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Published: March 16th 2007
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We arrived at the pier and were talked into staying at a place called Andaman Bay Bungalows, this was situated at the southern end of Long Beach. First impressions were not great but we decided to stay for one night. This is probably the worst accomodation we've had. The wooden hut wasn't bad but the bathroom was horrid. There was coral for a floor, a shabby tin surround and the water had a lovely brown tinge to it! Needless to say, showering was only done when absolutly necessary! It only took us a few swings in the hammock to feel settled. Theres definately something about having a little place on the beach swinging in a hammock, listening to the sound of the sea.
That night we went for a stroll on the beach, which was very secluded and only shared by a handful of people. We went for a drink at the bar next door where we were talked into knocking back a few sangsom and cokes. The staff introduced us to a young swiss couple and two middle aged german guys who were staying there. Luckily for us they all spoke good english, as is the norm, so once
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Us after our night out at Earth Club!! again not much effort needed, by us at least! Later that night we all went to a club/bar about 5mins drive away coinsidently it was called Earth so we felt straight at home! We met a lad from Bournemouth who had teamed up with some lads from London, finally some english, Hoorah! When it was time to leave, we noticed that the Thai guy who owned the bar seemed to have something large in his bag, he opened it up and to our surprise it was a sleeping cat, it had been 'catnapped!' He assured us that the cat would have a much better life with him, we were not so sure, as earlier we had asked him why the majority of Thai cats have bobbed tails, he said it was because they make cat tail soup to keep themselves looking younger, we think he was joking!
One of our plans for Lanta was to go elephant trekking. Jo loves elephants, this became clear to Sarah as nearly everything Jo brought or took a picture of had something to do with them! We decided to take a 3 hour trek which involved a visit to the Tiger Caves. We
arrived at the trekking centre and got more and more exited (Jo especially) as we sat and waited. When we saw them, both were grinning from ear to ear, but riding them was not so nice. We had a moody female who was alot smaller than the others and couldn't keep up, so her keeper kept whipping her with a bamboo stick. She was getting more and more angry and kept turning on him, good for her we say, we were quite willing to hit the deck if she would have swung for him, poor ele! This little excursion included an hours trek on foot, oh know,more hiking! The caves were dark and really hard to manouvere around, the guide kept laughing at us trying to crawl through, it was so dark you could only see by torch so we didn't get any pics, they were well worth seeing though. On the way back we got a different elelphant, a bigger male that was a nice ride, Jo sat on his head just behind the ears like tarzan, it was pretty cool.
We stayed one more night at Andaman Bay and then decided to head for the north to
Klong Dao beach. This was a bad idea as it was very built up and seemed to cater more for the holiday maker. This was no great loss as the beach and surrounding area were nothing special. So we decided to head back to the pier where we could get a free lift from one of the accomodation touts down south. Our plan worked and we ended up at Klong Jark Bungalows.
The translation from Thai to English can sometimes be a bit off. This section is from the leaflet that advertised our accomodation: "If you prefer peaceful and nature, evade from crowded people and to rush in a disorderly manner to have a real relaxation, please come here at Klong Jark Bunglow. We're your family. You'll get impression and forget us not" They make us laugh everytime!
We were bundled into yet another pick up truck, where we found the most comfortable seats possible, Jo's being a wheel arch, then we were on our way. It takes approx 30mins to drive the length of Lanta, our accomodation was about a 25min drive so we were about as far south as you could get. The further south you
go the less built up it is which is quite nice to see really, but means lack of roads. Oh my god, the track from hell! Surprise suprise we found ourselves on another dodgy thai track. This one wasn't rocky but just dirt. As we drove along Sarah started to blend in with the background as the truck kicked up more and more dust. A fellow passenger commented on the ageing effect it had and by the time we got there we were both covered, Sarah more so she was very unfortunatley positioned. The accomodation here was ok, big room and lots of Gekos (very large ones) in the roof to keep us company at night. We were on a quiet, secluded beach, very pretty a real retreat.
We decided to go on a speed boat trip which involved a visit to a nearby island and lots of snorkelling. The Snorkelling was good, lots of fish including Nemo, again, and Sarah saw a sea snake which was a little sacry but cool! The island we stopped at had beautiful white sand, crystal clear waters and amazing views. It is a national park so is protected. We saw some very
large lizards, over 1m in length, not sure what they were called, they were quite a sight! We were one of the first boats to arrive at the island which was awesome as we got that real desert island feeling, but it soon filled with tourists and eventually looked alot like 'Maya Bay" (see Phi Phi blog). but at least we had a little time to ourselves.
We were supposed to stay on Lanta for six days then travel to Bangkok, but we felt very isolated where we were and although it was lovely, we couldn't help but dream of Phi Phi and our bamboo hut. We made a snap decision, lead by Sarah, and decided to go back there for our last remaining days on islands of Thailand, so its back to Phi Phi, yippee!!!!
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Denise Fielder
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Wow!
How Great are you girls doing wow!!!!!!!!!! So glad you got to ride the elephants,Take Care in Oz,Have Fun ,and can't wait to see Your Famous Article!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx