I arrived in Koh Chang on Wednesday, November 25. I did little exploring here. It is a gigantic island, and while I did hitch a ride to the mangrove forest, I mostly stuck around the fishing village where I did my first "homestay". I would have missed it if not for the Thai couple who gave me a ride 20 km from the ferry pier to the village and spotted the sign (written in Thai). None of the family spoke any English except for the son, Be, who spoke only a limited broken English. I helped in making support beams for a dock and driving them into the muck below the waters surface. Truthfully it may have been the beginnings of a dock or a hut; language barriers prevented any successful communication of exactly what was being constructed. I also went out in the bay, which measured around 1.5 km in radius, to the only structured on the water. It was a raft constructed by the Be and on it was a hut that he built as well. We smoked briefly in the hut, and proceeded to collect mussels attached to the raft and other ropes strung out through the bay.
This was all a wonderful experience, and very rewarding. Each meal consisted of around six courses, real Thai cuisine comprised mostly of seafood reaped from the ocean only earlier in the day or sometimes the day before; Crabs, prawn, mussels, fish, squid... pork stuffed squid... Mmm.. These were the tastiest three days of my travels to be sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment