Mylanta its Koh Lanta

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After an excruciating 18 hour push, we arrived to our second island destination, Koh Lanta. Not a whole lot of activity on the island. We found a smart little bungalow and intended on relaxing--something we may be becoming a little too comfortable doing. Ha.

Our days were filled with motorbike rides along the coast. Aaron is learning day by day how to drive a manual. It is about $3 cheaper than automatic, AND uses less gass, so why not? We took some great rides, basically circumventing around the island. If I went over about 20, Ely respectfully gave me a knee to the back. In the southwest corner of the island, we found a nearly deserted rocky little beach. Quite beautiful. Somehow, a little restaurant was perched up against the cliff. Crazy. Renter's insurance must be a real pain.

The next day we visited old Lanta town, where traditional Chinese buildings stood from past Chinese merchant traders. There was also a gypsy village. We drove past it, we saw the occasional palm reader, but didn't really notice anything too gypsy about it. Maybe we just didn't know exactly what to look for.

In the south, there is a definate Muslim influence. The beautiful mosques stand out emphatically, with their white walls and smooth domed tops. In the morning and late afternoon, we could hear what was assumed to be prayers over a loadspeaker. The people also dressed differently. Men had beards and wore the traditional dress and flat cap; women covered up completely, only showing a part of their face.

Our nights were filled with various battles; mosquitos, monkeys, dogs, rats, and geckos; the bigger kind. OK, maybe not monkeys. In Lanta, skeeters tore me apart like vultures. My mosquito net setting skills weren't too refined and holes ran abound in the net. For some reason, Ely tastes sour to the skeeters. They leave her be. When they see an enormous, juicy, pale white thigh, they realize that they are in for a real treat.

The next night we were prepared. We had the staff set our mosquito net properly, we bought incense to repel them, and doused me in OFF. No bites. But, another problem arose. Baby "crocodilers". OK, maybe not crocodilers, but definitely the largest geckos we've ever seen.

Nothing scarier than taking a shower and seeing a large lizard-like creature in the corner showering with you. I thought Ely was being attacked, as she came running out of the shower frantic, yelling, "crocodile" In her out-of-focus and irrational state. Or, walking into your bathroom late at night, half asleep, and seeing a foot long lizard chowing down on your soap bar. Not sure how the soap tasted, but Mr. Gecko got to it several nights. He didn't like when I sprayed him with water. We think he lived in our bugalow too, though he didn't help with the rent. We could hear him, or possibly a monkey, climbing up on top of our roof, making a rapid pitter patter sound as he ascended. Only here could I say, "Ely, check for lizards before entering the bathroom."

There was also a rat possibly scurrying around. Occassionally we would here vicious dogs surrounding us, then a few loud sounds, then some load whimpers. Ely made me investigate. I looked out an initially thought the dogs were monkeys. Hey, we are in the tropics, why couldn't they be? Due to the circumstances, our first judgement of animals here is always bigger, more tropical, and more dangerous than in reality. Maybe it's paranoia induced by the heat.

So we stayed up quite late at night. It felt like the set of Lost at times. I guess it made the experience all the more interesting. We didn't have Animal Planet on TV, but we did experience a few of Thailand's finest exotic dogs and common harmless lizards first hand. On to another island!

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Photos

Our room mate
Really not that small of lizard. Ekk