Asia - by Jordi

Jordi here - Kirsten has granted me the temporary and undeserved privelege of covering a couple days of our existence out here. Not to worry, she'll be back soon to cover any gaps I leave in our narrative with her usual charm and style.
So yes, we left Bangkok on a double-decker tour bus. It was nice by Asian standards, meaning that it was intended to be nice and may once have been nice, but everything was a little frayed and our "air conditioning" was a completely insufficient dribble of air out of a few measly vents. Kirsten was roasting, and I was melting the entire drive. We arrived in Trat 7 hours later, where we were hearded off the bus and onto a large ferry for the 20-minute ride out to Kho Chang. The ferry was infinitely cooler than the bus, and it was really fun to stand up in the second level, look out over the ocean, and feel the ocean breeze dry up our sweat.
We arrived at the port in Ko Chang with absolutely no idea where we were going or how to get there. I had picked up a brochure on the boat advertising some luxury condos. The brochure contained a rough 2-inch map of the island which we were using to try to orient ourselves.
When we got off the boat we followed the crowd onto some waiting truck-taxis (trucks with benches installed in the back to cram people onto), headed down the coast and jumped off at a the second beach we saw, the name of which completely escapes me. (I find it really difficult to remember the names of places here, they all kind of sound the same, like Ko Chang, Chiang Mai, Ko Samet, Ko Samui, Kho San, and they all get totally scrambled in my head)
The beaches here are lined with bungalo-resorts, so we walked down to one of the not-too-assuming looking offices to ask about their rates. They gave us a price, about $20 for a basic room or $40 for one with AC. While reasonable compared to US rates, this sounded astronomical after our $10 per night rooms we had had elsewhere, $15 if we were going big. Unable to stomach this cost on our ever-tightening budget, we walked across the street to the "Luxury Guesthouse" advertised there. The rooms, while still $20 per night were at least clean, quiet, non-moldy, and air conditioned. Not wanting to trek any more in the heat, we took the room with plans to find our perfect beachfront paradise the next day.
As planned, we spent the next day going to several other hotels nearby, and discovered to our horror that the first bungalows we checked out were probably the most reasonable in the city! We decided to spend just one more night in the hotel, and rent a motorcycle the next day to explore the island and see what we could find.
The next day we dropped $4 and got a "moto", Asia's ubiquitous 100cc scooter, and spent the day crawling up and bombing down the steepest jungle roads i've ever seen. We had a great time checking out all the nooks and crannies around the island, turning down dead-ending side streets, and testing the off-road limits of the scooter. We found that the beach we had chosen to stay was in fact the nicest, least crowded, most sandy, gasp- most affordable beach around.
That was two days ago, yesterday we spent the day by the beach bouncing on coconut-tree-suspended swings and swimming in the crazy hot water. Our "temporary" little guesthouse has become our permanent residence, and we spend our days looking for food that's not twice the price of food in Bangkok, lazing at the beach, honing our paddleball skills, bronzing, and of course on the internet. Today we're going to rent a kayak and explore some very small islands right off our beach. While this island is beautiful and it is amazing to be out of big cities and by the beach, it is slightly frustrating to be paying more than we're used to for things (but we've become so spoiled by asian prices!) and it makes me realize how ready I am for some waves! I find myself dreaming about the 4-inch ripples that wash up on the beach here. Can't wait for Bali!