Scoot-Scoot Sisters in Thailand.

You know you are living life right when you change into a still salty swimsuit before even meandering down to breakfast. A wooden table perched on the upper deck of a small neighboring restaurant provided a glimpse of the sea (and limitless cocoa and pineapple) which was fine in my book. After breakfast, I caught Clem by the pool, who had rented a scooter to find a bungalow where she could spend the rest of her week in Koh Chang. We said our goodbyes and promised visits if we were in each other's neighborhoods. I'd love to visit Spain and let Clem know I'd send her a message if I was in her neck of the woods. 9:00 AM seemed the ideal time to park it on the sugar sand and meet some hermit crab friends before Laura and her other teachers would be arriving. I poked around at the little bistro type restaurants that stretched across on side of the beach and opted to camp out in the opposite and commercially abandoned side of the beach, by a little islet that was cut by a deep channel before the ocean shallowed out on a sandbar. It was gorgeous which was good, because I was dying for Laura and her little entourage to finally get here. 

I got antsy and decided to wait by the hostel's pool and before I knew it, there they were! Aw, sisters in Thailand. The girls got all checked in and I gave them the grand tour; Adorable hostel, cute pool, rad music playing, shaded 1 minute waltz to the beach, then paradise itself. They were tickled. And on the calendar? Nothing but sun and sand. We all made camp at the deserted side of the beach where we collected sand dollars galore and McKenzie and Kelsi (Laura's little group of 3 she's been partial to since Day 1 of teaching) filled me in on who was who. It was a delight to put a face to the names I've been reading/hearing about for the past semester. 

You can only take so much sun before rinsing off and keeping your salt swirled curls while you search for dinner; and we were in luck. The 7-11 (a favorite haunt) had the cutest little kabob lady right there which you just can't say no to. Royally purple cabbage, crisp cucumber and pops of orange carrot kept things fresh, a spicy sauce mellowed out by a creamy mayo smoothed over the crunchy ends of the shaved spit of chicken all wrapped in a blistered tortilla type wrapper. Addicted to Thailand's Kabobs at first bite.

We wouldn't dream of missing the sunset so it was back to the beach before getting dinner (more curry please!) at our breakfast place and staying up late (poolside of course) that evening before planning on Sunday's itinerary: scooters.  

Pinapple, toast, cocoa, noodles and repeat was breakfast before hopping 2 to a scooter ($3 each) for the whole day. Zoom, zoom and Laura and I were off, zipping passed roadside signs, brightly colored in Thai, down steep (crazy steep) and windy jungle roads, blitzing past 7-11's and a Chinese Temple. The wind that whipped our hair drowned out our conversation, meaning I could really catch up on who was who. We all stopped to fill up on water and ice creams at Sevey before finding another good beach. We turned down narrow roads to find a red sand beach which was good, but we were looking out for something...something else. When peeking down a sharp dip down (which was actually a road) a man in a truck pulled us over and said "If you have fear, do not go. But it is a beautiful beach." That was our something else. Leaning back and heavily on the brakes, Laura and I made our treacherous way down a pothole riddled road that spilled out into a pool of asphalt, creating a break in the jungle. Then, a little path opened up to my favorite beach to day. 

Koh Chang's white sand beach is just everything you wanted. Fringed with dense greenery, glittering waters seamlessly melted into truly sugar sandy shores. We all bought tons of these elephant printed tapestries to nap on before venturing out to find lunch. Hopping on scooters let us find a noodle house (Pad See Ew, always) right next to passionfruit and mango smoothies for around $1.50. Have I already mentioned how perfect this day has been so far? We ventured into a bayou-like Lagoon before going to our beach for the sunset..then off to more food.  A long scoot back to the food street let us walk down while drooling and wanting to taste all the things. 

Smoky stalls swirling woks full of thick noodles and oyster sauced vegetables, kabobs studded thick with chicken and vegetables, quail eggs carefully cracked and skewered, noodles swimming in a soup  — sold in bags, mind you...oh, and ice cream. We fell in love with this lady who made massive amounts of Pad Thai for around $1 and we made short work of it and got more smoothies on our walk back, of course. Next up was shopping; discovering last minute trinkets the teachers were collected before going back home. After things stated closing down, me, Laura and Kenzie piled on one scooter (Asian Style) and I held on by my legs, laughing the whole scoot home which didn't stop once we got to the pool to talk and laugh some more. Not bad, Thailand. Not bad at all.