Even though our last island was a magical postcard scene come to life, the ocean did not provide the relief from the heat that we needed. There aren't many or really any waves to speak of around these islands so the water is still and shallow, soaking up the sun creating a bath of boiling water. Your typical burning feet sprint across the hot sand does not end in sweet relief at the water's edge, instead we keep running far into the ocean but eventually give up and just sit down in the thigh deep warm water. But now we're on Koh Chang and have a SHADED pool and daily life just got so much better! We can also play a mean game of pool or at least one where I'll probably get most of the balls in.

We found our second favorite Thai restaurant called The Kitchen (no one can beat Binh's Yada Kitchen in Chiang Mai), so we may stay here forever. Bananas in coconut cream is heaven and they make curry so spicy, Ryan struggles through every bite loving every sweaty minute of it. AND the fruit stands are fully stocked with so much mango and our new favorite mangosteen! If you haven't tried it, get to an Asian market to try to find it. Go for the smaller slightly squishy ones and get at least two pounds of them. Trust me. 

Koh Chang is normally overrun with tourists, and the northern end is still quite busy, but the hellish heat and soon to be rainy season have kept most travelers away. We easily fall into a routine of beach workouts, eating well and hanging out with the otherwise bored staff and the grumpy-looking dog Frankie at our bungalow. Nida is one of the staff who happens to share the same birthday with Ryan and although it's a few weeks away, she invites us to her neighborhood for a BBQ Birthday party at her house on Khlong Koi, a remote village on the southern end of the island. That sounds like a wonderful plan to us so we're sticking around. And will someone get all of the tourists off the street please?!

This is a jungle island with some serious mountains making for really really really fun motorbike days. 

I wish I could do justice to the rough steep roads Ryan maneuvered us safely through but these will have to do.

With rainy season comes power outages,  aka romantic candlelit dinners, and finally a cool ocean that's full of waves to play in! This is the best ocean yet! 

One morning after a particularly intense rain, we're in bed doing our morning trolling and we heard monkeys doing their monkey business and banging around on our roof. Ryan and I laughed as some dust from the ceiling sprinkled on him after a particularly loud monkey bang. Within minutes Ryan points to the ceiling where a line is widening between the sheet rock panels. We jump to opposite sides of the room, he out the door, me to the bathroom, as the whole ceiling comes crashing down onto our bed! HA! Did that just happen?! Funny thing is that a few years ago in Philly, the kitchen ceiling of our apartment fell in almost on top of us so this situation isn't new... How many people can say they have had two ceilings fall on them? Strange as that is, we get to work checking that nothing is damaged and cleaning up to move out. I have a hefty bruise on my ankle and since I'm so behind on blog posts, I can tell you it is still healing two months later. We're upgraded to one of the newer rooms and the theories of what happened are flying. Some say monkeys, some say rain, some say construction and one awful person suggested it was the weight of a snake... All is well that ends well but it was an interesting morning. 

Our time on Koh Chang is coming to a close but we have two birthday's to celebrate before we go. We have the whole day to hang out with Nida and her neighbors getting ready for the party tonight. We hit up the market, then head to her village where her neighbors forage through the nearby mountains for wild mushrooms and have a healthy garden. These mushrooms look absolutely crazy and I don't know who goes first when trying out a new kind. With fresh ingredients in hand we start cooking at Nida's house some green curry, mushroom soup and pork BBQ. It's perfect as Ryan loves cooking but hardly gets the chance on the road. All of our Koh Chang buds are there, Cliff, Chris even Steve and Ayala are back from Cambodia to celebrate. Nida's friends from the local dive shop are also fantastic musicians and put on a show. The evening is beautiful until the rains come and we all squeeze into Nida's home. Eventually the power goes out and the band strikes up again. Eventually the rains die down and we head to the nearby bungalow Nida arranged for us and we go to bed with swirling breezes all around us. It was an excellent way to cap off our time here with these lovely people.