Ko Lanta - Island Life

Well we were booked on a 10.30am speedboat to take us from Ao Nang to the island of Ko Lanta which was nearly a 3 hr trip. Our rucksacks were heavy (never get any lighter!) plus we decided to take some food supplies and a back up supply of booze in the form of Vodka decanted into a plastic water bottle (much lighter than glass and safer to carry). Luckily, neither of us got the bottle mixed up with the water or somebody would have been shouting 'man over board!'.

Stevie Wonder on the beach.

The boat trip was relaxing with plenty of other tourists on board who all scurried on to the upper deck to soak up the glaring hot sun.  We had beautiful views of the limestone karst islands around Railay/Krabi as we left the mainland. The boat's toilet was situated down near the engine room right at the back of the boat and the pile of luggage in the gangway made for interesting toilet trips as you had to clamber over it before the added hassle of negotiating 2 flights of stairs and all the tourist bodies! Anyway, we arrived at the pier at Lanta, broke from the large throng of tourists and haggled with a taxi pickup driver to take us to our accommodation in the area of Khlong Kong.
Sitting in the back of the pickup, just us and our bags, we watched as the scenery changed from the big shops and large resorts near Saladan pier to more backwards, rural and spread out structures with quite a laid back traveller vibe about it.

The magic carpet needed a service.

Our bungalow at Andaleaf Bungalows was great - a stilted affair with a large wooden seating area, good sized bed, flat screen TV (no English channels!) and a large bathroom. We had a large fridge which was only on when the key tag was in the slot which was a pain in the butt so keeping milk was out of the question and ice would only set overnight! Daz was quick to hang up his hammock and made sure it was high enough so little legs couldn't hijack it!!
We hired a bike from the owner and negotiated a discount too - he wanted to keep a passport as a deposit and we managed to fob him off with Daz's international driving permit instead proving Thais can't read English very well (some couldn't even speak it!).

It was difficult making any new friends on this beach.

   We spent the days whizzing about on the bike around the island, swinging in the hammock (Daz only as too high for me to get in.....grrrrr!) lazing on the beaches which were fabulous with white sand and warm seas, eating some amazing Thai curries (Massaman was our favourite) and generally just being really lazy and sinking into a smooth holiday like groove. The wanderlust in us was subdued somewhat as we let Thailand tease us with the its charms and transform us into a couple of 2 weeks in the sun summer holiday off work type of tourists.  We even had a couple of Dagenham chav's in the bungalow next to us effing and blinding away between their full moon parties and late risings. In other words we done nothing! The thing with Thailand it is just too easy. Everything you want or need is there to be had....just ask! This takes the traveller out of you but so what? Just go with the flow and enjoy. After the perils and exhaustion of India this is just what the doctor ordered . Usually we would bore you with tales of mishap and near misses but not on this chapter apart from one night we went to a night market on the other side of the island to buy Kathy her own hammock as Daz could not seem to prise himself out of his own one and on the way back on our scooter we got caught in an intense tropical storm in our t-shirts so bad that Daz could not see the road as there are no street lights to show the flooded sections. When we got back we were drenched through but glad not to be in a ditch somewhere as the roads are full of some quite serious pot holes. Anyway Kathy was chuffed about her hammock which was strung up in our porch (at a lower level) and our five days on Lanta came to a close. It wasn't the paradise island we were searching for as was too commercial and overloaded with tourists but easy going and agreeable. So our next destination is the island of Koh Muk which we hope will be more of a fantasy island for us.