ICU Koh Chang

I spent the latter half of my Songkran holiday in Koh Chang. We spent a night’s journey flying into Bangkok, taking an overnight bus to Traht and greeting the next morning on the ferry to Koh Chang. Upon arrival I immediately realized that the exhausting trip to the island was well worth it. As the sun rose, the water became bluer and bluer and I began to plot dropping my bags into the bungalow and running straight for the beach.

By the time we arrived at our hostel the day’s heat was well underway and we opted to find the beach as soon as we were done with breakfast. We quickly found the beach, dropped our things and dove into the warm water. I swam for upwards of three hours, in utter bliss, and even attracted the comment of an older British woman, “you crazy kids have been in here for hours!” By the time I emerged from the ocean I was so tired I hastily passed out in the sun for an hour or two.

And woke up with the worst sun burn of my life.

The consistently painful burn across my back and shoulders didn’t slow me down, and I enjoyed my vacation to the fullest extent. I swam, ate delicious food, met cool people, and even went snorkeling which was, in my opinion, the highlight of the trip.

We arranged a snorkeling tour which took us to four different islands and diving sights around Koh Chang. Our first sight they took us to a rock formation off of a small island. They handed out the gear and we eagerly jumped off the side of the boat and into the water. The sight was filled with amazing coral, colorful fish, and other ocean life. The excitement of our first sight was unfortunately dampened when Eva emerged with a series of sea urchin spikes stuck in her foot. We pulled out the large ones, but Eva, in an immense amount of pain from the points still logged in her foot, spent the rest of the day on the boat.

I spent the rest of the afternoon jumping off the side of the boat, gazing at fish, and being generally terrified of sea urchins.

Despite the sunburn and digestive issues we all suffered, Koh Chang was an amazing trip. At times I forgot I was even in Thailand, the signs were mostly in English, farang food was prevalent, and the population of the island seemed to consist of European tourist and dark Thai men with dreadlocks. It was definitely a vacation spot, and needless to say, I was sad to return home to my little dorm room and huge pile of homework.