We arrived in the Island of Ko Chang after a not terribly wonderful journey from Bangkok. We had to get a six hour coach to Trat in the south East, near the Cambodian border, which wasn't that luxurious followed by a truck to the pier. The locals there conned us into getting an expensive speedboat to the Island before embarking another truck to get to our accomodation. The whole journey took 11 hours yet it doesn't look far on the map. After all the hassle and expense of Bangkok, we really weren't in the mood for it. Our initial accomodation was in a quiet area, a bit too quiet as it goes and we only stayed there for a couple of nights. The area was pretty enough but there really wasn't much of a beach and we felt like the only tourists in the area and wooden style bungalow huts really aren't for us (see the photo opposite of where we stayed). Therefore we moved to the main beach, White Sand Beach where we found accomodation right on the beach itself. However, it was pretty tiny with an even smaller bathroom which was further handicapped by awful karaoke shows at the hotel on a couple of nights. The accomodation here is rather expensive and the island seems to cater more for package and richer tourists rather than down at heal backpackers like ourselves. We've realised now that we aren't very good budget travellers and just can't hack basic accomodation for long. It just gets you down as you have no-where to relax and get properly clean. It was a decent enough beach but nothing special by Thai standards and the weather wasn't overly wonderful initially although it did pick up over our last couple of days and was seriously hot. The food was wonderful here but Koh Chang just didn't do it for us in all honesty. Yes, it was sunny, the sea lovely and had a golden beach which sounds like paradise in principle but we just weren't comfortable here. I guess it sounds like moaning but travelling isn't always a bundle of laughs and you do crave some home comforts sometimes and being constantly seen as a cash cow by unscrupulous locals does get you down a bit as you have to be constantly on your guard. The hassles in Bangkok and the Nepal sitaution certainly haven't helped our mood obviously. We hope that Cambodia, our next port of call will bring us some better cheer.