sitting in a hammock

Hello from Trat! It's been a rough many days of sitting on a beach (Lonely Beach, to be specific, in Kho Chang, aka Ko Chang, aka Koh Chang). Koh Chang is an island in the southeast of Thailand (near Cambodia). Very nice!! Has touristy sections on the island and our beach was a quiter area with no real resorty type things in the immediate vicinity. Mostly young backpacker (and rich children types) spending ~$5 a night for a private hut on the beach. Loads of diving, palm trees, sand, hot weather... you get the idea.

We just took the ferry back to the mainland (to Trat) this afternoon after 4 days and 3 nights living in the bamboo huts on the beach, swinging in hamocks, and not much else. The first two days I literally did nothing but eat, drink, swing in hammock and read. Turns into a bit of a party at night and hammocks are put away :( Two books down in two days. The third day a British girl did drag me out for a walk on the beach and then swimming (this seemed like an incredible amount of energy expenditure at the time). She had also just taken a Thai massage course and needed people to practice on. Me being such a considerate person, I made myself available. I know, I know, I should receive some humanitarian award. And then the fourth day a Sweedish girl had rented a scooter and we went to the port in Bang Bo for an afternoon. Had an incredible Indian curry prawn dish. mmmm....

But the hammock really was my home. In fact, I had two choices: my hut had a front porch with my own hammock and then there were a handful of hammocks in the big central hut where food, drink, etc. was served. Anyway, we weren't going to stay for that long, but it was a tough place to leave. Did I mention the bbq each night with various fishies and incredible thai food. My favourite was the red snapper. mmmm.....

Hmmm... seeing that I've spent so much time in a hammock lately, I'm not sure what else there is to say. As I mentioned, I could have gone scuba diving or snorkling for a very very reasonable amount of money... now that would have been fun! There were elephant rides... pretty good!! But did I mention the hammock? And fruity drinks? And really good food brought... yup, brought right to the hammock! So, I decided this was the lazy part of my trip and did as little as possible. And when I did go out, I just ran the scooter off the road. Okay, I was good and safe when driving fast up and down the crazy hilly roads with center lines meaning little, but when trying to turn around with 2 people (and the other person moving to the side) and hitting the gas at an inappropriate time, it seems the scooter will navigate off the road. All this happened at 1.8 mph (~2.5 kph) and into a puddle, but worth a good laugh (and unfortunately there were many people around to see). So the moral of this story... hammocks are safer than scooters!!

Tomorrow morning (like 6AM type morning), we're taking a van to the Cambodia border crossing where hopefully we'll all be admitted (yes, I've been cleared of all my outstanding charges, I think). Then a 4 hour boat ride to Sianhouk Ville (I really spelled that one badly, but am too lazy to go back to google it). S Ville is supposedly an up and coming beach area, but very much undeveloped relative to Thai beaches. Not sure how long we're staying there... I guess it all depends on whether we like it. Travelling with Sam, Justin, Erin and Nate right now. From there to Phenom Phen (the capital). Trat tonight is a nice town, but nothing too special.

So I did go to google to find some photos or stuff. Here's a few random links:

Some Koh Chang photos:
http://www2.world66.com/asia/southeastasia/thailand/kohchang/lib/image/change

where we did stay (the Tree House) and what my website and photos would look like if I ever created a website for photos (note: I have no idea whose web page this is, but google is wonderful):
http://www.hobotraveler.com/110usa2ndweek01.shtml

Can't remember, but I put the link here:
http://www.world66.com/asia/southeastasia/thailand/kohchang

where I didn't stay on Koh Chang (but still on Lonely Beach):
http://www.koh-chang.com/bhumiyama/INDEX.HTM