Category: Koh Chang

On my recent trip to the north east part of Thailand, near Cambodia, in an area called Aranyaprathet, I stayed at a friend’s parent’s place which is being turned into a farm. There they had some puppies born about 10 days before I arrived and this is about those puppies.

One day before I got there one of the puppies had, at night time, fallen off the side of the bridge connecting the house area with the little barn structure intended for future animals and was discovered the next morning. That reduce the number of puppies from 7 to 6. While I was there we heard splashes and fished out three puppies who had also fallen off the side of the bridge. I decided to pick up some logs to put along the edge of the bridge to keep them from inadvertently slipping off and falling in.

The photo below shows the puppy that kept bullying the black and white puppy. I guess you could conclude this puppy would grow up to be very aggressive. But I probably will never know if that’s true since all of these puppies will be given away once they’re two months old.

The photo above shows where the puppies sleep, obviously tick infested. But it is shaded most of the day so it provides a cool place for them to hang out. Ticks were a huge problem with these puppies. Most of them had them all over and one puppy had, as I counted, 13 ticks inside one ear. The goal was to get the right kind of medicine and shampoo that would take care of the tick problem since it was obviously causing discomfort and pain.

But now the puppies are free of ticks and are back into their normal habit of going wild.

In the 1960s after 30 years of cleaning the house, taking care of children and cooking for everybody Mom got tired of doing it. In her mind she had this dream house she would live in where all of these things she did in the past would be secondary to just enjoying life. She described her house on the beach here she would walk in with sandy feet, not cleaning them off, put her feet up on the table and not even think about cleaning up the place.

As she described her small cabin on the beach I had a picture in my mind I created from her description. It had a front door in the middle where you walk into the house, a window on the right for the living room with the rustic furniture, no need to be careful of spilling anything anywhere. Then there was a door on the left leading into the bedroom with the window facing out towards the beach, the same as with the living room window.

While walking on White Sands Beach here in Koh Chang I found the house.

A new development on Koh Chang requires palm trees. This video shows the proper (without red flag?) way to transport them. 

This photo shows this old small truck trying to do the impossible and the wrong way too. The tops should grow back again. Hope the friction on the road doesn’t cause a spark. We passed this truck and waited to take a video of it moving in the village but the truck broke down and needed a tow. 

For many hundreds of years Chinese merchants plied the waters around Thailand and left people and markings to indicate their adventures. Here in Koh Chang there is a Chinese temple on the top of one of the hills currently maintained by the descendants of those traders and new Chinese descendants on and around the island.

In general they are very ornate with all different kinds of animals, especially dragons, and are extremely photogenic.

This island, Koh Chang, derives the name from the shape, similar to an elephant. So at the entrance to the temple you see different elephant decorations.

Various decorations Similar to gates were entrances amplify the significance of ocean views and the importance of the ocean to trade.

At the entrance to the main shrines you often find offerings to the spirits or Representations of important people.

Inside the main shrine there are always overwhelming decorations.

On the grounds you find a variety of small tributary images.

Of course there needs to be some firecracker Launching sites.

As you round the Main shrine corner you might be startled by an emerging dragon. And near the entrance the eyes of the dragon or upon you.

Even if just for the bright colors I like visiting these Chinese shrines and temples.

Day 1  197 km

Paul got up late so we started late but got the 12:45 ferry from Koh Chang to the mainland. 

Once we landed it started to rain; dry season storm. Then harder and harder and harder. Then the wind blew the rain into the shelter. To save documents and electronics we ran for the dock restaurant area. Completely soaked we dried off as best we could, air dry = no dry. We lost an hour. 

Then on to Sriracha. But, wait, late start and sun going down means tough driving. I will explain in another blog.  

To keep from too much unsafe night driving we stopped in Rayong, 2 hours short of Sriracha. Just driving around i spied a Japanese restaurant with only Japanese signage so i expected good Japanese food. It was good. We met some Japanese customers and Asahi Super Dry beer. I never expected to see Japanese businessmen in Rayong. 

After we drove around and found an inexpensive and nice hotel. End of Day 1.  Then we woke for Day 2. See the next blog.

Here are some sunsets from the same place, Chang Bar on White Sands Beach, Koh Chang, Thailand in December 2020.

And last but not lease a time lapse of a sunset.

Before leaving Japan in January I had explained to some friends in Europe my plans to get rid of everything I own except for a backpack and a small case with electronics and computer equipment. They seemed very excited at my strive for “minimalism“. My goal was to never have to be in countries on visas, except for tourism, never own a motorcycle or a car again, relying strictly on public transportation, and not ever accumulating stuff.

On March 24, when I was in Thailand to dive with my godson Dennis, the second generation of our bubbles dive team, the country shut down and I was “stuck“ in Thailand.  In order to stay I was required to first extend my stay here for another month to the middle of May. But when May rolled around and I found the Thai government shutting me out of provinces on lockdown into a province with open hotels every foreigner here found themselves under a general amnesty for the COVID-19 crisis so we didn’t have to do anything with immigration, just stay in place and wait.

I made my way eventually to an island near Cambodia called Koh Chang. But since I decided going back to Japan was not an option and certainly entering the US would be a very bad decision since I really don’t want to be there and the Covid situation is very bad, my only option was to either escape Thailand to Europe or to stay here.  But then Europe went back into lockdown and they gave me only one option, to try to get a retirement visa (one year) for Thailand, i went with the flow. That was successful.

In order to stave off boredom and to enable moving around my best bet was to rent a motorcycle, A 125 cc scooter.  But since I expected my retirement visa to be approved the 3,000 baht a month rental for the scooter seem to be an expensive option. It was more economical for me to buy a used motorcycle and then sell it when I leave. So I did that, further imploding my “ minimalism“.

Sometimes I like buying food on the street or getting some things in the store, mixing them together and making my own food with my own herbs and spices that are specifically beneficial to my health. So I decided to ask for someone selling a used microwave. I found one for 500 baht.  (30 Baht=US$1). And of course with a microwave, cooking at home, I needed plates, some cooking container, some refrigeration containers and some utensils.  Minimalism Imploding more. 

What to do when the sun is very bright and shining down on your head out of the water and in the water? The best solution outside of sun cream which is only partially effective is to have hats, long sleeve shirts (very cool ones) and long trousers (again cool ones).  All are very bright and colorful, a slap in the face at conventionalism and “anti minimalism”. 

So I am now a resident of Thailand and back to living longer-term, The opposite of my goals I stated at the beginning of this diatribe.  Don’t misunderstand me. I have no problems being happy on the beach and being in generally beautiful, warm weather.  But at least for now my goal of detaching from governments, personal transportation equipment and things has been postponed.

Thailand, as in Japan, allows electoral candidates to use trucks with speakers to support candidates. They are very loud!

This is the rainy season in Thailand so we have had a considerable amount of rain but on the average about one hour a day. The last few days have been very sunny without any rain. The ocean has been alive with a very interesting cycle of life and death which I will describe.

First in the cycle was a kind of plankton. When you have large plankton blooms you can have a very magical experience just by going in at night time and waving your hands around. You will see the phosphorus glow given off by the plankton in the water. There are times we have had night dives when we normally take flashlights but when there is a very active plankton bloom the area we sometimes can swim without any flashlight since the activity of the Divers activates the glowing of the plankton and we can see not only where every diver is within a fairly competent distance but also we see other things in the water light it up by the phosphorus glow. We all look like giant Tinkerbells.

 Then came the very tiny shrimp eating the plankton. You could just swish your hands around in the night waters and you would be touching thousands of very tiny shrimp feeding off the plankton. 

Next on the scene where tiny fish coming to feed off the shrimp. Of course some fisherman came as well and captured millions of little shrimp, useful for making shrimp paste for some delicious Thai food.

Following the small fish we had larger fish coming in to feed off the smaller fish.

The next amazing animal we had were billions of sand dollars. During the day or night time you could just put your hand in the sand at any place and you would be scooping up live sand dollars. They were there for only one day and that was two days ago. There are a few left but a little difficult to find.

Next on the scene were medium sized jellyfish, not to mention the very common very very small jellyfish which are abundant in Thai waters. The photo below was taken today. You can see the size of the jellyfish relative to my hand. The tentacles are very thick and gelatinous. I have touched many of them and not a single sting but there is some orange part of the jellyfish inside I would not touch as a test.

So along with mass murder in the ocean there is also very congenial cohabitation of animals. If you ever have the chance to go through a season even just in a beach area as in Thailand you might be lucky enough to see the change in the prevalent animals.