Thailand: Koh Wai & Christmas

Our home for Christmas

After sitting in an internet cafe in Kanchanburi we finally decided on a whim to make our way to the tiny island of Koh Wai for Christmas, which lies in the Gulf of Thailand south of its big brother Koh Chang.

And what a great decision this was.  We ended up staying in a small hut on stilts literally a stones throw from the crystal clear turquoise sea with our own private beach. Four days of eating, sleeping, snorkeling, sweeping and reading ensued (interspersed with the famous 'ball game'- a purchase from flowhouse).

Christmas dinner

During our stay we befriended couples from Ireland, California and Holland and with the small island atmosphere, it made for a great Christmas Eve and Christmas dinner. Instead of turkey we ate the latest catch of red snapper, giant prawns (featured below) and crab curry.

As a replacement for the Downton Abbey Christmas special, the Russians returned to provide a daily source of amusement from 11am-3pm (day trips from Koh Chang). There were many exotic poses against beach huts and palm leaves, and unfortunately for us the first (probably not last) appearance of the dreaded man thong...

One evening we adventured to the other side of the island for sunset, which we caught just in time. We were also treated to a colony of large bats foraging far above as we watched the last light disappear. With one meager head torch four of us slowly but surely made our way back through the darkness to our inhabited cove.

We were sad to leave our tropical paradise (its true, they do exist outside bbc wildlife documentaries and google images), and it was a very odd sensation to be back on a road and then even stranger to be back in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.  We couldn't have asked for anything more on Christmas day.

We now had the task of reaching Chiang Mai for New Years in one of THE busiest holiday periods for Thailand. We had 2 days to do it in...