Advertisement
Published: June 11th 2012
Edit Blog Post
We had decided that after a rather hectic 2 weeks in Bangkok and Northern Thailand that we would head south and spend some time chilling out and seeing in Christmas and New Year. We knew that it was a long trip to Koh Lanta from Bangkok but we hadn't realised how long! First came the 12 hour overnight sleeper train which took us to Surat Thani, a public bus then took us into the town centre before we were picked up by a minibus which took us to another travel agent where we got on a big, hot, crammed bus and drove for another 3 hours to Krabi (where the driver initially wanted us to climb into a lower area with some luggage - we declined!). Here we were dropped at another travel agent before being bundled onto another minibus which took us to another place to pick up our final minbus that would take us to Koh Lanta. All of this was peppered with various rest stops, change overs and general unexplained hanging about. So, after 2 sleeper trains, one bus, 3 minibuses and two car ferries (and nearly 3 days of travelling!) we'd made it from Chiang Mai to
Koh Lanta!!
The following morning, all this was forgotten when we had breakfast in the sunshine with the sound of the waves as a backdrop. After breakfast we were all more than ready to hit the beach for relaxation and sunbathing (interspersed with swimming and splashing about in the water for me!). The breeze deceived us and by the evening we were all a little pink but content to be on an island in Thailand when it was bloomin' freezing in the UK.
Christmas Eve dawned on Koh Lanta and all the staff seemed to feel the need to make the resort suitably Christmassy so were all wearing santa hats and bedecking every available space with tinsel and lights. They even tied two trees together on the beach to look like a christmas tree and decorated it with lights. Their piece-de-resistance was the christmas buffet and party in the evening; it wasn't compulsory but each of the resorts were holding one and ours seemed the cheapest of the lot for getting some dinner so we signed up. I think the staff were more excitable than the small children, especially with the party games after dinner - several plastic
chairs were broken whilst playing musical chairs!! We think the dodgy christmas music being played over the speakers all night may have brainwashed them!! All in all though a fun way to spend Christmas eve.
However when Christmas day dawned, it was like we'd overslept and missed it completely - all the decorations were down, the music was back to elevator music and there was not a santa hat to be seen...a little random but gave us the perfect excuse to spend the day chilling on the beach and the evening sipping cocktails by the sea.
On Boxing day, we tried to go snorkelling at a local beauty spot called Koh Rok National Park but only made it as far as the north of the island on the speedboat before the sea got too choppy and they said we'd have to turn back. By this point, several people were already looking a little green and everyone readily agreed to postpone and try again the following day. We were much more successful the following day and although there were a few choppy moments on the whole it was pretty calm. We snorkelled in 3 separate areas and also had
lunch on the island itself. While there we saw a huge monitor lizard lazily wandering through the camping ground and basking in the sun.
A couple of days later it was time to complete the next nightmare leg of the journey from Koh Lanta to Koh PhagNan - west coast to east coast. This journey only invovled one minibus, two car ferries, two buses, a catamaran and a songthaew (big, open taxi) but to add a little more excitement into the mix, poor Jess had picked up food poisoning so spent the entire journey either feeling or repeatedly being sick. We gave her a cocktail of drugs from our supplies, looked after her as best we could and kept our fingers crossed for her that it would stop soon. The trials weren't over even when our taxi driver dropped us in the pitch black at Than Sadet beach; we asked a guy where our accomodation was and he simply pointed up the cliffside to some lights right at the top and then sent us off with a local to help us navigate our way across the beach, over the rocks and up the cliff steps whilst all struggling to
see, fully laden with bags and thoroughly exhausted!! I don't think I've ever been so pleased to get to a room in my life (and I can probably vouch for Jess on that one too!!).
Than Sadet is a remote, secluded beach on the east coast of the island and is reasonably difficult to get to as the road is unsealed and prone to mudslides. This was the perfect location for some serious chilling out to end our thailand adventure as a group. Our accomodation was lovely and was a split level bungalow on the cliffside with amazing views over the beach and out to sea; it more than made up for the climb that was involved everytime we came back. Most of the next few days were spent lazing on the beach, sipping smoothies and iced coffees in the beachfront resorts or laying in the hammocks on our balcony....it's a hard life!
Our adventure was to end with a party on the beach...the full moon party on Haad Rin beach on New Years Eve to be exact!! I'd heard a lot about full moon parties from various people but still wasn't sure what to expect but was
prepared for carnage - we'd been told that they were expecting 20,000 people for NYE! We got a taxi transfer from our beach along with lots of other guests where we all piled into the back of 3 pick up trucks for the bumpy, windy journey to Haad Rin. It was clear as soon as we arrived just before 8.30pm that some people had started celebrating a lot earlier in the day!! There were people clad in neon clothing and neon body paints everywhere and it soon became clear that we'd have to stick to each other like glue or we were going to lose each other. We wound our way through the town towards the beach using the crowds and music to guide us. On the final street down to the beach we bought our first bucket of the evening (spirit and mixers in a small plastic bucket), choosing our bucket seller from the hundreds down the street by the fact they had free neon body paints for customers to use. The beach itself was absolutely crammed with people and was virtually impossible to get anywhere on so we stayed fairly close to the entrance and pushed our way
along until we got to some music we liked. Before we knew it, it was midnight and there were fireworks going off over the sea...it was officially 2012!
After a few more hours, we were partied out and a bit fed up with the sheer number of people on the beach so headed back to our bungalow where Jess only managed a few hours sleep before having to set off on her trip back up to Bangkok to catch her flight. Kate and I had a lazy day partly brought about by a storm coming into the bay in the afternoon with heavy rain, blasting winds and waves crashing half way up the cliffs...this storm continued for the next 3 days and left us holed up in our bungalow or the resort restaurant for much of it!! Suddenly it was the 4th of January and time for Kate to head back to Bangkok and me to start work...where had all that time gone?!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0481s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb