Ko Lanta and Ko Phi Phi - Playing Motorbike Dominoes

---

---

Hello all. I came to realise something while we were on Phi Phi that I'd like to share it with you. In many ways travelling is very similar to normal life - it revolves around 3 main things - eating, shitting and sleeping. I would say, roughly speaking that about 30% of your time is spent sleeping or finding somewhere to sleep, 20% of your time is spent shitting or finding somewhere to shit (or indeed not shitting and worrying about why you are not shitting) and another 20% of your time is spent eating or finding somewhere to eat. Another 20% roughly is spent talking about how good or bad your sleep was, how good or bad your shit/toilet was, or how good or bad your food was. The last 10% is just literally travelling. And thats basically the same as life. The only difference is in life you are usually at work, whereas travelling you get to look at beautiful things instead of work. Which is pretty good I have to say. But really its all just about sleeping, eating and shitting. That is the human condition summed up. Its just that a lot of us, every once in a while just want to go and sleep, eat and shit exotically, which means your bed isn't comfortable, your food is hit and miss, and your poo is runny, or non-existent. That's all.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnyway. We have had a very manic couple of weeks and I'm actually writing this from New Zealand having just about caught up on the sleep we missed during our 3 days of transit from Phi Phi to here. So we have finally gotten round to blogging about our final week in Thailand which we spent mostly laying in the sun and getting burnt and playing motorbike dominoes....

After a bit of umming and aaahing about which islands to go to, for some reason we settled on Ko Lanta followed by Phi Phi, even though we hadn't really considered Lanta before at all. After our slightly nightmarish couple of days in Bangkok we got a pretty terrible overnight bus from there which took us down to Krabi in a 12 hour ride. Then we got another bus/boat combo which took us to Lanta where we finally arrived 19 hours after leaving Bangkok. Dazed and confused we stumbled to our guesthouse which was on stilts in the ocean and located in the main town Ban Sala Dan which had a lovely view out over the sea where we ate breakfast every day.

We decided to stay in Lanta for 4 nights which we hoped would give us time to explore the whole island. And we decided to do it by hiring a scooter for our whole time there which only cost us 4 quid a day. The next morning we woke up and went to get our scooters...which should have been quite a straightforward task...but I forgot that I had Alex with me.........

So we wanted to get a scooter each but the first thing we had to do was choose a helmet. Now, seeing as they are all one-size-fits-all adjustable helmets, I wasn't surprised to find that the first one I chose fitted me like a glove. Alex, on the other hand, went through every single helmet and couldn't find one that fitted at all!!! When she got to the last one and I hadn't shown her any sympathy she decided that the whole situation was my fault and started shouting at me. I should have known it was my fault. But Karma was on my side....Having settled for a helmet Alex grumpily got on her scooter and we were both ready to go. I rode off, wind in my hair, not a care in the world, when I suddenly hear a crash and a scream and then an "oh fuck", and I turn round to see that Alex had driven straight into another (stationary) motorbike and her foot was crushed under her own scooter. Fighting back laughter I went to check that she was okay. She wasn't, and so we decided that it was probably best if she rode with me.

Anyway, the next few days were fantastic. Starting on the first day at the very south of the island, we went to just about every beach that we could access. The southern beaches are more remote, more deserted, and also more beautiful. The beaches towards the north are cool as well though as there are lots more bars and restaurants where you can eat out on your way back home. So basically we spent days on the beach, then as the sun went down we either had a massage or a body scrub, ate at a beach-side restaurant as the sun went down and then drove back to our hostel and did it all again the next day. Ko Lanta is a fantastic island to visit if you are looking for a chilled out, relaxing time. It was great fun exploring it on the scooter, and while its peaceful, there is still plenty to do. We had a great time there, and left there a little burnt 4 days after we arrived.

We got the boat to Phi Phi at 8am which takes just over an hour. We got there and went to our hostel which was a way out of town at the top of a hill and was a very basic shack type structure. The positives were it had a good view, the negatives were that we got demolished by mosquitoes. But what can I say about Phi Phi??? We didn't really explore the island very much because we basically couldn't be bothered to. I guess some parts of it must be quite nice. The main beach is quite beautiful...but generally speaking I found the island to be a bit of a dive. Sure if you want to get pissed up you would have a great time. They sell buckets of alcohol literally on the street which contain like full bottles of spirits. But apart from the fact that its hot and quite pretty in the day, its just like any shit night out in town. It just wasn't really up my street to be honest. Not much else to say about it really.

We left Phi Phi a little disappointed in some ways, but we entered a travelling shit storm which left us with next to no sleep for a few days. The overnight bus back to Bangkok was just as uncomfortable as the one down...only this time I had Argentinians to deal with. Alex and I had some in front and behind us, which was okay because the Argentinian accent is really cool and I was trying to listen in Spanish.....but then all of a sudden an Argentinian foot appeared on my windowsill right next to my arm!!! We spent the rest of the night at war - my arm being the rightful owner of the sill, her foot being the foreign invader. I guess it was like the Falklands in reverse, but with less bloodshed. I didn't sleep.

We ended up in Bangkok at 5am which is the shittest time of day really considering our flight away was at about 10pm. So we sat in the relative safety of Burger King until 7am. Then we went to Siam Square and sat there until 4pm, then we went to the airport....and sat...and sat. And I slept for about 5 minutes on our overnight flight until we arrived in Sydney at about 10am which is the shittest time of day really considering that our flight to Christchurch was delayed until 10pm. So we sat and we sat and we sat at the airport until we got our flight and arrived in Christchurch at 3am, which is the shittest time of day really when you can't pick up your campervan until 8am!!! You get the picture, we were exhausted. But pick up the campervan we did, and a new adventure began, and it began with another classic Alex moment, which I will save until next time.

---

Comments

[mark shipley]

Good blog
Excellent blog - fantastic scenery - very jealous! Have a good time.