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Published: March 31st 2009
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View from our Bungalow
Beach on Thanya resort... The Ins and Outs of Koh Lanta
Getting to the small island of Koh Lanta is not easy, but not too difficult either; just more steps involved. We flew from Bangkok to Krabi the day prior, due to their not being a flight early enough for us to catch the ferry. So, one night in Krabi and first thing the next morning we were on the ferry for our 2 hour trip to Koh Lanta. The ferry was not much of a ferry, but more like a long basic boat with plastic seats loosely bolted to the floor and a roof over-head. The ferry cost about 350 baht each; you can also take a van service if you don’t mind the trip taking a bit longer. If we had looked into this closer, we could have just hopped in a van at the airport and been dropped at our hotel on the island. Oh well…
The island is 30 kilometers long and more our style than Phuket. Much more quiet, less traffic, less people. The majority of tourists are Swedish and we ran into very few Americans. Lots of families with plenty of children 5 and under. We aren’t
Enjoying a smoke
Another day of enjoying the fine art of doing nothing. sure we understand why people bring their small children on vacations with them. Isn’t that what grandparents are for?
We stayed in the north end of the island, near the main town for the first 2 nights at a place called the “Banana Garden Home”. Cute, but too noisy for us. We rented a motor scooter and started to investigate other places to stay. The island is 30 km long and we are near the end of the tourist season so many places were almost empty. Makes it easy to negotiate a better rate especially as we were looking for a place for a week. We moved on down south and found a small guest house across the street from the beach, near the Dreamy Spa, in the Long Beach area. TS Guest House was the name, consisted of 4 rooms and the owner, Don, is very laid back. We got a nice, clean room for only 450 baht a night ($12) and it came with A/C, cable TV and great WIFI that reached in the room. He also has a little community kitchen downstairs for your morning tea and toast. Across the street and about 200 meters in
is the beach where there are several bars/restaurants. We liked the Funky Fish and Mr. Wii's pizza; both had good food and are right on the beach. Also, just 2 doors down from our guest house was a place called “The Tavern” which has a big menu with lots of western food. Great Nachos!!
The day we hopped on our motorbike to find TS Guest House, we also found a really nice isolated place in a small cove, just more than half way down the coast, called
Thanya Beach Resort. We really liked the place but it was a little out of our desired price range. Still, we did give in and stay our second week there after negotiating the rate from 3000 to 1200 baht a night. Boy, are we glad we did. It’s not much of a resort, more like a few deluxe bungalows which look out onto the beach and sea. The owner, Nan, will take care of anything you need, from a motorbike rental to a massage on the beach. She has a very small staff so it’s easy to learn who is who and the place is small enough that it only takes 20
seconds to reach any spot on the grounds. We paid 1,200 baht a night ($35) and it was well worth it. If you want breakfast, it’s just $3 more. This is the perfect place for privacy and a real island experience. The pool is big and WIFI reaches the rooms; plus the restaurant & bar will be up and running full time in a month or two. Currently, they just serve breakfast, but a guy was here this week seeking to rent it out from the owner and turning it into a full-fledged operation. The resort next door has great food if you don’t mind spending some serious baht.
Motor biking around the island is very easy and if you go with a manual shift and get it for the week, you can get one for 150 baht ($5 USD) a day. Automatic shifts will cost more and if you only rent by the day, it will also bring the price up. We rode up and down the island a dozen times and never had any problems with traffic or finding our way around. However, do watch out for the pot holes; the road is in need of repairs in several spots and if you’re not paying attention you may find yourself being tossed off your bike. We strongly recommend keeping a bike the whole time you are here, for it gives you great freedom and lets you see the entire island. The tuk-tuk taxis are expensive and will stop every 20 feet to try and pick more fares. On a hot humid day, dealing with this is no fun; but having the wind blow through your hair and keep you cool while you whiz by on your own bike… much fun.
We didn’t do much in way of recreation here. Did a lot of relaxing and more of nothing. One day we took a snorkel excursion to Koh Roc which is an island popular for snorkeling, great reef. There is a choice of slow boat or speed boat to get there and back. We chose the speed boat. A truck picked us up at our guesthouse and took us to the beach for our speed boat pickup. When the boat showed up we waded out to climb in and surprise surprise!! There were 5 (I counted) 5 babies and toddlers on board. Was this snorkel kiddie day care? Was this a family theme snorkel trip and we missed the memo? So of course the families took up all the room in the middle of the boat with their strollers and baby bags and half the kids spent their time screaming during the trip. Fun, fun, fun.
So, this brings our 2 weeks on the island and our month in the country of Thailand to an end. Tomorrow morning we catch the van service to the airport in Krabi and our flight to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We will spend the next 3 weeks working our way through the country before flying to Siam Reap, Cambodia. There are lots more after that, but that’s as far as we want to think for now.
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Joan
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WOW
I'm looking outside my window at work and it's snowing!!! ICKKKKKKKKKKK!!! Wish I was there!!!