Rayong to Koh Chang

Had a good Valentines weekend with a road trip to Koh Chang. Its about 200 kilometers east of Rayong.  Getting there is quite easy. Good dual carriageway most of the way and excellent coffee stops.  One had a beautiful pond full of Koi fish. I did think it would not last long in UK. All those beautiful fish would very quickly find their way into someones fish tank...

Anyway off we went early Saturday morning. Stopping several times for breakfast, coffee and well... just to stop. Then there is the ferry across to Koh Chang.

Takes about 30 minutes but add in the waiting before it arrives etc a good hour passes while you sit around mainly "people" watching. Which I do enjoy.
This was a good weekend for it as well. Plenty of other motor bikes. One group of about 20 were down for the weekend. They had with them a combi type van fully decked out with all the bits and pieces required for a long road trip.

Apart from that I would say Koh Chang was noticeably short on visitors. Big surprise as when booking a room on the internet  I kept being told all full up. However on arrival a very different story. We ended up in a reasonable place. In fact it was the first hotel we stopped at to ask about rooms. Big double room with on suite bathroom etc. Easy parking and safe. All for 1,000 Baht. That's about 20 GBP. No complaints on that front.  It did have one strange aspect. A resident pig. Yes a sort of wild boar without teeth which just slept around minding its own business. I had to take a double look first time.

Took some photos and of course it did the honours and had a wee while we watched. 

We staying only on the west side of Koh Chang. The side with the beaches and hotels/restaurants etc. But as I said nearly all seemed deserted. It could have something to do with the weather as well. We had journeyed down passing through several rain showers so this might have put people off walking around. But we enjoyed it. Got down as far as Bang Bao, what was a small fishing village. Now a tourist honey pot with lots of diving shops, coffee and restaurants and souvenirs.

Spotted a few monkeys at on of the view points.  Seemed very used to people around and total uninhibited when it came to running round us. 

Stopped off in Chantaburi on the way back. Looked at the town and also the min feature which is a status of Taskin the first King of the current Chakri Dynasty.