I found an online guide to Koh Chang waterfalls – did I already mention Koh Change is a very mountainous island? We visited two of them in the last two days.

The first was Klong Plu Waterfall – Walking the 2 mikes up to the waterfall was quite an effort in heat, but totally worth it. We did it twice (!) because the first time we walked up to the trailhead the National Park was closed by the time we got there. On Sunday we tried again and finished the 1/3 mile trek in the woods – very hot – and were rewarded by a lovely tall (165’) and skinny waterfall with a great, cool swimming pond. We were in the water pretty quickly – I loved it and got a kick out of the large, black fish swimming right along with us! Initially there were just a few people there but it got a bit crowded after a while. Unfortunately almost everyone spoke Russian so not much of a chance to enjoy sharing touring stories. It was a lovely visit and we walked back for even more exercise!

Yesterday, Monday, we decided to go to a waterfall in Klong Son close to where the ferry dropped us off. It was described as have 10 tiers with pools below most of the tiers so we grabbed a truck-taxi (you sit in benches in the back of the pick-up) and headed north on the hilly, windy road. Our taxi took us all the way up the secondary road (4 miles?) and we arranged for him to come get us in 3 hours.  We walked up to the home-stay building toward the path to the waterfall where we saw a rope across the entrance and a sign that said closed! We had heard that that there might not be much water but thought the hike in the forest would be nice anyway so since there was no one around to talk to we just ducked under the rope and started walking. 

What a great place to be! We surprised a couple from Spain at the first pool and talked a while and otherwise had the waterfall/pools/streams to ourselves. We climbed on and over rocks, up steep hills to get to the next pool and swam in the largest and kept going. 

We returned about 15 minutes early and while waiting for our ride a dutch couple joined us – they had their own rental car and were just starting to explore. After they left for their hike we started walking toward town figuring we’d meet our taxi on the way. We kept going and ran into another elephant ‘farm’, and finally got a ride from another truck just into town and later the Dutch couple gave us a ride back to our resort.

Today we move from our 4 day stay at Bhu Tarn Resort to another resort further south. We liked it but it’s time for a change. Here’s last nights sunset and the floating bridge we used to get to our resorts restaurant and the beach!

Not much to report – we aren’t motivated to return to places we visited last time in Thailand so are enjoying the relaxation here on the beach (or near it) in the 2nd largest island of Thailand. But it’s hard to tell that it’s large because most of it is mountains and we’ve only traveled along the edge of one side so far. (The road doesn’t go around the island. )

Today we are heading to one of the nearby waterfalls – starting to get adventurous again!

On our first full day at the Katcha Hotel we walked along the White Sand beach area of this very large island of Koh Chang from beginning to end – maybe a mile or so walking in the sun and water. We’d just jump in to cool off. Then swam in the hotel pool, read… tough life!

Yesterday the 15th was our snorkeling  trip day. We woke to thunder and prediction of rain, but tickets were non-refundable so we got on a back of a truck  for transportation up and down mountains (whee?) to the marina at the other end of the island. After boarding the boat we waited another 45 minutes  for others to join us while it rained. We stayed pretty dry until everyone was on board and we were on our way. Then the rain really came down and the canopy didn’t help much. But Dirk and I covered ourselves the best we could and weren’t too worse for wear during the hour and a half trip to the first island. (I actually fell asleep at one point!)

The snorkeling was pretty good – a lot of fish and pretty coral but the sea was a bit murky. We stopping at a small regional park to have a walk in the sand and then to another nearby island which had a lot of fish! At one point there was a school of triangle fish – about 50 in a 2-3 rows, just maintaining their position – weird and wonderful. I should try again to learn to use an underwater camera! Then we headed back, stopping once more but the seas wasn’t clear enough to stay very long.

We also enjoying chatting with some other snorkelers (who spoke English that is) – 3 folks from France and a man and his very active son from Denmark.

We bought tickets to take us from Siem Reap to the island of Koh Chang – one ticket included traveling to the island in Thailand once we crossed borders – great idea! Not so good in reality – it was a very long, hot day with our tour managers not communicating with each other and many delays. But we finally made it to our hotel, about 12 hours later! The last photo is from the beach where we are finally having dinner.