Koh Chang: Island Paradise

Koh Chang is a paradise through and through. I've been to a few tropical islands in my day but none of them could compare to this place. It's pretty well off the beaten path and hard to get to so it was very quiet and peaceful. Koh Chang itself apparently gets fairly touristy in some places but we were in one of the more isolated areas. We stayed at Cliff Cottage in Bang Bao and never left it for four days. We arrived after sunset so had no idea what the view was like until the morning. I woke up and walked outside to see this.

Raph woke up a little later. We had to sleep inside of this mosquito net because of all the bugs. I don't recall getting bit very much at this place so it wasn't too bad.

We spent a lot of time here working on our laptops. This was our office. The hammock was the most comfortable desk I've ever used.

Our office was also a great restaurant. I accidentally ate a whole chili pepper one night which was so very painful but Raph found it hilarious. Other than that every meal was delicious!

On one of the days we got up the energy to go kayaking around the island. The hostel kept a stack of kayaks and rented them to us for $3 per hour. The owner recommended putting sunscreen on my feet but I refused and told him I was used to sun so I'd be fine. It turns out I'm stupid and my feet got pretty burned.

This is the beach on which we disembarked from the kayaks.

I found this adorable family walking across a path.

I went on a short hike over the mountain (it's hard to hike for long in flip flops) and came across this romantic little spot overlooking the ocean.

How much did this place cost you ask? Surely it must be expensive to live in such a paradise! The hostel cost $7 a night and we spent about $3 on each meal. Sometimes I splurged and got a smoothie with my meal bringing it up to $4. All in all, less than $20 a day. I did a rough calculation of my cost of living at home and it came out to about $100 a day. So, living in paradise for 1/5 the cost of living at home? Not too bad.