Glamping in Koh Chang, on the cliffs

So we ticked the first thing – getting a bike – off our checklist. We wore helmets for the first time and made our way to the south. The road was good, with just a few steep windy hills, little traffic, and cautious drivers. It was a good half an hour drive and we both got sunburnt. The second thing we checked off was glamping in Koh Chang! (To read how we got there from Bangkok, click HERE.)

First impressions?

We drove past what felt like 5,000 Tescos, 6,000 Big C’s, a million Makro’s, several Formula 1 racecourses, and all these russian signs, which really made us question whether we were in Koh Chang or the city centre of Pattaya. You can probably tell – Koh Chang is very modern. There are no F1 tracks though (duh!), but there are hair salons, SPAs, ATMs, boutique coffee shops, diving shops, tree climbing playgrounds, pizzerias, and even a gym.

We arrived at the Cliff Cottage resort, and it had both the cliffs and the view! It was pretty perfect, as we enjoyed uninterrupted 1^st class view of the sunset… from our tent. That’s right, there were no chubby red lobsters blocking the view, and we could listen to waves crashing into the cliffs.

Our day can be kind of summed up in three words: beers, hammock, chilling. As soon as we checked in, we were taken over by the nothingness around the resort and we just chiiiilled. We sat on a beautiful wooden terrace. Just that. And when the sun went to bed we did, too. It wasn’t as hot as we thought it would be, we only had the fan on low speed for the first half of the night, and no ants or mosquitoes got inside.

The next morning we enjoyed the sunrise. It’s interesting that here in Thailand you only get a few minutes to see the beautiful orange sun in the morning, as it goes up to its bright yellow almost in an instant. Then we drove to Siam beach resort in the northern part of Lonely beach. I say it as if we knew where we were going – we were just slowly cruising the streets looking for decent coffee places. It’s not that easy in the morning, apart from larger resorts. We had 3 nice coffees, and stayed there from 8.30 to 11.30. Food wasn’t an issue as we still had a few sandwiches that we packed from home 😀 As vegetarians, we’re always paranoid whether we’ll find any food. I don’t just mean tasty food, literally any food.

Quick swim, and a realisation that we were already sunburnt. We should have learnt by now that tree shade on the beach doesn’t count as protection from the sun… We drove further north and went to another random resort – Siam Cottage, which had a beach strip, with swings and hammocks, which is pretty common almost in every beach. A delicious Panang curry as well as tempura vegetables were only 90 baht each while the soft drinks and beers had 7-11 prices!

We then went to a café and killed about half an hour enjoying a fresh mango smoothie. If it wasn’t for the beer-after-5PM-law, we wouldn’t have had this awesomeness haha. Things you do to get a dark beer.

Back at the Cliff Cottage we chilled out on our terrace until the sun vanished behind the clouds and the moon showed its skinny smile. We watched the stars and snugged into the tent. There was a storm on the other side of the island, and we could hear the distant thunders and glimpses of lightning reflected on the scattered clouds. The sound of soft raindrops falling onto the tent slowly lulled us to sleep. I love rain.

Random observation: the very second the sun sets, mosquitoes and bats come out to hunt for food, and when the sun rises – flies get up, but I think mainly to annoy people, not to hunt for food.