Ko Lanta - Our Gateway to the Andaman Sea

My apologies for the delay in getting another post up. It's been a fairly hectic week (we're Tuesday today, right?) and between getting the most out of our last stay in Ko Lanta, getting to Ko Tao and then spending the past six days in scuba diving school, there hasn't been too much time to update the blog. Hopefully, you've caught some of the pictures I'm putting up on Instagram/Facebook).

Ten days ago, after our 22-hour trip from Bangkok to Ko Lanata, we got our first taste of the Andaman sea and the famous Thai islands that surround it.

View from the restaurant at Lanta Dareen

Nathalie and I had been constantly on the move for nearly two weeks. From practically the second day we arrived in Bangkok until I had finished the majority of my dental work, we were either stuck in the capital or orbiting within a three hour radius of it. I like Bangkok; it's a neat town and gives me that distinct big city kick that I live off of.

However, Bangkok is relatively expensive and unfortunately, the city is a bit of a public transport paradox; the more affordable parts of the city are isolated from the major public transport lines, making accessibility to movement that more expensive. After having to stay there for four days, we were burning through our funds just to live, rather than use them for activities that we enjoy. As soon as we got the green light from the dental team to leave, we were out of there.

As mentioned in the previous article (linked above), we chose Ko Lanta on a whim. We did a little research and chose it because it seemed like an accessible island from Krabi (which, along with Phuket, is the main launching point for the Thai Andaman coast). With our mobileinternet connection, we were able to book our accommodation in Ko Lanta on the bus ride down.

We wound up staying at a little beach-side bungalow resort called Lanta Dareen. Our bungalow was a minimalist dwelling; no TV (we don't watch it at home so that didn't pose any issue with us), a bed, a bathroom and some privacy; good enough for us. It was on the west side of the island about halfway down the coast, providing us with a central starting point for adventuring out. The staff were welcoming and very chilled out; we couldn't really ask for more, especially at the price we got it for.

Upon our arrival on the island, we took a taxi/tuk-tuk the 8 km/5 miles to the resort. Since we were completing the last ten minutes of our 22-hour trip, we were both all smiles, which greatly influenced our first impressions of the island. Immediately, we noticed that life was much more laid back; no traffic, no rush. People smiled easily and it was delightfully infectious (although by this stage, we didn't need much help with that). Once we arrived at the resort entrance, we had a nice little chat with the taxi driver and went to check in.

Absolutely wrecked from our journey, we took it really easy the first night; having a big dinner in the hotel and a few drinks afterwards. I think we fell asleep around 9:30 that night and woke up shortly before breakfast ended at 10:00 the next morning.

Sunset at the Lanta Dareen

For our first day, we set out one goal for ourselves; doing absolutely nothing. This is something that is admittedly difficult for me. I always have to be doing something. Whether or not it's productive doesn't usually matter (although it's usually better to be productive), but I need to be active in some way or another. Even when doing something as simple as listening to music, there has to be a secondary activity involved; be it walking, going shopping, or even cleaning the kitchen. In short, I have a really hard time turning off. If I don't have something to do, I get a bit anxious; it's something I definitely need to work on (note to self; during next job interview list this as a weakness).

So with that in mind, we spent day one alternating between pool, the porch in front of the bungalow and the restaurant. The past few days, we've learned how to scuba dive (more on that later) and one of the key concepts is decompression; i.e. you don't change your environment too quickly to prevent confusing and injuring your body. So perhaps doing nothing for a day, after rushing for the better part of two weeks, was necessary to change gears.

Once we decompressed over the first 24 hours, we rented a moped and set out to explore Ko Lanta. For those of you who haven't driven one before, it's simple to use and is a very effective way to get around, especially when you don't have much territory to cover, like on a small island.

Ko Lanta itself consists of three main parts; the harbor town call Sala Dan, the former capital Old Town, and the national park on the southern tip of the island. Between these three markers are a healthy scattering of beaches, hotels, resorts, residential dwellings and various attractions. As it turns out, you can more or less drive a circle around the island in under two hours.

We set out from the resort, and with a flip of a coin, headed south. We took our time easily following the road and after crossing over the hilly middle, we continued south along the east coast until we ran out of road.

We had arrived at what appeared to be an abandoned hotel resort, but with vehicles parked in front. There was a sign saying that we were a ten minute walk to the southern edge of the island. We set out on foot to find the end point, but after only two minutes, the trail abruptly ended in front of an empty bungalow.

After failing to find the trail, we gave up and settled on getting a coffee at the hotel bar/restaurant, assuming it was open. Lucky for us, it was and upon our descent into the complex we were greeted with what could've easily come out of Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. There was en eclectic hodge-podge of brightly painted furniture and decorations, most of which seemed to have been pulled out of a rummage sale and laid down with little to no regard for asthetics.

Decoration at the "Electric Kool-Aid" resort.
The sign reads "You like it, Shell needs you
to sit."

Surrounding the bar were signs, written in poor English inviting us to “teste good fish” and that “hot grille make friend.” In any case, the beach was nice and the seating area was right in front of it. When I got to the bar (which doubled as hotel reception), I was greeted by the manager, the bell boy, the bar tender and probably the janitor, all of whom didn't look a day over 18. They were quick to put out the joint they were smoking and took my order.

Nathalie and I spent the next twenty minutes enjoying our coffee/smoothie and taking in the surroundings of what has so far been the weirdest hotel I've ever seen. Between the tree-house style lounges and the boat-shaped rooms, the property was practically deserted and no logic to the decor could be found. When we finished our drinks, I went to pay at the bar (they messed up the check and gave me a discount. I tried to correct it and pay the right amount, but they didn't go for it. Oh well, at least I tried) we headed back towards our 125 CC beast and headed north towards Old Town. (Nathalie did some research on the place and it had a notoriously bad reputation leading to the owner abandoning it five days before we got there. I think this the first case of Squat-Tourism I've seen correction: Nathalie read that the place was abandoned a few months ago but was only taken back up five days prior to our 'visit').

In my research on the way down, I found a few places in Old Town. All of the reviews stressed that

it wasn't like the rest of Ko Lanta and still carried that traditional feel to it.  When we pulled into the main drag (and also the only road), we were met with rustic looking wooden buildings fully populated with hotels, hostels and guest houses, restaurants promoting their western food, and merchants hawking elephant pants. It seems that whatever these hotels were promoting had either been out of date or never existed.

In any case, we settled in for lunch and hit the road shortly thereafter. We completed a loop of the island, heading to the western side of the southern tip to the border of the national park that Ko Lanta is known for. We planned on going to the national park the next day and wanted to already know where it was.

On our way back up the island, we passed a little enclave on the edge of a cliff.  Here, there was a small line up of mopeds parked underneath the trees with a staircase next to it.  Intrigued and with nothing better to do, we parked our ride and walked down the stairs.  Our curiosity immediately paid off as we stumbled upon a gorgeous beach with clear green water, clean, ungroomed sand, a breathtaking back drop and few people. We spent the next hour and half alternating between the sand and the water and left around 5:30 in the afternoon, only so that we wouldn't be driving unfamiliar roads at night.

Nui Beach, Ko Lanta

The next day, we set out towards the national park and the southern tip of the island. We enjoyed a nice hike in the jungle along the trail (we got to see some monkeys. As I don't live where monkeys are endemic, I'm always entertained when I see them), and were able to shelter ourselves from the afternoon sun. Afterwards, we walked towards a popular local waterfall and then headed back out to rejoin our newly-found beach.

The next day, we slowed it down and spent some time in Sala Dan.  We knew we had to leave at some point and wanted to check with a few different travel agencies to see how we could do it. After getting our departure arranged, we drove a bit more around the island and made our way back to the resort to enjoy the afternoon sun next to the pool.

Our last day was spent as our trip had started; doing absolutely nothing around the hotel.

Ko Lanta was a great first step out of the Bangkok orbit and gave us some valuable experiences that we'll be able to use for the rest of our trip. Amongst other things, it has given us an introduction to the Muslim aspect of this region of the world. The extreme south of Thailand is prodomently Muslim, as this area used to be under Malaysia's sphere of influence. Ko Lanta is 95% Muslim and it was the first time that I've spent multiple days in a part of the world that practices Islam. Each day and night we would hear the prayers being broadcasted from the local Mosque. We would see many women in headscarves and I got the impression that the island had a very conservative tradition.

Almost paradoxically, their economy is very dependent on tourism and you'd see westerners walking around in tank tops and booty shorts (both men and women) and drinking. It seemed to contradict the local culture, but at the same time the locals were very tolerant of it and welcoming to everyone. And while I think it's important to not blatantly offend your hosts when you're traveling foreign lands, it's great to see tolerance and co-existance prevail. Perhaps the best example of this came from a clothing store down the road from our hotel, where a small lady in full headscarf was selling tank tops and booty shorts for tourists to buy. Here's an example I found in the store:

Overall, the first foray was great.  Island life moves at a different tempo and once you've slowed down and got your feet in step to it, it's difficult to speed back up.  And while it was hard to leave, the change over to the mainland didn't prove that challenging.  Perhaps it was because the 22 hour journey to Ko Lanta hardened us bit or perhaps it was because we were transiting southern Thailand for another island, Ko Tao.