Koh Chang

So… we spent our first few days of our big adventure at Treehouse on Long Beach, Koh Chang. More by luck than design, it’s virtually at the end of the road which will, ultimately, circle the island and connect everything up, and the generator clicks off at 1am.

So, when you wake all you can hear is the waves swashing back and forth below you, geckoes scuttling in the palm thatch, bird song, leaves and sometimes the occasional longtail boat.

It’s a very classic Thai beach, white sand leading into water so shallow at low tide that it heats to the temperature of a bath, tall palms leaning in towards the sea, limestone headlands covered in jungle projecting like camel’s humps at either end, and a view out to Koh Wai and the tiny Koh Nai islands.

We did very little here except swim and read and chill. Walked round the headland to a bay with a war memorial, its Buddhist altar still tended with flowers, incense and plastic bottles of water, marking where the Vichy French wiped out almost the entire Thai Navy in the battle of Koh Chang in 1941, and picked up great skeletons of coral from the shore.

Rented a kayak on an inlet lined with mangroves, pulled up on a white sand beach for lunch, then under-estimated the surprisingly choppy sea and capsized quite spectacularly twice.

Two of the things that wise folk suggested we pack but which didn’t make the cut when it came to space are a drybag and spare sunglasses. Both were sorely missed.