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Published: January 18th 2007
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We arrived on Ko Lanta about 3 hours before sunset. This sleepy little island looks fairly quiet and peaceful from first looks - but once on shore we realize this is finally the Thai island paradise we’ve been waiting for.
We pull up via dinghy to find a huge stretch of pristine white beach with maybe 15 tourists spread out along the sand. There’s one posh resort on the far south end of the beach while everything else opens up to a sleepy little village with a few little beach bars and restaurants scattered along the way. Everyone is in sarongs and swimsuits….and not a shoe to be seen - ahhhhhh…paradise.
We decide to divide and conquer - Ray heads off to look for supplies for the boat….Jay and Scott head for the scooter rentals…and Keely , Karl and I look for, what else, a bar. Actually we’re just exploring but we walk up a hillside road and run across a quiet little shack called “The Shroom Bar”. Well - of course we must investigate….its our obligation you see. A couple of vodka tonics later, we’ve sussed the situation and realize that the name of the bar does in
fact indicate something more than the description of the shack the bar sits under. We’re going to be good ..for now… and we scurry downhill to meet the others at our designated meeting point the “Why Not” bar on the beach. The bar is perfect. All the tables sit low to the ground and you actually sit on the floor covered with woven mats and various cushions thrown about. The whole atmosphere feels very zen-like..and then we start noticing all of the waiters/bartenders are young twenty-something thai men with hair down to the middle of their backs and sporting super-tight fitting hiphugger bellbottom pants made from the wildest patterns. We’ve hit the thai beach stuck in the 70’s and we love it. Most of the music we hear is either Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd or Van Morrison - but the best cd they pop in is called “Bossa n Stones” - a very hip Stones tribute album done in more of a ..yes..bossanova style rhythm with lyrics sung by a woman with the most relaxing voice. I could fall asleep right here!!
Diane kayaks ashore and we all walk down the beach for dinner. By the way - “down
the beach” means about 50 yards at most. We have a lovely beachfront dinner under the stars. Our bartender/drinks waiter “PeDang” (Dang for short) is quite the giggler (and yes - another hippie boy). He tells us to come to the bar after dinner and he’ll make us his special “welcome drink”…uh oh - sounds like trouble. During dinner, we realize Dang is a jack of all trades as we look out onto the beach and he begins to do an incredible fire-dance. He has two balls on the ends of two chains….lites each ball afire and then begins to swing them around - over his head - behind his back - he’s quite good.
After dinner we head over to the bar for our “welcome shots” which end up being a mixture of three or four different liquors with a touch of cobra’s blood mixed in…yes…I said cobra blood. Needless to say - we only had one of those. We make friends with the other bartenders “Ohm and Dah”…..and shot after shot later… everyone heads back to the boat except for myself, Jay and Keely. Once the others are gone… of course Jay wants to check out “The
Shroom Bar” - so we walk up the steps to meet our new bartenders for the night - “M” and “Wood”…who proceed to make us their specialty - “happy shakes”. Well - thirty minutes later and the chocolate banana shakes that seemed so innocent are indeed very happy shakes. I won’t go into it now - but we had a pretty fun little adventure on that island - leading to us trying to find our pre-arranged boat driver “La” at 1am to taxi us via longboat back to our catamaran. What now seems like a simple task getting from shore to ship seemed like a pretty major ordeal at 1am after happy shakes. More on this night in person later!!
All I can say is Ko Lanta is exactly what I dream about when I think of sleepy thai beaches. If I get the pleasure of doing Thailand again- this is a definite stop. I will come back here again.. no question.
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