Ocean View Resort Ko Lanta

... of people present). <br>Did you know that in Switzerland people who want to get a Swiss passport have to take an exam which probes them for knowledge on the countries history, culture, politics and the words of the national anthem, even if they have been in the country for several generations? <br>They get grilled on all sorts of sh*t, and they also have to prove that they know some Swiss people whio can recommend them (in common with other countries, that, yes ...

... rather (she looked it up on the net in one of her rages) to tell them off for making such revolting medicine!<br><br>Anyway, we were picked up in a luxurious van after two nights to take us back to Kantiang Bay were Anne, Ziggy and Remi had been holed up. We daren&#8217;t mention the luxurious hotel!<br><br>So we slowly got back into the swing of things.<br><br>Ziggy had been bugging Tim for a &#8220;big night&#8217; at the bar and so one night when we had a couple of Samsong shakes ...

... at some point this summer, they agreed to bury something on Maya beach (you may know it as the beach in The Beach) for me . Not only were they good enough to bury something but they went to great lengths to draw up an authentic looking Pirate-style treasure map for me to follow - see map opposite for proof of authentic looking-ness. They had burned holes in it, poured coffee on it and even coloured it in with crayons. All on their honeymoon! You'd have thought they'd be busy doing ...

... eggs to make it a bit more normal. Easter Monday, however, was Thai New Year. B, who is second-in-command at our resort, and the other staff did a lovely ceremony of anointing our hands with flower-scented water and our faces with clay. She also made us orchid necklaces and showed us how to do the same to the Buddha. Luckily we were prepared for a more riotous experience outside of the resort (reading all the details in the guidebook does ...

Another island, or islands more like it - two in this case: Ko Phi Phi Don (the main island with all the accomodations) and Ko Phi Phi Ley (the smaller adjacent island). Having been to an island before - if you can call to mind our post about Hainan Island in China - we were presuming two things: ONE - that they would be very touristy, TWO - that all prices would be substantially elevated. Our expectations were well founded and well met; I believe the number of ...

... over at the hostel. So we had to book another night in town and hike back to the hostel to retrieve the stuff, and of course it rained on us! But thank goodness they had it. Although we did have to pry the LP our of a tourists hands and convince them it was ours!Phi Phi has these great water bottle refill stations in town. They really cut down on the plastic bottle waste. They should have these on all the islands.

... and sat there for a few minutes before walking all the way down (have I mentioned before that we are slightly impatient tourists?) The viewpoint is 186ms above sea level so it's a bit of a steep walk up there (and down) but you can really see how narrow the land between the two mountain sites. It became painful clear when you are there, how much damage a tsunami can do in an area like this. In certain parts of Phi Phi, you could be running up to 700m (that ...

... gingerly left the quayside after one of the crew had moved few of the 350 - 400 passengers to the other side. The ferry was probably designed for around 300 absolute maximum and was only around 25m in length. We sat near a window and door and by some good fortune arrived safely on Phi Phi. We put our bags down in our budget accommodation and went straight for a drink, watching a beautiful sunset on one of the beaches hardest hit by the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004. Today we ...