Motorbikes+ Muddy Jungle=Crash

On Thursday, Wadleigh and I went to Ko Chang for the weekend. This island, which is Thailand’s second biggest, is only a stone’s throw from Cambodia (assuming you can throw a stone a one hundred kilometers or so). The first week of class went well and all, but we just wanted to get out of the house and away from people that eat the food we leave in the fridge.

I could toss out generic words like “beautiful” or “paradise” to describe Ko Chang, but I think I’ll be a little more detailed. This island is pretty much only gorgeous green mountains and perfect sandy beaches. There’s only one road going around the island, and the path is treacherously steep and curvy. Some of the roads were also somewhat washed out from the monsoon the night before. Still, that didn’t stop Wadleigh and me from renting mopeds despite never riding one before. We drove fairly well, aside from the time when we explored the jungle and the road essentially turned into a muddy creek. I fell over and Wadleigh got his hog stuck, but it was all in good fun since there was no damage. Next time we’ll be more careful when riding motorbikes into a jungle.

We spent a lot of time on the beach, and although the weather was cool (by Thailand standards), the water was perfect. Making things even better was that whenever we were done, we could drive off on our motorbikes and explore the surroundings. We almost spent as much on gas as a one day rental fee(about 5 bucks), but it was so insanely cheap that it would have been much more expensive to take taxis around.

One of the sites away from the beach was the Klong Plu waterfall, which was a short motorbike ride and then hike from our beachside bungalow. Getting in costs 20 baht (65 cents) for Thai people, but a massive 400 baht ($12) for westerners. I don’t even think the Grand Canyon costs that much. It was a great site and all, but not a $12 site. We both ended up spending far too much money, especially on the transportation to and from the island, and at bar where we both found nice Thai girls to show us around the island. Wadleigh and I are both addicted to Chang beer, with a manly alcohol content of 6.4%. It makes all other beers look like wine coolers.

I loved how relaxing everything was, but I was quite happy to be home, where the showers are warm, the toilets work and the insects aren’t quite as frightening. On the cab ride back from the bus station, the cabbie proved himself to be a massive American football team and recited the names of a bunch of teams and players. He was all about the New York Giants.