Trips around Koh Chang island

Elephant shelter in Klong Prao village

Koh Chang in Thai means elephant island. Therefore riding an elephant was on our to-do-list. But when I saw how elephants are saddled, I dropped the idea immediately. By no means I don't want to be part of animal cruelty and riding an elephant with a metal bench on its back, tighten around its legs with a rope didn't look like gentle to the animal. May be elephant have really thick skin and they don't feel the bank and the ropes, may be ... Anyways, I was happy to stay on the ground and just observe the elephants during their evening shower.

I felt sorry for the elephants being saddled so brutally
Next day we took part in a snorkeling trip. A day before we walked through the village of Klong Prao and checked the offers from different companies. We chose half day snorkeling trip (10am - 3pm) with fast boat, pick up from the hotel included, as well as lunch for about 20€ per person. The dives itselves were not particularly spectacular, since there are no big corral reefs. However we managed to see a few nice fish, like Nemo (the clownfish) and Dory (from the cartoon Finding Nemo - my favorite one!). I also saw a few crabs and other funny-looking underwater creatures.

Selfie from the snorkeling trip
After the lunch we sailed to a rock, where a group of monkeys live. The leftovers were thrown to the monkeys. It was very funny to observe, how these animals recognized the sound of the boat engine and came out of their holes before we even reached the rock. And after they got their food, the fight started! The bigger ones were allowed to come closer to the bag with leftovers, while the smaller monkeys had to wait. But one didn't obey and tried to get some food from the bag. And the rest of the monkeys chased her until she fell into the water and then they wouldn't let her come ashore again. Quite horrifying view! But it all ended well. All the monkeys got some food and the little one successfully climbed back to the rock.

Monkeys on the rocks waiting for their lunch
Catching a bag with leftovers
We took advantage of cheap Thai massages while being on the island. Well, to be honest, I'm not really a fan of massages. I'm too sensitive, I guess, since it hurts me so much! But Rok on the other hand really likes the feeling when someone massages him really well, to the bones, as he says. So first time we were careful and we only tried foot massage. And it was good, not too painful for me, but enough for Rok. On our last evening on the island, Rok wanted to go again."Ok, you can go for Whole body Thai massage, but I will stick to the Foot massage," I said. But then he convinced me to try the "real" Thai massage, since it's the only chance I have. "All right, I will try," I gave up. As soon as my masseuse started with the massage, I regretted it. I was sending killing views to Rok and praying for the suffering to end as soon as possible. 30 minutes later I was hurting everywhere. Well, they say, that after the massage it hurts, but then it turns into a great relief. In my case it was just hurting for next couple of days and no relief came :)

Clean and relaxed feet after the foot massage.
We planned to do a hike in the jungle in the middle of the island, to see a waterfall there and to go rowing around the mangroves on the eastern part of the island ... unfortunately we didn't have enough time on Koh Chang, so we weren't able to do all the stuff. Well, I guess we will have to go back one day. May be for our 10th anniversary? :)

Katarina

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