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Published: September 15th 2012
The journey to Koh Lanta was relatively simple when you compare it to a couple of the dodgy boat crossings we'd had getting to other Thai islands. Koh Lanta is so close to the mainland that you can get there in a minivan with a couple of very short car ferry crossings. You seem to see the strangest things when on the roads in South East Asia, this time it was a small tomb mounted on the back of a flat bed truck. It seemed to be following us too, slightly unnerving.
About half an hour into this journey, the driver got a phone call (not unusual in itself, they are always on the phone!) but this time, he pulled over and came back and knocked on my window, asking me to open it and handed me the phone, it was our hotel in Krabi informing us we had left James’ phone behind. IT wasn’t an option to go back, so we put our thinking caps on and said we would get back to her!
We'd booked ourselves into a beach bungalow in a place called Long Beach and it ended up being the nicest bungalow of the trip
so far. It wasn't really any plusher than the ones we'd stayed at before, just a lot more thought had gone into the extra little things that might come in handy in a bungalow, Mosquito coils and nets, torch, umbrella etc. It was right on the lovely quiet beach! A bargain at 9 pounds a night!
It was of course rainy season when we were in Koh Lanta and it did little else other than rain. Still it wouldn't have stopped us going in the sea but for the other effect rainy season has on Koh Lanta. During rainy season the currents in the sea around the island change and as a result rubbish ends up being washed up on the beaches, loads of it.
When we arrived it was sunny so we got ourselves straight onto the beach, a massive stretch of long empty white sand and we thought we'd hit the jackpot. That was until we looked a bit closer, and saw the piles of plastic of all kinds being washed up. We managed a quick paddle and that was it. Gutted. In order to walk any further down the beach we had to wade through
a waist height river, fast flowing and increasing with the tide!
After our first stint on the beach, it started to rain…and never really stopped! We spent pretty much all of our time there relaxing on the little veranda and reading a few books, there wasn't really anything else to do. Ko Lanta is the only place we have been when low season really means low season!! Most of the bars and restaurants were closed, we were the only people on the beach and even the hotel restaurant closed at 9. Not that we were too bothered, the place was lovely, such a shame about the beach though.
After some inspired thinking, we got in touch with the hotel in Krabi and asked them to put the phone in a mini bus heading for Ko Lanta, this got to us the next day and only cost 2 pounds…crisis averted!
Ko Lanta is beautiful and in high season it must be fantastic, although unfortunately we wouldn’t have been able to afford our beautiful accommodation and maybe
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