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Published: February 23rd 2010
Scott had had his heart set on doing some deep sea fishing for months so after some research we settled on Surasak fishing tours. We decided to spend the extra baht and go on the full day Sail fishing trip as Scott had high hopes of reeling in the big one. We were picked up at our hotel and proceeded to the pier at 8.30am. The boat we were on did not look like the boats in the brochure, but we let it slide and looked forward to the adventure. We met a Saudi man called Halid who spoke pretty good english and soon took a bit of a shining to Scott. We trawled behind the boat out of the bay with no luck then did some hand line fishing after lunch, which we found a little unusual seeing as the Sailfishing tour was supposed to be solely for sailfish - Scott couldn't imagine catching one on a handreel without being thrown overboard if it hooked. With only one small Red Groper being caught by a Russian woman, we trawled throughout the afternoon but to no avail. It wasn't until returning to Chalong Pier that we realised we were put on
the wrong boat - as the one from the Surasak brochure went past! So after a discussion with the captain and a few phone calls we all realised that they had amalgamated our Sailfishing tour with the General Fishing tour - because they did not have enough people for the Sailfishing tour itself. Scott was a little disappointed, but they at least refunded us the extra baht so the day was overall a good one still.
The next day we booked in for a speedboat tour of Coral and Raya (Racha) Island to do some of first snorkeling for the trip. The Raya Princess tour was very well organised and the staff made it a very fun day despite there being boatloads of similar tourists at the destinations. Coral Island was worth stopping at to see/do the Para-sailing over the bay and feel the squeaky white sand between your toes, but an hour or two was enough time to appreciate what was on offer. Snorkelling was a little off putting because of hundreds of Jellyfish floating in the snorkelling area, but still nice. Raya island was one of the highlights of our trip. It is the picture perfect beach
with one large resort fronting it, cliffsides around the cove, turquoise water and sand so white you needed sunnies to keep from going blind! We hired deckchairs for 200 baht each for the whole day, and just soaked in the surroundings before another snorkelling adventure in a neighbouring cove. This was Annie's favourite beach after seeing many more in the days to come.
After a few days in Phuket town we decided to head off to Ko Lanta to spend the few days over Valentines day. We stopped at Phi Phi on the way and very nearly stayed there for a night, the cliffs and bays were amazing as our boat sailed by, but the high cost of accomodation and the packed beaches put us off. We didn't have accommodation booked at Ko Lanta, but during our boat ride there we organised to get a free lift to the Blue Andaman Lanta Resort. The gentlemen offereing us the ride rang through to make sure that there were some beachfront bungalows available and also told us the cost. However, upon arrival, we were shown to one of the bungalows towards the back of the resort for the same cost as
a beach front bungalow. When we mentioned that we were told a different price the guy got really aggressive and told us to 'go away then'. We immediately set off, not wanting to stay at a resort with such rude staff, and found a nice lady with a taxi at the next hotel dropping off about 6 backpackers. She spoke good English and had about 50 brochures on her back seat. she said that for 50 baht each she would take us to any of the hotels we wanted, and assured us she didnt work for comission when we asked. We checked out a fancy resort first, but after a quick look at the rooms (only the ones way off the beach) and the crowded pool we decided to move on to another hotel. The nice lady suggested the Hotel Darawadee as an option because it was a smaller resort. She even rang through to make sure there were rooms available when we asked. The hotel Darawadee is very much like a western hotel in layout, two story concrete block, but the deluxe rooms with terrace had a fantastic view of the beach and sunsets, and overlooked the pool. The
receptionist there quoted us $2500 for a delux room, and $1500 for a standard. We thought that this sounded a little steep for Klong Khong Beach, but we figured that it must be because it was right on the beach, and after a day of hassles we just wanted to get it sorted. We paid for 3 nights and even gave the taxi lady 300 baht instead of 100 because she was so helpful.
Unfortunately (and I dont really like to 'bitch', but I think that future travellers should be aware), on the second day, when perusing some brochures the hotel staff gave us for our next accommodation in Railay, we came across a current pricing list for the Darawadee hotel, offering deluxe rooms for 1500 and standard for 800. When we asked the lady she blew u at us, screaming at the top of her voice and probably scaring her customers at the same time, that we paid commision to the taxi. After an hour of getting nowhere we headed to the police station to try and sort the situation out. Long story short the lady in the taxi had rung through and told the hotel to charge
us an extra 1000 Baht (we ended up being $100 out of pocket from the ordeal) a night for leading us to the hotel. We perfectly understand the whole commission deal with most of the taxi drivers, but we felt we did the right thing by both paying for a taxi ride and asking about the whole commission deal. We could not get out money back because no one seemed to know who the taxi lady was (even though they were paying her commission) and we later found out that locals were unwilling to name those working for commission as they are often in with the mafia which can result in in severe repercussions. Still, I would recommend anyone thinking of staying at the Hotel Darawadee to dismiss the idea entirely.
The island Ko Lanta itself is a brilliant island to visit. It has a vast range of activities to occupy most travelers while not being overcrowded or overpriced like other islands in the area. We went on another snorkling trip to Koh Rok (which was brilliant, so many fish, but like our other snorkling trips in Thailand all the the coral is dead) and went to the Thai
national sport of Muay Thai. We had front row seats to the match and it was definitely an eye opener to how brutal the sport can be, with two knockouts out of six bouts.
My favourite day on Ko Lanta was definitely Valentines day. Scott hired a motorbike for $8 a day, packed us a picnic lunch, and we headed off to the bottom of the island to have out picnic at the lighthouse. We didn't actually make it to the lighthouse (it was in a national park with the worst road... a rather memorable experience of me sliding of the bike while going straight up a hill and having to run after a bike through 30 cm of thin brown dust) but we found the most pristine secluded beach to have our lunch so it was such a glorious day. I love hiring a bike and riding along the coast so it was definitely one of the highlights of my trip 😊
We also hit Railay and Ao Nang for a few days, and this was definitely a stop I would recommend for most travelers passing through. We didn't do the climbing (The main reason people make
the trip to Railay) and opted instead for a private longtail boat ride around all the islands which was definately worth the baht! We again packed a picnic lunch for us and our boatman 'man', and sailed around the islands and bays around Railay, including chicken island named for its rock formation like a chicken head, and Ko Poda. Because it was a private boat ride we were able to pick which islands and bays we wanted to go to or how long we wanted to stop for. We even had our own snorkeling gear hired so we could just jump off the boat to swim with the fish anytime we wanted.. Definitely recommended!
Finally we hit Patong Beach for out last night in Asia before our 9pm flight home. We managed to spend the last of our baht on an intense shopping day and got some great bargains. We landed in Sydney on Saturday 20th February at 10am and have spent the last few days in Sydney. I'm heading back home from Sydney soon so can't wait to catch up with everyone!
We both had such a blast on this holiday and would definitely recommend S.E. Asia
as a great travel destination! Thanks!
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