Ko Lanta

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10th Jan: I was up fairly early as I was leaving Ao Nang today. I wish the weather had been better and that I could have explored the area some more, but I guess that wasn't too be on this trip. I was taking the boat to Ko Lanta and my pick-up was arranged for 9:40 am. That came and went and I was still sitting there. The people who were getting the minivan to Ko Lanta were picked up at 10 am, and I was still sitting there. I was coming to regret my decision to take the boat. The poor guys on reception called the travel company a few times and kept telling me that they were on their way. Finally, well after ten the driver turned up. There were a few people already in the big tuk-tuk thing and a couple of others, who must have been staying nearby jumped in, too. Then we set off. The driver drove like a bat out of hell! I was well impressed with his speediness, but did fear for my life at times, especially when we were going round corners. When we arrived at the ferry terminal I found out the reason for his haste, all the other people in the tuk-tuk were heading to Koh Phi Phi and their ferry was about to depart. I got off and was told to get back in the tuk-tuk, as my ferry was departing from elsewhere. It was about a fifteen minute drive away, at a much slower pace.

I thought that my ferry was due to leave at 11, but found out it was 11:30. Great! More time sitting around doing nothing. the ferry journey was pretty smooth and took more than two hours. I sat inside the whole time and watched the world go by. We passed some beautiful looking islands and stopped to let people off. Maybe next time, I can stay somewhere like that. Eventually, we arrived at the pier in Ko Lanta, where we were greeted by officials demanding money. We had to pay, I think 20 baht, as a fee to enter to the island to keep the place clean. I know it's only 20 or so baht, but still it feels like another way to squeeze some more baht out of the tourists. Surely they could have just included this in the price of the ferry ticket. It was a bit of a ballache to get a tuk-tuk, as they wanted too much. When I told them how much I wanted to pay they said I would have to share, fine by me. I got a tuk-tuk with a couple, who were staying two minutes down the road. It was about a 15 minute drive to my hostel. I was staying at Metallic Hostel. The owner Sun was awesome! So kind and friendly, pointing out the good, cheap places to eat and get laundry done. While I was checking in I booked an island tour for the next day.

After getting myself sorted, I decided to head over to the beach. It was getting late in the afternoon, but there was still plenty of time to enjoy the beach. It took less than ten minutes to walk to the beach and I stopped off to drop my laundry in at the place Sun recommended. The beach was so much nicer than Ao Nang, it seemed to stretch forever. It was quiet, there was plenty of room to spread out, unlike the sea of bodies that was Ao Nang. And another bonus, there were bars and restaurants directly on the beach. Since I hadn't had any lunch I decided to head to one place for some food. I ordered an iced coffee and a bowl of Tom Kha Gai and made use of the wifi while I waited for it. I love that pretty much all cafes and restaurants have free wifi here, rest of the world please take note. After chilling in the restaurant, I summoned up the energy to move the three paces to the beach. I sat chilling there, watching the world go by. I had a little dip in the sea and then watched the sunset. It was gorgeous! I especially loved the sailing boats going past.

I went to get some money changed, €40 doesn't buy you many Thai Baht. I used the money to pay for my mini-van trip to Penang that I would take the day after tomorrow. That was all the euros gone. To console myself I bought a beer, the beers at this hostel are good value, not a rip-off like the place in Ao Nang. I sat and read since I wasn't feeling too hungry. I got hungry around 9 pm and went to the restaurant across the road that had been recommended by Sun. The restaurant was packed, but I managed to get a table out the front. I ordered chilli and Thai basil mixed seafood with rice. It was cheap, only around 60-80 baht. It was delicious, I think this is the spiciest meal I've had so far on this trip. The dish had a really nice kick to it, this helped the beer go down quicker, too.

11th Jan: I was up early as I was off on a tour today. This hostel is great coz breakfast is included, so I had some coffee and toast, while I waited for my pick-up. It eventually came and we picked up some more peeps before driving for a good while to where we would catch the boat from. There were quite a few people there and we had a bit of a walk down the pier to reach the boat. I think there must have been about 30 of us on the boat. It was pretty big and even included a toilet, what a luxury! I think I was the only solo traveller on the boat. Because the weather and the sea had been a bit shitty lately, it was better that I was on a bigger boat. Luckily, the sea wasn't too rough as we pulled away from the jetty.

We spent a couple of hours cruising along. We did pass a few other tour boats, but it wasn't too crowded. We came to some islands/rock formations. Are they really islands? I don't know coz it's not like there was land where people could inhabit or even stand. However, at Ko Cheuk, there were few other boats and the sea was quite rough. So the boatman nixed the idea of us snorkeling there as there were quite a few children on the boat. We kept moving and he found us a safer spot, where the sea was a lot calmer. We had about 30 minutes to snorkel there. It was okay, but there wasn't too much to see. For me it was just good to practice snorkeling again as I couldn't remember the last time I had done it. We then went to another snorkeling spot that was closer to some island. The snorkeling was a lot better there and I got see loads of pretty fishies. I think everyone on the boat was happier with the second snorkeling spot. Kudos to our boatman for really trying to give us a good experience.

By this point it was lunch time and we were right by the island where we would have lunch, Ko Kradan. This place is popular for all the day trippers to come to for lunch and I can see why, it is gorgeous! The beach is long and thin, the sand golden and the sea blue, there are also loads of longtail boats moored along the beach. It definitely looked like an ad for Thai tourism. Lunch had been brought on the boat for us, we had rice, curry, stir fried veggies, and omelette. I had worked up an appetite with the snorkeling and devoured my plateful, luckily it was a self-service style buffet so I could have seconds. It was fairly simple food, but it was done right and really tasty. We had some free time after lunch to chill on the island, so I spent most of my time taking pictures of the longtail boats. I really was in a tropical paradise. I also had a little splash about in the sea, when a group of girls from my boat had finally finished posing for photos in the small stretch of water. Some people are just so vain, enjoy the experience for what it is, rather than concentrating on getting the perfect shot of yourself rant over!

Back on the boat we were heading to our final destination of the day, Emerald Cave. The boat pulled up to what just looked like a big rock, aka Ko Mook. I could just make out the opening in it because so many people were coming in and out of it. Our guide had distributed life jackets and advised that even if we were good swimmers we should wear one. I jumped into the water and instantly kind of regretted getting a life vest. Since they make you float, you can't swim very fast. We re-grouped at the entrance to the cave. Our guide had a torch to lead the way through. It was pretty dark, but the torch from our group and those of the other groups made it easier to get through. Although because there were so many people it was a bit of a clusterfuck with arms, legs, and bodies everywhere. It only took a couple of minutes to see the opening on the other side. Since there were waves leading to the beach inside the cave, we had to wait and time it right so that we didn't get pulled back.

it was amazing stepping out of the sea onto this small secluded beach with big tree covered cliffs all around us. Our guide had brought all our cameras in a dry bag for us. Since I had only brought my phone, my pictures weren't that good. In Thai, this place is called Morakot Cave, but locals call it Tam Nam. There was an information board on the beach, which gave a brief history of the cave. The entrance is about 80 metres long, I wonder who discovered it, I would be too chicken to go through it myself. Locals first came there for birds' nests as there were lots of swallows there. Pirates also used the cave to hide their treasure. Because the beach is enclosed by the steep cliffs, there wasn't a lot of sunlight. After a few minutes, I started to get pretty cold. Our guide explained that the cave is called Emerald Cave because the water turns that colour. Unfortunately it wasn't playing ball today, so we didn't see how spectacular it could look, however it was still beautiful. On the swim back through the cave, I went a bit rogue, most people were going too slow, so I got ahead, so that I could have a nice float in the sea, when we got back to the other side. From the cave, it took around an hour for us to get back to the port.

It was well after five by the time I was dropped back at the hostel. I headed straight down to the laundry place to pick up my clothes and then went to the supermarket to get a snack as I was feeling pretty ravenous. The hostel has a nice roof terrace on the first or second floor, so I sat there and enjoyed the sunset. Parts of the sky turned a beautiful shade of pink, it was gorgeous. Since I'd had a bag of crisps I wasn't feeling too hungry so had another beer. Eventually around 9 pm, I went for something to eat. I seem to eat late in Ko Lanta. I had wanted to go back to the place from the night before, but from my spot on the balcony I could see that there were no tables available. Instead I went to a little place just a couple of doors up. I know people always say go to the busy places as they are obviously popular for a good reason, but I tend to like the quieter ones. I picked a place, where I was the only customer. Unfortunately more people did show up not long after me. I had a shrimp Pad Thai, which was really good. Since this was my last night in Thailand and I wanted to use up some more of my Thai baht, I had some banana fritters for dessert, they were yum.

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Photos

Restaurant with a View
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Sunset
Long Beach

Longtails
Ko Kradan

Longtail
Ko Kradan

Lunch Spot
Ko Kradan