My Ko Chang Experience

April 20, 2006. Ko Chang, Thailand.

Nothing spectacularly interesting happened in Ko Chang so I'll just summarize my 1.5 weeks there.

• Ko Chang is a beautiful island with a great big forest. And ALL the mosquitoes, geckos, frogs, other insects to go with it.
• It is extremely touristy. I could've been on any beach resort.
• My dorm was surrounded by durian trees that were in season! I tried not to walk under the trees.. in case a durian dropped. Ouch!

• Teaching at hotel staff is very different from, yet also similar to teaching kids at school. They are older, understand more, but still easily distracted.
• Ocean water is salty. I float better in it. Fear of suffocation reduces when I float better. Comfort level with swimming in the ocean significantly increased this week.
• I learned to cook several other Thai dishes. (Pad Thai, another soup, mango sticky rice, and laap) YUM!!
• I acquired a new "battle wound" every day for the first few days. Fell on and deeply scraped my forearm (and the wound wouldn't close since I kept swimming in salt water.), played volley ball for the first time in years and bruised my right hand, slipped on the wet floor and rammed the side of my foot against the edge of tiled steps, etc, etc.
• The weather was fascinating. Sunny in the morning; cloudy in the early afternoon; stormy with lightening, thunder and heavy downpour in the mid-afternoon; and sunny again before the sun sets.
• Read a few new books. I was in the middle of "War and Remembrance" when I left. Learning about the destructive parts of wars make me physically sick, yet I'm (slightly) addicted to reading about them. Is that weird?

Overall, Ko Chang was chill/lazy and the people nice. It was a great end to a 3-month long southeast Asian journey.