Beautiful beaches, friendly people, tasty food and good times - leaving Thailand on a high

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After the madness of Phi Phi we needed to relax, unwind and get away from the party scene, as well as restore our faith in the country and its people, so arrived on Koh Lanta hoping to have a nice last few days. Thankfully, it provided just what we needed and having had no real expectations before we got there, it also surprised us in a good way.

Getting off the boat at the pier there were a lot of taxi drivers and hotel touts vying for our business, and one guy seemed pretty genuine when he told us he had room at his resort on Khong Klong beach which he would take us to for free and it sounded nice so we went with him. We usually avoid touts like the plague but this guy actually came good with his promises and our decision to go with him turned out to be the best thing we could have done. The resort was called Lanta Emerald Resort and was, as he said, right on the beach which looked beautiful when we arrived just as the sun was setting. We got a great bungalow just near the pool (yes it even had a pool!) and once we had settled in we spent the evening relaxing in the Freedom bar at the front of the resort, which had a great reggae vibe, on the beach and eating some delious Thai food. It was peaceful, with not many other people around, and when we took a walk along the beach later on and saw just a handful of wooden shacks and hippy style beach bars we couldn’t have been happier. This is exactly what we wanted and needed and we knew we would love it here.

The next day we woke up to sunny blue skies and spent most of the day on the beach, dipping in and out of the clear water until the tide went out to reveal some large rocks. We went for a walk along the pretty beach and through the ‘town’, which was every bit as rustic as you would imagine for a small undeveloped place like this, and found a few local restaurants and of course a 7/11 shop – they are every where aren’t they! We noticed that all of the women wore head coverings and most of the men wore a type of skull cap and we remembered that in these parts of Southern Thailand the locals are actually Muslim as opposed to Buddhist like the rest of the country. The sunset that evening was amazing, turning the whole sky bright orange and we watched it from the sand in our swimwear. There was no pressure to get ready and go anywhere, so again we had a nice meal and spent the night chilling in the bar, watching some football, playing cards and pool, and catching up with internet bits. It was really nice and already the memory of what had happened in Phi Phi was fading.

We had booked a boat trip for the following day so were up early to be picked up and taken to the pier at Lanta Old Town, where we got on a long tail boat with 7 other travellers – 2 German girls, 3 Swedish guys, an English guy and a Malaysian guy, who were all very nice. The trip was called ‘The 4 Islands’ trip and would consist of stopping off at different islands and spots to snorkel, swim and relax on the beach. The first two stops were for snorkelling, which on first glances didn’t seem to be too great, but once we were under the water it was amazing! We saw loads of fish at both spots, from standard ‘Nemo’ clown fish (we think these are pretty standard now after some of the things we have seen!) to brightly coloured Parrot fish and some other types which we hadn’t seen before. The water was warm and clear and we were enjoying the day, when we pulled up to what can only be described as paradise – the beautiful small island of Koh Ngai. This island is tiny and had one of the best beaches we have ever seen, with just a few bungalows around it and some long tail boats just off the shore. Of course because it is a stop on these day trips it will probably be developed in years to come, but for now it was heaven. This is where we had lunch, which was really nice with some simple Thai food and rice, and had around an hour to relax on the white sand or swim in the shallow turquoise waters. Then it was back on the boat to our last stop of the day, Koh Mook, which is home to the Emerald Cave. The skies suddenly turned grey and it started to rain out of nowhere! But it didn’t last long luckily. We didn’t really know too much about this Emerald Cave/Koh Mook island and thought it was an island with a cave on it, but it turned out that you had to swim through a cave to reveal the inside of the island, which was framed by really high limestone karsts and jungle! When we pulled up the boat man pointed to a tiny opening in the rocks which was the cave apparently, and told us we all had to put life jackets on to swim through the cave, which we thought was a little odd. He also told us to follow the guide from a boat which had moored near us. So we all jumped off the boat and started swimming towards this guide, who was with his group quite a way ahead, until we reached the cave entrance. It was of course light at first but the deeper we got into the cave the darker it got, until it was pitch black as the guide with the torch was way ahead, so we couldn’t see anything at all! We kept swimming in the dark, hoping we would reach the exit soon, and while it was a bit hairy it was really good fun as well. We eventually made it out and were amazed by this lagoon type bay, hidden to the outside by surrounding cliffs and trees. It was like a secret little world and we splashed around in the water for a while until making our way back through the cave in the dark and back to our boat. We had some fruit which our boat man had cut up for us while we were swimming, and then started to make the journey back to the mainland which took ages as the steering on the boat didn’t seem to be working too well so we kept going round in circles, but we finally got back to the pier after a really great day.

We thought for a change of scenery we would eat at one of the local Muslim restaurants on the main road that night instead of at our hotel. We ordered a feast and while the Pad Si Ew noodles were great and the Massaman curry was nice, the yellow shrimp curry was nothing like a curry but more like a Tom Yum hot and spicy clear, thin soup which we didn’t like. The lady was really nice about and only made us pay for the other two dishes which was good, and we walked back to our hotel for another early night.

Originally we had planned to just stay for 3 nights in Koh Lanta but we were really liking it and decided to stay for an extra night, so on our last day we hired a motorbike and explored the rest of the island. The roads were good and pretty quiet so the drive was easy, although there were some hills along the way. We made our way South stopping off at various viewpoints to take photos of the beautiful bays below and enjoying the scenery until we reached a beach near the bottom of the island which we heard was nice and parked up to check it out. Klong Jark was an incredible stretch of white sand and emerald waters framed by cliffs and just a couple of beach shacks so we sat here for a while, not believing how many people told us that Koh Lanta didn’t offer any good beaches! It was one of the most beautiful beaches we have seen, and we have seen a lot. When we finally dragged ourselves away we stopped off in the town of Klong Nin for a bit of lunch and a relax on another lovely beach for the afternoon. The whole island seemed so undeveloped and clean and this area felt really relaxed like Klong Khong (where we were staying), we loved it. Both these beaches also had a great traveller vibe to them which we didn't expect from Lanta.

On the way back up North we stopped off at Long Beach, the busiest town on the island which still seemed quiet, except for the Irish bar which was holding a St Patricks Day party and full of tanked up Irish people dancing away and having their pints of Guinness! Got to love the Irish. We called in at Lanta Animal Welfare, a cat and dog sanctuary which rehomes orphaned animals and also nurses them back to health if they are injured, as well as provides rabies jabs for strays around the island. It was just closing so we couldn’t help out (you can take the dogs for walks or just cuddle the cats!), but there were still lots of cats around which we played with for a while, until we headed back for the day. On the way back we wanted to book our onwards transport to Malaysia with the lady who we had booked the boat trip through, as she had the cheapest price, but she was closed! So we drove around asking in every travel shop but the prices were a lot higher than hers and we thought we would just have to pay it, until luckily we came across a shop right near our hotel where it was the same price as the lady who was closed. It seemed like things were going our way again!

Another gorgeous sunset and a delicious Thai meal at a great local restaurant marked our last night in Thailand, and the last three days on Koh Lanta left us feeling in high spirits and sad to leave. It is such an under-rated island we feel and there is so much to do and discover, plus it has stunning beaches, great food and friendly locals; we really enjoyed our time here and it has become one of our favourite places. We debated staying another day but chose to leave the next morning as we were keen to explore a new country, the 8^th of this trip, and are excited to see what Malaysia has in store for us next.

S&V's Travel Info & Tips:

General Info: Approx 44 Baht to £1. Thailand is getting more expensive as the pound weakens (and by the looks of it so will the remainder of our destinations on this trip).

Transportation: The boat from Phi Phi - Lanta took an hour and we paid 250 Baht pp. At the Saladan pier on Koh Lanta a taxi to Long Beach or Khlong Khong is about 50-100 Baht per person, or you can try and get a lift for free like us with a hotel tout.

Food: Lovely food at our resort, it was also the cheapest place to eat on the beach. On the main road the Thung local restaurant served amazing Thai food for 50-80 Baht and we ate there twice.

Accomodation: We stayed at Lanta Emerald Resort on Khong Klong beach and paid 800 Baht for a room with fan and hot water. We could have gone for a bamboo bungalow for 600 Baht but treated ourselves! This resort was great with nice staff, a pool and a cool bar with book swap and a pool table playing reggae music each night.

Other observations:

x) As we mentioned most locals here are Muslim and so some of the smaller shops do not sell alcohol.

xx) Lots of cats on Lanta but we hardly saw any dogs, a rarity in Thailand!

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