Too many buckets
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
8
51
Trip End
??? ??, 2006
Ko Lanta, Karabi,
Thailand
Friday, December 3, 2004
When not studying the Bangkok Post over breakfast (Me - funny things said by the Prime Minister, Brian - the sports pages) we did lots of chilling out in Ko Lanta. It was exactly what we needed after the dodgy, Spanish resort style place that is Phuket. Lanta is a really laid back island with beautiful beaches all lined with coconut trees, pretty restaurants, bars and bungalows. At Long Beach where we stayed the sand was golden and the water crystal clear. We stayed at the Lanta Sand Resort where for a whooping 500 baht (10 euros) a night we had a gorgeous bungalow on the beach with lots of gekkos to eat the mozzies and got our room cleaned every day! Totally luxury for backpackers in Thailand.
After a few days of swimming and sunbathing we realised that the most difficult thing we did everyday was chosing what cocktail to drink when watching the sunset (yet again we're staying on another sunset beach facing west - people like us just wouldn't fully appreciate a sunrise beach). So we got our act together and learned how to dive.
We couldn't drink for a few days when we were learning to dive which was a welcomed change. Our instructor - Amelia at Scool Diving - was brilliant and good craic. The two days out on the boat diving were great and we met loads of lovely people. Apart from the English husband of the woman who was learning to dive with us. He was obnoxious and no matter what anyone was talking about he'd say "that reminds me of sky-diving" and then talk about sky-diving for ages. I know it's probably very scarey and cool but from my limited experience of them sky-divers are extremely boring.
We were sober and drinking cokes for the full moon night in Ko Lanta. Luckily enough there was also a big festival on called Loy Krathong. On the night of the full moon everyone put beautiful floats with flowers, candles, money and incense into the sea. It's supposed to take away all your worries and sadness from the previous year and bring lots of good luck for the next.
The food (can't forget the food) here has been great - usually eaten at a little table on the beach. We've had lots of curries - red, green, coconut, penang, massuman and my personnal favorite: EVIL JUNGLE CURRY. The waiter tried to talk Brian out of ordering it explaining that it was only for Thai people who can handle a lot of chillies. There's also been lots of barbacues, fresh fish but I'm feeling a bit guilty about that now after doing the diving. Not content to just eat the food we went along to a cooking course at a place called "Time for Lime' one evening. Whilst chopping and stirring we met a lovely couple called Marie and Mark from Scotland. Hopefully next time we're in Scotland they'll invite us round for some coconut curry soup, fish cakes and grilled baracuda! But I'd settle for some haggis.
Thanks to Mikey in Australia we found out that Lynn Hicks and Ed Booth from home were somewhere on the island. So we wandered down Long Beach one day looking for them. Long Beach lives up to it's name and by the time we reached the very end we had to go into a restaurant for some food and drink. And who was in the restaurant?
We all headed out that night together with Ed's friends Hugo and Yvette. After a few beers the first bucket of Thai whiskey was ordered. After the fifth bucket Brian and Ed decided they were drunk enough to swing fire around their heads (my pictures seem to have disappeared from my camera but if I find them again I'll put them up). After that we all lost count of the number of buckets. I woke up the next day in bed with Lynn and the lads were found asleep on the porch.
We managed to stay in Ko Lanta for 11 days. We could stay a lot longer. But it's already December and there's places to go and more people to meet before we leave South East Asia.
