headed to the beach (well I say headed, its 2 seconds away) in the morning to get rid of my pale skin that I'm famed for, I purchased some factor 12 sun screen after being burnt slightly with the factor 8 I already had (the highest factor cream I could find in the shop in Laos!). As its the "rainy season" (it really doesn't rain that much at all) the sea has waves crashing onto the beach, apparently in "high season" the water is completely calm.

I'm currently staying at "Nature" on lonely beach in a wooden hut with a shower and a toilet so its pretty comfortable apart from the group of late night (2-3 in the morning) cockroaches but hey I'm well used to sleeping with them by now. They don't do you any harm and tend to stay in the shadows and disappear when sunlight comes. More worrying was a story an English guy I met was telling me about when he was here a few years back, one night he stepped out of his hut to feel a stinging sensation. When he looked down there were two holes in his leg with blood dripping down, he came to the conclusion that it must have been a snake. The snake theory would make sense as much of the island of Ko Chang is made up of dense jungle where you can go trekking so there are all sorts of beasts in there. He rushed to the nearest bar where the guys working didn't have a clue what it was but resorted to squeezing lime juice on it! I don't think the lime juice quite worked out and he spent some time in Ko Chang hospital where he eventually got better although the doctors didn't really know what it was. As we chatted and headed back to our huts in the dark I noted he was carrying a large torch, apparently he never goes out without it ever since the incident!

I've decided to stay here longer and have booked myself the hut for a further three nights, its a nice place to chill out and is also a lively enough place to be able to socialise. I think if I went to anywhere more remote I'd be bored after a night or two.

Right now I'm enjoying taking it easy but also looking forward to Cambodia and the contrast that it will bring to Ko Chang.