Ko Lanta, Thailand
April 14, 2014
The journey from Koh Mook to Koh Lanta was a fabulous boat trip. It was the cheapest deal by a long way and it was six hours that included an hour snorkeling off Koh Kradan and two 40 minute stop offs at some very small islands that are just rocks for some more snorkeling before heading on to Koh Lanta.
To catch the boat we were ushered yet again into another taxi boat from Charlie beach around the corner to where the Emerald cave is located and told we would be able to go in the cave as this was part of the days activities. Happy days we thought as we didn’t manage to do it the day before when we were out Kayaking. But alas the cave will have to be seen another time as when we arrived at the main boat the people who were already on there were climbing back on board having just swam back from the cave and now the boat was ready to head over to Koh Kradan.
We had talked for a while about maybe going to Koh Kradan for a night or two as we had heard the snorkeling there was immense but we decided against it as places to stay there are really limited and expensive in comparison to the other islands. But I so wish we had stayed there now looking back on it. Koh Kradan is beautiful with the clearest waters of any of the islands. The beach stretches out for fifty yards at waist height before you hit a 100 yard curving stretch of coral that then drops off into deeper water. The amount of marine life on that stretch of coral is amazing. So many different species of fish that I don’t even know what half of them were. Giant clams dotted about in the lower parts of the reef and shoals of fish flitting around you in every direction you looked. I didn’t want to leave. We only had the hour and then had to be back aboard before heading to Koh Ngai to pick up a couple more travelers then on to another two snorkeling spots. I think we will head back this direction again in a few months time when we come back through Thailand as you could easile spend days on Koh Kradan just snorkeling around and enjoying the reef. So we may be back here soon, who knows.
The other two spots en-route to Lanta were decent for snorkeling as well. The first one in particular. A massive limestone pillar erupting out of the turquoise waters that also had a lot of good coral around it. The main highlight here was a massive purple moray eel curled up among some shadowy rocks. You couldn’t see how long it was but every time it moved you certainly sharpened your reflexes ready to swim off as it was a beast of a creature.
Once underway again it was only another hour until we docked at the old town in Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta is also an island but like Phuket it is connected to the mainland via a bridge as it is that close. Compared to the Islands we have been on so far Koh Lanta was massive. It has real roads and traffic. Streets and a fleet of 7-Eleven’s. I’ve enjoyed the smaller more desolate islands so Lanta was quite the culture shock having come from the tranquility of Koh Mook. That said Lanta is about as far away from a busy party island as you can get and has a very local feel about it despite the fact that the West coast is all beaches and tourist streets. The fact it is now low season probably added to the quiet sedate local atmosphere.
Once sorted with somewhere to stay we headed down the beach to check out sunset. It took all of 30 yards before we stumbled across ‘Freedom Bar’ which had some big massive signs outside advertising some local wares for sale. At this point I have been massively scratching my head at what the exact drug laws in Thailand are as I always knew them to be very strict with all drugs yet everywhere you look on the islands there are places advertising that you can pop in and buy pretty much whatever you desire. I’ve checked on the internet and the laws are strict however apparently they are not enforced in any way on the islands due to a lack of police presence. The small Police presence that is on the islands are generally paid by the local bar owners to turn a blind eye so safe to say we enjoyed another relaxed and very chilled sunset in Thailand that night.
We had a few days to kill in Lanta ahead of the Songkran festival at the weekend so we opted for the good old favorite of hiring a motorbike to go off exploring. It’s cheap enough here at a few quid a day so off we tootled to see what we could find. Lanta is much bigger than the other islands we have explored so far but still only takes around 40 minutes to cover from one end to the other on a bike so it didn’t take long to get our bearings and know where things were.
In truth there is not a lot at all on Lanta. Some caves that are massively overpriced to visit courtesy of the family that has the house nearest to the cave entrance and a National Park area down at the South of the island. We decided to check out the National park area and were happily weaving our way down the coast climbing up and down undulating hills until we hit a hill that was a little too much for the bike to handle, well more likely that I couldn’t handle. I’m no biker and have very little experience so when I dropped the bike down into first as it was now grinding to a halt in second I was surprised to pop the craziest of static wheelies as the nose reared up and flung the two of us off the back of the bike. All my manly kudos points vanished in front of my eyes as I sat there on the ground nursing my wounds with a bike laying on its side next to me. Thankfully Dani was ok as the day pack broke her fall and I got off lightly with a few deep grazes on my feet and knees but apart from that it was a lucky escape.
That mellowed us out for the next few days running up to Songkran. We took things real easy as I couldn’t walk too far or go in the water with my wounds so we settled into Thai life, relaxed and planned where we would go and what we would do for Songkran.
Songkran is the Thai New Year. It usually takes place over several days but in Lanta there was only one main day on the Saturday when there were going to be celebrations. It’s a festival of water for a few reasons. Traditionally showering each other with water cleanses away the old sins and ushers in the new clean year. Also as the New Year occurs during the hottest month of the year it is a way for everyone to cool off in the ridiculous heat….and it is now a ridiculous heat here in Thailand. So after much searching for the biggest yet cheapest water pistols we could find we were sufficiently tooled up and ready to hit the streets in search of water war! We dropped the bike off where we rented it and the wife of the guy was really nice and took us all the way along to the jetty on her tuk tuk where most of the festivities would be occurring on the island.
The lady was Muslim as are most of the Thais on Lanta and she said they do not get involved with the water spraying and fights yet somehow she had decided to bring her daughter along for the ride and took great delight in pulling over at every opportunity where there were water stations in order to laugh at me getting doused with bucket after bucket of cold icy liquid.
The rest of the day is all one wet blur, in a good way. The time flew past as we trundled ever so slowly up the road stopping at whichever bars we could find that were joining in and had massive barrels of water filled up ready for showering each other. It’s a great festival and one I’m really glad we managed to catch at the right time with it being annual. Everyone seems to get involved and it’s great to see families taking their kids out to get wet and spray each other and join in. It’s completely different to New Year back home.
Just as much drink as back home but much more of a community feel about how they involve everyone. Bikes full of girls pull up wanting to be soaked. Tuk Tuk drivers who have just picked up new travelers from the pier make a point of slowing down to make sure the new arrivals are instantly involved. Massive trucks full of locals crawl their way down the street complete with several barrels of water in the back to keep them going for a few hours at a time before refueling. It is such a good laugh with everyone in great spirits and a cracking way to celebrate your New Year in a hot country. Battle worn, drunk and drenched through we crawled back in at some point in the early hours and crashed out.
The next day we were hopeful that the water frolics might have continued for a second day but alas not, the streets were empty and nobody passing was either wet or sporting a water based weapon. A couple of drinks picked our heads back up and we sorted out another scooter to go tootling around on again.
The beaches on Lanta stretch for miles down the coast. There is something like 9 beaches in total and as it’s on a straight stretch it makes sense to be able to get around easily. At some point that day as we scooted off down tiny tracks to see where they took us to we forgot all about getting out of Koh Lanta and moving on after the festival so hadn’t booked a boat up for the next day. Yet again we stayed on another night on one of the islands and as I’m slowly finding out they are very hard places to leave.
It was another full day before we sorted a boat out of Koh Lanta after deciding that Koh Phi Phi would be the next island on a rapidly growing list of islands to visit. That’s the great thing about traveling, that your never rushed and can stay as long as you want if you like a place. The Thai islands so far are certainly not a place I’m rushing to get away from. The have a definite charm about them and although massively built around tourism you still have opportunities for you to enjoy island seclusion with some of the best scenery you are likely to encounter. Every single island looks stunning. You pass many while sailing from one to the next that you know would be great to visit but also realise that you could quite easily spend a full year on the islands alone without even noticing the time go by. As in Koh Lipe, a few days on Lanta turned into almost a week. Boat is now booked for Phi Phi and it’s time for a different islands culture now.
