Thailand part 2: Ko Lanta

In case you didn't know, the prefix ko/koh means island in Thai. Our Minivan transport took us all the way from Phuket to Ko Lanta. Phuket (which is also an island, but doesn't seem to be called Ko Phuket, surprisingly) has a causeway bridge to the mainland, and Ko Lanta is serviced by car-barge/ferries that go back and forth all day.

We arrived in Ko Lanta, and couldn't find our accommodation. We were told that it was close to another place, so the minivan dropped us off there. After 1/2 an hour of wandering around the area ladened with our heavy packs in the heat, we found it - Ancient Realm had no sign at the road, and was down a muddy path. But the accommodation itself was good.



This is the bungalow from outside, and the photo was taken right at the edge of the beach - thats how close it was! Each bungalow had a fence and its own grassy area with sun loungers and a dining table.



The bathroom was open air, like a room with no roof, on one side. It was quite tastefully decorated with shells and even random bits of glass along the top of the walls! The room had Aircon, a mini fridge and a TV/DVD player. The owner boasted 300 (pirate) DVDs all free to watch.



This is the view out to the beach. While we liked where we were staying, the place was in low season, and lots of businesses were closed down. The water itself was similar to Phuket, but the beaches were quite dirty - covered in bottles, old lightbulbs and crisp packets - not very nice.

Maybe the place is better in the busy season, but without the farangs keeping the beach restaurants open, it was hard to find food options, and there wasn't much to do! We hired a scooter anyway, and spent a few days looking around the island.



This is a cafe that we stopped at at the southern tip of Ko Lanta. It was built into the side of a hill (Wellington style) and was made out of bamboo! It seemed stable enough to have a sprite at, and so we did. Thailand recycles glass bottles all over, so most shops/cafes serve you a drink in a bottle, and collect them up to do a swap-a-crate type thing. Soda, especially Coke, tastes much better from glass!

Aside from scootering, we really just relaxed here, though after the fun and excitement in Phuket, we were under-whelmed here, and didn't stay very long. Like we said before - maybe in busy season it would be a better place to visit. On to Ko Phangan!