Minibuses, Songtaews & Ferries

So in Thailand, when you want to get somewhere a little bit more remote – it isn’t Planes, Trains and Automobiles…it’s time for Minibuses, Songtaews and Ferries!!! And that is exactly how I travelled east to get from Chanthaburi to the gorgeous island of Koh Chang. I had beautiful sweeping views of the sea from my hotel balcony – I loved it so much that I extended my stay on Koh Chang, not once…but twice 😃!

So what’s a songtaew? It literally translates to “two benches” and literally…that is what you get. You ride in the back of a pick-up that has two benches. I travelled by songtaew from the Trat bus terminal to the pier (for my ferry ride) and Songtaews are also the taxi format on Koh Chang. But hold on tight – another tourist almost lost her luggage out the back while we were driving on the hilly and curvy roads of the island 😜!

My time on Koh Chang (translates to Elephant Island) was relaxing with only a few days of sight seeing (I’ll share those pictures in another post). The hotel was on its own private beach and my days consisted of reading, kayaking to an island close to the hotel, swimming in the pool and ocean, enjoying a spa day, watching the monkeys from my balcony and the hotel staff harvesting coconuts from the trees around the beach – I know…rough life – but someone’s gotta do it…The monkeys were hard to capture on video (but I was getting pretty good at spotting them).

Monkey Business

So these monkeys liked to get into mischief – haha. I was briefed at check-in to keep my balcony door locked (since they know how to turn the handles to get in) and to leave nothing unattended on the balcony (they will steal your stuff). On several occasions the monkeys interrupted the buffet breakfast, trying to grab food from tables until the staff would shoo them away with brooms and spray them with water. Silly monkeys 🙈!