Like Phi Phi, Ko Lanta consists of several islands, the two largest are Ko Lanta Noi (small island) and Ko Lanta Yai (big island) which is where all the tourists visit. The average age of the tourists on Lanta is much older than on neighboring islands so I have a chance of not being the oldest boy in town. Its much more spread out and relaxed away from the parties with quiet beaches and glorious sunshine. However, tourism is growing on Lanta, especially with the Swedish. It's original name was Pulau Satak meaning Long Beach Island in Malayan but todays name probably comes from a Javanese word for fish grill, Lantas.
The main island is 6km wide and 30km long about 70km from Krabi on the mainland. It has 9 white sandy beaches and the sea stays a pretty constant 29C all year around. There are over 70 islands all together plenty covered in jungle and surrounded by coral reefs. There are only two seasons, the hot dry season from January to April and the hot wet season from May to December but the temperature remains between 25 to 32C year around. When it rains, it normally comes in short sharp bursts rather than long drawn out drizzle like back home.
Lanta is a melting pot for Buddhists, Thai-Chinese, Muslims and sea Gypsies. The rural areas tend to contain most of the Muslims but we usually stay pretty close to the beach. There are two things that we didn’t do here last time we visited, the Khao Mai Kaew Caves and Lanta old town where Sea Gypsy communities thrive in houses built on stilts. I hope to rectify this and see plenty stalagmites and stalactites in the caves; do you remember which is which? There is also another Sea Gypsy hot spot called Thais as Chao-Le. They have occupied this area for hundreds of years and keep themselves to themselves and speak their own language. They still have traditional supernatural beliefs asking forgiveness from the Sea Gods for sacrificing tourists, so don't go near them. For those of you that have followed our blogs from the beginning, this is where I did the Thai cookery course, Claire had a bad hair day and we walked for hours through the jungle river to observe a very disappointing waterfall with Claire wearing flip flops and having toilet trouble. Claire says that I have two left feet so I have to buy flip flip’s.
As soon as we arrived I spotted a man holding a card up with the words, “Mr Phil” and thought that must be for me. He quickly relieved me of my big backpack and took us to the car park. As we walked through the car park I was looking to try and anticipate which car he would be taking us to, constantly modifying my ideas with our every step until there was only one left; the bike with the wooden platform attached to the side. Still it was exciting and different and he talked to me all the way back which wasn’t far. As soon as we arrived at the Escape Cabins we were greeted by Yuko. I don’t think that her family name in Ono or Lennon though. She is lovely and showed us to our room explaining how everything works; including the satellite tv with 104 channels and the dvd player. Plenty of space in these bungalows; a little different to what we have become used to. There are only 6 places in this boutique hotel which are 3 years old but work starts next week on some more in adjacent ground. Claire found a place from someones blog called Papillion apartments and we emailed them to request a couple of nights stay. They returned apologising that they were away for a short break but put us onto these escape cabins. Claire also liked the looks of those more than her original choice and they lived up to our expectations. We immediately extended our stay by 2 days, especially as it was sunshine all the way at the moment. In fact we were both burnt from our long boat trip, effectively on our first day of being in the sun.
We headed off for lunch at a local restaurant across the road called Krua Kritsana which turned out amazing. High quality food, expertly cooked at ridiculously low prices. The meals started at 15 Baht (30p) for an omelet to a whopping 100 Baht (£2) for the king prawn dishes. All washed down with a couple of large Singha’s and we were away to inspect the beach only a short walk away. Perfect, we have that to ourselves as well, if we could bear to ever expose ourselves to the sun again. Anyway, back to pick up a few supplies and straight in the pool for a dip. My only complaint about the pool is that its too warm; not refreshing enough in the heat. I took a picture of our place, its the one on the left and we are not far from the pool.
We showered and headed off to the English Haunt called the Tavern as Claire said that it had great reviews on Trip advisor. The prices were higher than most other places but judging from the size of the plates brought out, were still good value for money if you want that sort of thing. However, they didn’t have the pie of the day so we both opted for the fish and chips which were a little disappointing and they only had small bottles of Singha. Maybe we would have had fairer first impressions if we had opted for different dishes as all the others brought out looked great. Anyway, off home, picked up one of Yuko’s free dvd collection and settled in spending the rest of the evening in our new comfortable home. Claire added a video to her Gotcha blog.
Congratulations to Dan and Kyle who got engaged in Central Park, New York yesterday. I guess that they had nothing better to do during the hurricane. Mind you, it doesn't look like much of a hurricane and it doesn't look much like Central Park. Is Dan shaking hands with the camera man while he was taking this photo?
Best of luck guys from the Naked Blogger's!
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