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Published: December 17th 2006
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Do you think we have been in Thailand too long?
Our lovely orange towel/duvets made great monk outfits (sorry to any buddhists reading this) After an emotional goodbye at Phi Phi Hill Resort, including a hug from a staff member for me as well as a gift of a purse made from coconut (possibly out of the lost property box) we made our way to Ko Lanta, our final stop on Thailand's West coast.
Checking into the Pavilion Resort we were pleased to see the place lived up to the brochure we had seen in Phi Phi. Set right on the beach and with a pool, we even managed to do a deal with the hotel which kept us under our 10 quid budget. Ko Lanta has an 80% Muslim population, our hotel was Muslim owned and therefore the owner's religion prevented the serving of alcohol but not the renting out of a patch of the grounds to the Sunset Bar, meaning guests that ate dinner there and had a Singha beer had two bills to pay.
Sunset Bar is run by a Thai diving instructor called Mart and his Chinese wife Adele, the business is new and the owners were two of the friendliest hosts we have met on our whole trip. During one hilarious conversation with Mart we learnt that he
Slow Lanta
London seems even further than 9999km (or 999-Swedish miles) from this sleepy island is a fan of Matt Damon (though was concerned not to have seen him in any films recently) and Ben Affleck ("he has lovely eyes"), but that his favourite actor was Brad Pitt, having followed Brad's career for many years Mart told us that he has a sexy bum which he shows a lot in films and that no matter how hard he has tried to make his bum look the same (through a combination of reading books and exercise) it is very hard for a Thai man...this conversation was concluded by the statement "I am not a gay".
Since we have been in Thailand we have been tempted to visit Muay Thai boxing (like kick boxing, but more violent). Boxing is big here and in most areas we have stayed there have been fights taking place.
We met an English couple from St Albans who had seen some bouts in Koh Phagnan and claimed it was a great night out, so we decided we would go to, though Simon and Sarah were on holiday and therefore bought the 900 baht ringside seats whilst we sat in the cheap seats (sort of a 3 tier scafolding set up
Lets get ready tooooo rrrr rumble
No not a PJ and Duncan concert, but Koh Lanta Thai boxing stadium with wooden planks to sit on).
On arrival we were pleased to see the stadium was filled with more locals than Farang (the Thai name for foreigners) which we hoped would mean the fights were a bit more authentic. The stadium was a bit run down and the air smelt overpoweringly of the Tiger Balm that the fighters bodies were covered in before they parade round the stands prior to their fight so that the punters can decide who to bet on. It was a great experience, especially to see how exicited the Thai families got with every connected punch or kick so we stayed for all 8 bouts and saw 2 knockouts (Matt did anyway, I missed the first as I was in the loo!). We really enjoyed the boxing and when we got back to our room we were a bit giddy and I decided to practice some moves, I am not sure how it happened but I managed to cut my foot - again!
Our stay in lanta has been most memorable for the slow pace of life on the sleepy island and the interesting people we have met. Apart from the boxing and a
Adele, Mart and Chocolate (the cat)
Proud owners of Sunset Bar, a place we spent far too many hours at during our time in Lanta half day tour in Lak's tuk-tuk when we visited the old town and had nice coffee in a renovated chinese opium den, we very rarely left our resort - choosing instead to make best use of our first swimming pool for god knows how long.
As well as Adele, Mart, Simon and Sarah we met a lovely couple called Herb and Ruby who we were wrong to judge as they arrived on our second day. Herb was a tragic entertainer (sort of Richard Wilson meets Paul Daniels) who along with his much younger wife had travelled most of the world and now had a beautiful little girl named Rene, who had a fascination with cats and the balloon animals that Herb constantly kept producing when anybody showed an interest (his attempt at a butterfly looked more like an alien??)
Our last drunken night was spent in the company of 2 swedish couples discussing Sven Goran Erikson and the little known concept of a 'Swedish Mile'. Tobias had spent his entire life believing that a mile was 10km, a strange swedish measurment which Nickolas also had heard of "A swedish mile, simply doesnt exist...... Somebody in Sweden made it
Koh Lanta Sunset
enjoying the view on our most chilled out stop so far up, and everybody believed him....Its crazy"
We retired a little worse for wear, not looking forward to our 7am pick up for the next stop on our island tour, but with great memories of our time in Koh Lanta and more hugs from Adele, Mart and even our new Swedish pals Nickolas and Madeline.
Its been emotional, next stop Koh Samui
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Dan
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Any buddhist who gets offended by that doesn't understand Buddhism. Nice entry.