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On our way from Khoa Lak to Koh Lanta we decided that Thailand's geography is crazy. The limestone karsts go from flat ground into the sky almost as if the earth was a battleship board and C7 was just pulled up 100m, vegetation on top and all. Fascinating.
As we switched from a mini bus to a group taxi to the Lanta ferry, the ferry for Phi Phi was right beside us. It had four levels of seating, was bright purple and PACKED to the rails with tourists. It may be beautiful there but we were very thankful to get onto our smaller, more humble ferry. We're in the largest town/capital city in Lanta which is all of three streets called Sala Dan on the northern tip of the island. Our hostel leaves much to be desired but it's super cheap, the air conditioning works and the sweet family running it lives in one room behind the reception desk which gives perspective if you were thinking of complaining. I counted 37 signs on the hostel walls on the way to our room listing and repeating all sorts of house rules which seems like overkill... but it's their home. Their 18 month old has the privilege of having his dad talk to him in English and his mom in Thai, lucky kid!! They cooked a big curry meal for all of the hostel guests last night and it was so yummy! With how sweet they are, I'm very curious what this place was before a hostel from the tile work in the bathroom...
Thankfully Koh (island) Lanta is much less touristy than Bang Niang. There are still plenty of tailors, massage shops, souvenir shops, etc. but if you walk a bit you can see actual local people eating at their place of choice and living their lives. We found a super friendly family run restaurant called Rung Ruang where even their nine year old daughter is in on the gig and loves pranks. She greets you with fake handshakes and giggles. Each menu has a booklet in it for guests to write a note and say where they're from. These notebooks are full of loving words from happy customers around the world. It's just such a positive happy place. The power went out a couple times during our meal but they made it work. And our bill was a little portrait of us with our fruit shakes. Guys, fruit shakes are just fruit blended with ice and they're awesome. Think of the coldest watermelon ever as a drink, so good! Only downside is that here, the equivalent of Andes after dinner mints is lemon honey or lime cough drops... I must say I miss the plates of fresh pineapple and watermelon that typically came with the bill in Bang Niang.
We rented a motorbike/scooter for a day and weeeeeeeeeee it's so fun!! I have an odd fear of bikes in general so Ryan was driving and I'm sure I almost squeezed him off his seat between my thighs for the first bit until I felt comfortable. This island is so small we easily zipped from one end to the other and back before we even knew it. Koh Lanta has a diverse multicultural background beginning with the Chao Ley or sea gypsies following the fish about 500 years ago. Then Muslim fishing communities from Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand settled in, followed by Chinese merchants who set up trade routes with their relatives in other Asian ports. So the food is all over the place and all food carts are run by Muslim families here so no more pork pops for me. There's a huge artist community here. Many galleries have artists working upfront and on our first night we passed a really vibrant painting in progress of the late David Bowie. We spent the day popping onto beaches, into little towns and cruising through the countryside. Jeremy, there are devil sticks here waiting for you! Found a sweet lookout with swings that had a remote beach below. I HAD to get on that beach, so I did, but not without slipping on rocks in my flip flops and thoroughly bruising and scraping up my big toe. We saw monkey's crossing the road, cows grazing beside it, and dogs sleeping in it. A sad sighting was of an elephant with some white folks on his back looping around a retention pond on a dusty trail... This is not the place for elephants, they're strictly for tourists around here and it's just not ok to take these kinds of tours. Best thing transported via motorbike so far: a mannequin, arms in the front basket, legs upside down on the drivers lap as she peers through them to see, no idea where the torso or head were.
We thought we'd stay at the swings for sunset but as the light changed, the shade went away and we needed a new cooler spot. Luckily, the beach/bay closest to home has the best sunset I've ever seen. You're able to watch it go down behind this rock wall and then can also look back onto the land and see the mountains reflect it. We played in the shiny lavender water as the daylight faded away.
We went out later that night to find a party at The Freedom Bar which we saw signs for all over the place. All bars have signs that say "Party TONIGHT" or "Party Jan 16th" and then someone paints over it for next week's date. As Freedom Bar doesn't show up on any google map, we mapped out directions according to the number of 7/11's we would pass. 7/11 is an institution in these parts. There are 7/11 t-shirts in all souvenir shops. We got to 7/11 #6 and still didn't see our bar so we must have passed it. Went into #6, pointed to my map which clearly calls out all 7/11's and asked the lady which one we were in to make sure we were where I thought we were. She shakes her head,"This one new." Our whole precise unit of measurement was off! So we were at #5.5 and we're all of one street away from the party we were searching for. Hung out with some cool Aussies, watched a snake show and a fire show, then hit the road and had the best Pad Thai of my life at Ta Tha Ta Restaurant.
- 1:56 AM
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