going, going, going...arriving

arriving to the ocean....
it was a long trip!
we stayed in nong khai for most of the day, wandered around the pathway by the river and found a long local market full of things, clothes, soaps, trinkets, toy stores, herbs, dried fruits and nuts, fresh orange juice...
we booked our bus at a guesthouse, and waited and waited and at 740 pm we left with the owners in a back of a pick up truck with our backpacks and their two dogs barking and running around amongst us....dropped us off at a meetinb point where we boarded one of the crazy, colorful, decked out, double decker buses that drive from north to south in thailand, dropping you off at khao san road in bangkok. decorated in images and colors outside, we climbed up to the top level and found seats in the very back, which, unfortunately, did not recline (the bus is touted for the seats ability to be nearly like a bed)....they put on the most horrible action movie we've ever seen, dubbed in english with thai subtitles, with the worst voice over that i think is possible, with the speakers right over our heads! it was a nightmare. they played another movie after, but luckily the sound was not working. our driver was quite fast, passing big trucks and other buses, and we arrived in bangkok at 4:30 am. at this point we were greeted by a host of tuk tuk and taxi drivers. we bargained with one for about 10 minutes but he would not go down in price, we ended up paying 250 baht for a ride to the eastside bus station, which seemed like way too much, and cruised with him through the streets of dark bangkok at 5am, an hour, which luckily, is not yet plagued by traffic. we got to the bus station and were in time for the 6am bus (i know, when has anyone been on time for a 6am bus?!) to trat, and we sat on that thing for 5 hours and semi-watched a thai-dubbed computer pirated version of pirates of the caribbean three, tried to sleep, and then read more of harry potter 5 (these books start to get really great around book 5!) we arrived near trat and hopped on a 10-person full pickup truck taxi for another 20 km to the ferry dock, took a 25 minute ferry ride across the water, landed on koh chang and took another pick up taxi ride for another half hour around the west side of the island curvy roads and little tourist settlements to arrive.....ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

what a relief. if was so much constant travel and movement for hours and hours, overnight, with no sleep really. we stayed at treehouse 1 last night, a great setting at the end of a dirt path in lonely beach, with a huge restaurant/hang out area built on wood and bamboo platforms extending out over the ocean with views of the islands and the water. our friends mike and rachael found us in the afternoon (yay! so good to see them again!) and we hung out for a while and made little clay sculptures with some modeling clay they brought. carson and i watched the sunset and ate fresh grilled barracuda (really good!) corn on the cob....we slept in a bamboo hut with a loft and a hammock outside that proved to be very loud, as lonely beach is quite the party zone. luckily i had earplugs and carson can turn his head and sleep on his good ear, so we slept well and feel much better today! we are heading to long beach, where mike and rachael are, and will be without internet for a few days there, so just wanted to say hello and let you all know we made it safely to the ocean, finally! :)

melissa