Ko Si Chang

I think we mentioned that Thailand was a last minute substitute for the Philipines when it turned out the wind wouldn't be good enough for kiting. As a result we didn't have much planned, but decided on the spur of the moment to spend 5 days on Ko Si Chang, a small island about 3 hours from Bangkok.
An island idyll it is not. Not really sure what you'd call it. It's only a few miles long and has only one beach to speak of, a few temples, a small bustling Main Street by the port and not many tourists.
As glass half full folk, we settled into a nice routine of:

• Early morning run (trying to a. Avoid being eaten by all the stray dogs, b. Run up the very steep hills without passing out, and c. Not melt in the heat),
• Post breakfast yoga session.
• Mid morning walk into town, grab an iced coffee from moo cafe ( not really a cafe, two ladies with some ingredients, with whom we managed to arm wave negotiate soya milk that we brought with us replacing milk product in the coffee for Sam).
• Hideaway in the air con of our little hut for midday, using the internet to finish planning the China part of our trip.
• Venture out mid afternoon to either the beach (hired a kayak which slowly sank, with paddles that had been fixed up using metal patches making them heavy and unbalanced), temples(where we were 'washed' by a monk and given hydration drinks, he wanted to feed us too, but we weren't sure of customs /expectations and things, so managed to politely refuse), or the old palace grounds.

When I first started thinking of writing a blog for Koh Si Chang a day or so into our stay, I thought a couple of lines about 'not bothering to make the effort' ,'wish we hadn't bothered' would suffice, but a little like finding some dusty junk in the attic, if you bother to clean it up and look closely, you might uncover something with a little charm, and that we did. Here's why:
The old palace used to be a summer residence for the king, but much of it got taken down years ago. Despite this, the ground have a certain otherworldly charm

 

The palace surroundings also gave us ample opportunity to play with our new photography tricks:

[Post processing colour changes]

[Fun with perspective]

 

A few of the things we ate on the island, are right up there with the top eats in Thailand and not just for the taste, the experiences were what made them special.

• A lady stands on a street corner making Pad Thai noodles fresh, endlessly from lunch until late. A couple of bags (yep, they serve them in bags) of these made a fab takeaway dinner.
• Another street seller makes mango with sticky rice and coconut cream. She spent ages selecting the perfect mango fir us and she used disposable plastic gloves for hygiene and that coconut sauce was heavenly.
• One day when out looking for lunch we were flagged over by some folk with huge vats of food on the street. Not really knowing what it was, it seemed as good as anything, so we said yes please, at which point we were served up two huge bowls of rice, a vegetable dish and an egg and pork dish. We tried to give them some money, but they sent us away with a shake of the head saying 'free, free'. The chap who had called us over then chased us across the road to give us some free drinks to go with it. No idea why I doubt we looked malnourished...

The old port area is quite pretty. It has some colonial features, brightly coloured fishing boats and an odd mix of old and new:

So, in conclusion, we probably wouldn't bother going back, nor would we recommend you visit, but if you got ship wrecked and washed up on a small island that happened to be Ko Si Chang, we expect like us, you'll find some of it's (quite well) hidden charms!