Joh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2006
1
19
37
Trip End
May 04, 2006
Koh Lanta,
Thailand
Saturday, March 11, 2006
blog as a guest writer since I am now back in the States... I realize that
we have to told anything about the last island that we went to, so I
will pick up back in Koh Phi Phi and also try to be more susscint than
previous entries:) The day we left Koh Phi Phi, Dan and I decided to do
a scuba diving session for the first part of the day which meant we had
to get ourselves out of bed at 7:00 to get there on time, eek! My
intructor was from Israel and Dan's grew up in NH or something, crazy how
different people from all over the world come to places like Thailand.
Anyway, as with each and every day, the weather was PERFECT, sunny with
clear blue skies and hot. I got briefed on the way to the first site
and soon enough, was thrown into the diving gear and into the water.
Divemaster Dan had done plenty of diving earlier in his trip so he got to
go deeper on both of the dives - whatever! I have to say, it was
awesome, seeing little "Nemo" clownfish, lion fish, reefs, coral, touching a
massive jellyfish, oversized clams, and I even saw a shark! Well, it
was a leopard shark which is pale-ish in color with black spots and
apparently liked to eat lobster and not humans, so that was comforting!
That day, we did two dives and lounged on the boat in between eating lunch
and snorkelling. Overall it was a relaxing and fun, aside from the
portion where I got my entire mask filled up with water and lost my
regulator in the same instant. I thought I was going to die, but I got the
regulator back in and frantically waved around in the water for the
instructor - who knows what the appropriate "signal" was for "I'm panicked
and I think I'm going to die," but I definitely got his attention.
Anyway, all was fine once I calmed down, but it was a bit scary. Dan also
had a blast since he was able to swim off whenever he wanted and also
was with only the one instructor so it wasn't as crowded as his classes.
Anyway, we got back in around 2, watched a bit of the video they made
of us doing the diving and headed to the boat. After about an hour, we
got to Koh Lanta, which is a beautiful island a bit further south. This island
was much bigger then the other stretches of beaches we'd been to and so
when we got off the ferry, it was clear that we had to launch our bags
and ourselves into the mode of transportation on the island -
motorcycles. This one had some sort of side carriage which we got into and hung
on for dear life. Everyone on the island from 12 year old boys to
grandfathers drives these smaller version motorcycles. The way it works is the
bikes stay to the left (they drive on the other side) and get passed by
the SUVs while they honk at you to get out of the way. So between not
knowing the roads, avioding sand and dirt, and trying to balance two
people on a bike, it can be a bit crazy. The Thais are not afraid though,
they often have three (!) people on the bike and or have their kid sit
in front of them while they zoom from place to place. Ridiculous.
Anyway, we went to bungalows that dan's fellow trevellers had
recommended and it was great - the guy Noot (? we called him Noose the whole
time) was so friendly and this was the nicest one we had been in. TV
included (although we did not really watch)!!! We rented a bike
immediately, at first I was hanging on to Dan for dear life, but by the end, I
was encouraging him to do stupid stuff on that bike, eek! The first
night, we took a drive down to the beach (about 2 minutes) and found a
restaurant that consisted of pretty tables set up right on the beach by the
ocean and ate there. The rest of the night we hung out with Noot on our
porch.
The following day, Dan and I took the bike around a dirt path (called a
road on the map, hmmm) on the non-touristy side of the island, where
you could see the various huts and houses that the Thai people live in.
The area seemed surprisingly green for the temperatures and the fact
that the land is so arid. I felt like we were so intrepid and off the
beaten path like in the movie "Motorcycle Diaries" (although I don't
think either Dan or I are going to become anything remotely like Che
Guevara!), the only problem was it was ridiculously hot! We stopped and
rented a longtail boat for a tour of mangrove tree groves and then continued
along the ocean road, stopping at a place with unbelievable views for
$2 fried rice. By the time we cut back across the island and got to our
bungalow, the novelty of the bike had worn off and my bootie was
hurting! A dip in the ocean solved all the probelms, though, and Dan and I
were raring to go out that night. We rolled into "opium bar" (which
ironically said "no drugs allowed" on the wall above the bar) and started
chatting with the bartenders and other peeps around the place, drinking
vodka tonics and various mixed drinks for the whole night. It was
actually a great bar with good music, mostly open-air and a great mix of
young Thai people and foreigners. I think we sat at our seats at the bar
for about 5 hours before a bit of dancing, so needless to say, we slept
in the next day and just dragged ourselves to the beach when we could
muster up the energy! We went further down the beach to other bungalow
areas and laid on the bamboo structures they laid out for you and just
chilled, eating at the place on the beach. After staying there to
watch the sun set (awww) we decided to check out a meal at a lovely little
thai place which was run by a Muslim family (the island was 95% muslim,
I think) whose girls were giggly and cute and managed to finally ask us
in English what our names were (and they told us they were learning to
speak it.) Actually another thing about Koh Lanta was that they have
the fewest tourists of all the islands, but they speak English the best.
Who knows. Anyway, we then headed to a "half moon party" which was in
no way on the scale of the "full moon party" Dan had been to before, but
it was still fun, involved many (too many) buckets, and sitting on the
beach listening to music. There were fire twirlers, decent djs and
plenty of revelry. We actually ended up sitting on the beach with an
Irish couple, Sam and Linda, who were a ton of fun. We chatted with them
about scuba diving and their travels (Sam is going to be travelling for
a year!, ummm, NO!) and drank buckets until Sam had to take Linda home
since she was sleeping on the beach!
The next day, we got up late and Dan, bless him, went to get the
motorcycle from the party spot. In Thailand, there is so much stuff going on
during the day that going out somewhat makes it difficult to pack
everything we want to do the next day, but... We managed to rouse
ourselves, get food, and go up the hill to go elephant trekking! We have
pictures which I'll send to Dan to put on, but basically we spent about an
hour in the basket on the elephant's back and then we both got to slide
onto his neck and sit there (holding on for dear life!) after which we
fed them little banannas as a thank you!
The rest of our time in Koh Lanta was just spent lazing around on
different beaches, eating, and watching the sunsets (oh, and I did a little
bit of shopping too, obvi!). I did see one cocroach but they just look
like big bettles, so they did not gross me out too much. We also had a
frog in our bathroom that would move from day to day, almost blending
in, also not gross. BUT one night, at a dinner at a restaraunt open on
sides (which was practically all of them), there was a HUGE three inch
preying mantis (I think that is the name) which was traumatizing --- it
walked really slowly and looked like it was dancing to the music and
kept heading in my direction, UGH. Other than under the water, there was
not too much wildlife!
Anyway, as we left Koh Lanta both Dan and I got a hug from Noot and he
said "see you next year." I wish! I was definitely sad to leave the
beach on Friday morning, and obviously sad to leave vacation and Dan.
Thailand is a wonderful place and I recommend it to everyone if you can
stand the flight! I will leave it up to Dan to mention all the cultural
differences and make the better analysis. Sorry all my entries are so
we did the we did that! That's it from me!
