Koh Chang

20th April 2007

We hired a jeep today to explore the island. The side we are on, the West, is the most developed side so we were looking forward to seeing the East coast and what it was like. Unfortunately you cannot drive around the whole island as the town Bang Bao in the South West side has been stopping the development from going any further as they get all the business at the moment as it is as far as you can go. There is about 500m of unpaved track between. The road just literally ends. To see the other village the other side you have to drive North around the whole island, which we did.

We decided to do some ministry along the way so went prepared with some leaflets and brochures. Wherever we stopped we gave the Thai people a leaflet. The great thing was - nobody said no to us!! We stopped at Funky Huts for their 'world famous burger' for lunch. The place is run by an English guy from the Lake District so we were able to have a nice chat with him and left him a purpose brochure which we said he would be pleased to read.

The East coast was totally undeveloped with only a couple of places to stay and no towns really just a few fishing villages. The people live very poorly in huts and shacks but are some of the happiest we have seen. It really is 'the land of smiles' - Siam.

It was lovely to explore properly and Nick really enjoyed getting behind the wheel again. We made the most of it and went to the book shop in Lonely beach and then took the girls for an ice cream in Bang Bao which is a fishing village in the South. It is mostly built out on the water with narrow walkways between the huts and little shops and restaurants. We wondered how many people fall in!!