Besides being named as the third largest island in Thailand, Koh Chang or Elephant Island’s claim to fame are its beaches. It has a total of nine major beaches, not counting the small ones that dot its perimeter. The most famous of these is the Lonely Beach, which untrue to its name, is quite far from being lonely, being the party beach in Koh Chang. Of these, we were only able to visit three, plus two small unnamed ones.

A CRABLET MAKES THE WHITE SANDY BEACHES IN KOH CHANG HIS HOME

Aside from white sandy beaches, Koh Chang also boasts of numerous waterfalls, six to be exact, but we were too tired from the Malaysia and Cambodia part of our trip that we decided to ignore these and chose to just laze around the island’s shorelines.

Nature patterns, I whispered to myself as my rubber sandals padded on the soft white sand of Koh Chang’s Klong Prao Beach. The tide was at its lowest, revealing peculiar wavy patterns made by the waters as it receded back towards the horizon. We walked some more, enjoying the late afternoon’s relative lack of tourists while waiting for the sun to dip down and shower us with golden rays.

KOH CHANG’S BUSIER AREAS

The village of Klong Prao was our second destination on the island. From the secluded amber sands of Serenity Koh Chang, we took a shared, open-aired songthaew taxi to one of the island’s more famous spots. The ride took about an hour of twisting roadways, Koh Chang isn’t named as Thailand’s third largest island for nothing, before we alighted on a slightly more populated part of the island. It’s still pretty quiet, but we can now see convenience stores and street hawkers lining the sidewalks.

It was quite hard to unglue our behind from the laze-inducing balcony of our beachfront bungalow at the Serenity Resort Koh Chang. But as the afternoon turned to dusk, the sky bloomed in oranges and reds, forming a strange cloud formation above the calm waters of Trat. That’s what it took for us to get off our lazy chairs and actually walk along the amber-colored sand of the beach and chase after it.

THE CENTER POINT FERRY FROM TRAT TO KOH CHANG

After a restive overnight stay in Trat, we woke early the next morning to catch the ferry to the relatively nearby Koh Chang Island. This is where most backpackers doing the Sihanoukville-Bangkok land route usually head over before going to Thailand’s bustling capital.

An alley full of delectable street food mixed with regular market fare swarmed across our way; a menagerie of fruits and raw meat mingling with banana pancakes and crisply fried pork strips. It was heaven. We ambled from one stall to the next, dodging the local crowd milling about Trat’s Night Market, unable to decide what to have for dinner with the multitude of choices presented to us.

FIVE HOUR LAND TRIP FROM CAMBODIA’S SIHANOUKVILLE TO THAILAND’S TRAT

The Province of Trat, located on the southeastern side of Thailand, was our gateway to the land of the elephants. Thailand was the third country for our Same Same Summer Trip, which started in Malaysia and pushed through Cambodia. Landing in Siem Reap and taking the land trip to Phnom Penh and the beaches of Sihanoukville, we exited at Koh Kong border and entered Trat through a five-hour land transfer by van (USD18.00 / PHP910.50).