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Published: December 9th 2007
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The Waterfall
Was a little too cold/powerful to spend too long under it Thailand Ko Lanta Well after a surprisingly comfortable overnight bus from the lovely city of Bangkok(!?) to Krabi, I got on yet another bus taking me to the island of Ko Lanta. I decided to go to Ko Lanta after talking to a lovely thai man on the bus who recommended it. The hotel that he said was lovely but was slightly out of my price range so headed to a place called Lanta Riveria which was a bit more in my budget. The weather wasn't great when I arrived which was disappointing but I was keeping my fingers crossed for it to get better!
Elephant Riding Booked myself on an elephant riding tour the next day which included a walk to a secluded water fall. My elephant was a 45 year old male and he was pretty massive! He liked to take things at his own pace which was pretty cool. He was so gentle.
In typical thai style, the "ten minute" walk to the water fall from where the elephant ride stopped turned into a 45 minute walk up a stream in my lovely flip flops! needless to say the flip flops are now
My lovely elephant
After the "incident" - I think he looks sad now :-( deceased. I did have one spectacular fall on the way and amazingly I managed to miss the water and fall in the bushes which was special! Quite amusing. The walk was worth it because the watertfall was lovely and really beautiful. Plus pretty refreshing and quite a nice massage it was that powerful!
Slightly sour ending to the tour as on the way back my elephant was going really slowly which was fine by me but apparently the guides were not happy so this man appeared out of nowhere with a massive long stick with a spike on the end which is he preceded to spike between my elephants back legs! Not nice and caused the elephant to roar in pain which I hated. Plus he started running which made me a tad nervous! Ended up kind of wishing that I hadn't done the tour because I don't think the elephants were being very well treated.
Four Island Tour The next day I decided to go on a day trip that included snorkelling, lunch, a cave visit and time on an island which is part of a National Park. The snorkelling wasn't amazing because it had been
The Cave
I swam through this cave. Slightly scary but worth it on the other side! a bit rainy, the highlight was definately the swim through the cave. In typical Thai style they didn't really tell you what you were about to do and just handed you the life jacket and told you to get in the sea. So off I go like a little sheep and realise that the guide is swimming towards this pretty small cave opening. Slight bit of panic sets in as I realise that the cave is pitch black and the likelihood of bats being around is pretty high! Anyway I carry on and swim through this narrow cave passage in the pitch black trying to keep calm. When I turn the corner the panic has been worth it as I see the beautiful white sandy beach surrounded by jungle and a massive outcrop of limstone cliffs surrounding the beach - really amazing view. Shame I didn't have my camera with me.
The island was also amazing, nearly deserted and so peaceful. Was cool to chill out on it for an hour or so and look at the beautiful scenery.
On leaving Ko Lanta, I bumped into Claire on the ferry who was on my Vietnam tour - small
Beautiful beaches
The beautiful beach that was part of the 4 islands tour - can't remember the name which is terrible and annoying! Ops! world! Really nice to see a friendly face. We arranged to meet the next day as she was also heading towards Rai Leh beach.
Krabi - Ton Sai and Rai Leh Beach I booked to stay in Ton Sai which is North of West Rai Leh beach because the cheaper accommodation than Rai Leh beach which has some very expensive resorts. I booked into a typical bamboo hut that didn't feel overly safe and was def the smelliest accommodation that I had stayed in so far. I also had a room mate that I named Mr Rat which as you can imagine I wasn't overly happy about. There were a few screams in the middle of the night when I discovered the little bugger! Needless to stay I didn't stay there very long and moved to nicer accommodation on East Rai Leh beach which is not far from all the nice beaches and SO much cleaner (and minus the room mate!). Claire, her brothers and her cousin were also staying there so meant that I could travel with them for a while which was really cool.
The beaches at Rai Leh are just amazing and so relaxing.
Rock Climbing
All dressed and read to attack the rocks - don't I look like a little pro!? NOT! I couldn't resist having a massage and getting my nails done! It would have been rude not to. Shame that I was too impatient to wait until my nails were actually dry before moving from the beach - having sand inbedded in your pretty toe nalis isn't such a good look!
I tried some rock climbing which was amazing. Rai Leh is a world famous place for rock climbing because it is surrounded by such beautiful cliffs. It was such hard work and really challenging but worth it the end when you made it to the ring at the top. I didn't manage to do this on every climb but still enjoyed myself. I had so many bruises all over my legs and arms by the end of it but at least I can now consider myself a pro rock climber despite all the falls I had!
Ko Phi Phi Wow .... it seems like as soon as we arrived on Ko Phi Phi the high season really started! There are people everywhere all wanting rooms! It was a bit of struggle finding somewhere to stay for 5 people but we eventaully found somewhere which was really
More rock climbing
I was showing the instructor what to do by the end of it nice and clean just a bit more expensive. The main town on Phi Phi is full of lots of bars, restaurants and shops which have some gorgeous clothes - I didn't manage to resist the pull of the shops as you can imagine!!
Hiring a longtail boat - BLISS! We all decided to hire a long tail boat for the day so that we could snorkel and see some of the islands around Phi Phi. It wasn't very much between 5 of us to do this for the day and was def worth it because we could do our own thing. First we did some snorkelling on the way to Maya Bay which was amazing, saw lots of gorgeous brightly coloured fish and coral and there were hardly any other tourists around which was really special. The water was so clear and blue it was amazing.
Maya Bay Maya Bay is where the film the Beach was shot so it was completly gorgeous but every other tourist and their massive speed boat was also visiting the same beach even though we had got there pretty early. This kind of spoilt the beach because the number of
Action shot!
Such an action shot! Doesn't it look impressive!?! speedos that were in all my photos is just wrong!! What is it with men and speedos?!?! - it is something that I will never understand. We didn't stay very long because it wasn't exactly relaxing!
Bamboo Island The boat then dropped us off in the water just off Bamboo Island so that we could do some snorkelling and then go on to the island. The snowkelling was really good and the island was just pure bliss with hardly any people on it and the most beautiful beach. Claire and I just chilled out in the bath warm water and watched the world go by - a hard life!
Spent the next day in Ko Phi Phi being very lazy and lying on Long Beach which is just outside the main town and slightly less touristy which is cool to chill out on.
The next phase After recovering from a 3 days of nasty food poisioning (think it was a dodgy PadI have decided to head off to Georgetown on Penang Island in Malaysia. Booked myself on a bus so hopefully crossing the border into Malaysia will go well!
Another action shot!
We were climbing all afternoon so have a lot of photos but I won't bore you with them all!
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