The Amazing Race

Right after we were done at the royal palace we hailed a cab and had it take us to the sky train. We had all divided up into smaller groups so we could all fit into cabs. We left at different times. My group had 3 other people in. I felt like I was in the Amazing Race. We all were headed for the same place and it was a question of who would get their first. We all had the same directions but had to figure it all out on our own. It was exciting!
The cab we got was super small. We sat with most of our stuff on our laps....But it was ok. It wasn't too far. Just 4 kilometers. We got to the sky train and got tickets and got on the skytrain. Where we met one of the other groups. It was like ending up on the same train in the Amazing Race and meeting the competition. Only not really, but I kinda felt like it was.
We took the skytrain past the "Outback SteakHouse" and to the bus station. We just missed the 11am bus so we had to wait til 12:3o. But it gave us time for lunch. The bus ride was about 5ish hours. It took us to Trat where we took another taxi to the pier to get a ferry to Kho Chang. We all squished into this little taxi bus like a rot dang to get to the pier. The ferry had just come in so we got on it and took our final major transportation of the day to get to Kho Chang.
We got on Kho Chang and had to take another taxi to the hotel. It was a pickup truck with seats in the back and this island is all hills...so it had a bit of hard time getting up the hills, but we made it. :) We got to our hotel....and checked in. Which basically included having someone give us our keys. There was no lobby or front desk....it was an interesting place and definitely not worth $40 a night! We booked two nights there before we came so we would have a place to go to. Oh well....we moved to another place after two nights. This new place...has free wi-fi and is wonderful! And 1/2 the price of the other one. :)
I've been just relaxing and hanging out at the beach. I found my "happy place"! It is under a palm tree in the late afternoon laying on my $3 beach mat watching the sun go down. It is wonderful. And they have swings on the beach. Huge rope swings with wooden seats that swing high! So so fun!! :)
It's a nice vacation and so relaxing. I'm not sure how anyone can jump into a rural village after this! Should be interesting.
I'll be on Kho Chang (Elephant Island) til Wednesday and then Wednesday night we are all taking the night sleeper train back to Chiang Mai. Then on Friday we head to the hill tribe villages!
Good bye for now!