Koh Chang - the elephant island

The past few weeks have been wonderful! After recharging our batteries with Roberto and his girls, we have traveled a lot. The time was marked by many changes of location and we have changed our accommodations every 1-4 nights as a result. In Vietnam and Cambodia, we were able to experience impressive things, discover wonderful nature, and meet warm-hearted people. It was all exciting and impressive, but also exhausting. A very wonderful person said to us in a phone call, 'These are all great experiences, but the mind has to keep up as well.' And that's exactly it. As impressive as the three weeks after Roberto were, they were also strenuous. For this reason, we decided to take a break from the journey. It may sound silly to some, but that's exactly how it was. After three impressive days in Cambodia, our next destination is Thailand. Here, we have chosen a nice hotel on the beach with a great breakfast buffet for our break. All of this on the island of Koh Chang. This island is also known as the Elephant Island. However, it is not because of the elephants that live here, but because of the silhouette of the mountains that resembles an elephant. What we didn't consider in our travel planning, however, is that it is currently rainy season in Thailand. For this reason, the first few days were very rainy. In combination with temperatures reaching a maximum of 27 degrees, it was exactly right for a break. We spent a lot of time at our private pool in the room, on the balcony, or getting massages. We took walks on the beach and occasionally went on a scooter trip. It didn't rain yesterday and today. Since the island is particularly characterized by its marine protected area, many activities are only possible during the dry season. For this reason, the island was not very crowded, which resulted in many hotels and restaurants being closed. The restaurant in the hotel did not convince us, so we looked for an alternative. In the pouring rain, we used Google Maps to find the restaurant next to the hotel. After some wrong turns, we followed a pitch-black path. The puddles were so big that we had to take off our shoes and continue barefoot. At the end of the path, we were greeted by a man with a confused face. When he saw the path we had taken, he laughed. Due to the bad weather, it seemed that the restaurant was not open. After briefly consulting with his wife, he set up a table for us and we had delicious Pad Thai and a papaya salad. Since the food was very good, we came there every evening. Our journey continues tomorrow - we are taking the bus to Bangkok.