Oh Mylanta! I'm In Ko Lanta!

So with our new course charted out, Janelle, Roy, and I rode the ferry from over-priced, over-crowded Ko Phi Phi to Ko Lanta. Ko Lanta is only an hour and a half or so by boat, and is quickly becoming one of the more popular islands in the region. It was a bright, sunny day, and I took the opportunity to do a bit of sunning on the deck of the ferry on the way to Lanta.

Because of the tout we met on Phi Phi, we already had a hotel and a ride waiting for us, so it was nice not having to deal with the chaos of arriving in a new place without a place to stay. As a backpacker, whenever you arrive at a new city/island/country, you're always swarmed immediately upon arrival with touts asking you if you have a place to stay, if you need a ride, if you want to stay at their place, etc. This may sound helpful, but when it's dozens - or more - of touts just screaming over each other, thrusting flyers in your face, and literally pulling you to come with them, the whole charade is more than a little overwhelming.

And Ko Lanta wasn't any different. There was a literal gauntlet that you had to walk through right as soon as you got off the ferry. A long line of touts - probably at least 30 or 40 I'd say - screaming and jumping and dancing and throwing shit at you just to get your attention so you'll go with them. Thankfully we could just ignore it all and follow our own tout to our ride.

Our ride turned out to be a big pick-up truck, and so Janelle and Roy and an English couple rode inside the cab with the driver (how they all fit is beyond me, but Asians are good at defying the laws of physics and packing people into ever-smaller spaces) and I jumped into the back of the truck, along with five young Israeli teenagers and a 63-year old American male. A second later we were all racing down the road through Lanta, wind in our hair, clutching desperately onto the mountain of backpacks so as not to get flung out the back, on the way to our hotel. Good times!

We stayed at the Lanta Pavillion Resort and it was quite a nice place. Janelle and I managed to bargain down the price of our room as were said we'd stay for a whole week, and so by paying up front you can get major discounts. Our room was quite nice, with having our own bed each, aircon, and even a hot water shower. We were all set for a week of fun in the sun here in Ko Lanta, but unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans...

It rained almost every single day of our week-long stay on Ko Lanta, and here we were thinking that we could escape from the rain by switching coasts. Oh, you silly tourists! It rains everywhere, all the time in Thailand! Technically it's the end of the rainy season and beginning of the dry season, but according to the locals this year is much wetter than normal. It kinda sucks getting so much of the wet stuff here towards the end of our holiday, but Janelle and I still managed to have a good time on Ko Lanta.

We got a bit of beach time in, between rainy periods, but to be honest the beach wasn't all that spectacular. The sand was a bit coarse, there was a lot of broken coral bits mixed in with it, and a lot of rocks and coral in the too-shallow water which made swimming a bit challenging. When you're on the Southeast Asia Circuit, and you see a lot of beaches, you get to be a bit picky. I'm sure anyone at home would give their left nut/titty to spend a day at this beach, but it's hard when you've 'been around the island block' like I have (and oh baby yeah I've been around that block!) and not to compare it with others.

Fortunately we met some great people to during our stay on Lanta which helped to liven things up. On our first night we met two brothers named Dave and Anthony from England, and they were a blast and a half to hang out with. On our first night on the island they took us out to one of the bars, Opium, and we had a fantastic night drinking beer, playing pool, and chatting it up. It turned out to be quite a late night, with quite a few drinks, and one that involved more transport in the back of a pickup to and from the bar. When we got back to our resort we went up the beach to another bar, and I think by the time Janelle and I went to bed it was around 4am. Good times!

Dave and Anthony left a day or two later, and it was disappointing to see those two very fun lads go, but luckily new friends came along to keep Nellie, Roy, and I entertained. A very lively couple - again from England - strolled into town and we became fast friends with Baz and Lucie. One of the nights in town we all went back to Opium again, and had another round(s) of drinks late into the night. Lucie and Janelle did some dancing while us boys 'shot the shit' and enjoyed the warm evening. And of course we took - again - silly drunken photos in the back of the truck on the way home again. Too fun!

After a few days of the rain and gloom, Janelle and I were getting a bit of cabin fever. We wanted to be out and about doing things on the island, but all the activities are outdoors and therefore weather-dependent. Finally one night we had some clear skies and so Janelle and I decided to book a boat trip for the next day and hoped for good weather.

And on this day, Mother Nature smiled down on us and offered us a truly beautiful day. Oh, she can be so kind sometimes! It was a clear sunny day and the two of us boarded a big boat with a bunch of other tourists (Roy had already left the island at this point.) It was a day full of snorkelling and other water adventures, and was action-packed all day. We went to four islands altogether, and the first two were for snorkelling. And what amazing snorkelling it was! We were down in Ko Lanta National Marine Park which is full of all these tiny islands that rise up steeply out of the Andaman Sea's emerald green waters like limestone sugar lumps, and surrounding them is tons and tons of coral. And of course, where there's coral, there's tropical fish. On both islands there were so many fish of so many shapes and colours it was hard to believe they were real. And they weren't afraid of us at all! At times I was actually swimming through entire schools of tropical fish - like there were inches from my face/hands - and it was so magical! Even the technicolour coral reefs were pretty spectacular. Wow!

We had lunch on the boat after the second island, and then it was on to Island #3. This island's draw is the fact that it has a secret sea cave. Okay it's not secret anymore, but it used to be. This island's cliffs are again sheer and plunge right into the sea, but there's this cave that has an entrance right at sea level that you can swim into. We all swam into the cave as a group, and led by our guide, we swam deeper and deeper into the cave. Now as you know I'm a bit claustophobic and don't like caves all that much, but luckily for me this one was pretty wide and the ceilings were quite high above the water's surface the whole way through. Well we got about half-way through the cave, around a bend, and it was pitch black inside. Seriously, you couldn't see a damn thing at all. The guide had brought a flashlight to help us find the way, but it was so small it barely lit anything up at all. At this point I started to get really nervous, but then right at that moment we turned another corner and saw light at the end of the tunnel.

And what an amazing surprise awaited us there...

At the end of the cave, you come out, and you're on a beach! A secret beach! It's a beach that's surrounded completely by rock walls that rise several hundred feet 360 degrees around this beach. The only way to get to this beach is through that cave! It's like it's in a hole or something in the middle of the island. It was unbelievable! It looked like something that would be built for a Hollywood set, like you would never imagine it possible to occur naturally on its own. Apparently, back in the day, pirates used to store treasure here cause no one knew about it's whereabouts, and in recent years locals come to the beach to catch birds that live in nests in the surrounding cliffs. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen in my life! We spent a few minutes wandering around the small beach, and gazing up at the narrow rock enclosure all around us. Wow!

After swimming back out of the cave, we switched to a speed boat which took us to our fourth and final island. This place - god knows where we were in the park at this point - was a small island with the nicest beach ever. A place for us to swim and relax and just take in the scenery. It was truly a freaking gorgeous beach. Soft white sand, clear waters that were the temperature of a bathtub, numerous islands off in the distance, and a big blue sky with puffy white-cotton clouds. It was seriously right out of a postcard! It's hard to believe that these places are actually real, even when you're standing right in the middle of this heaven on earth. Janelle and I did not want to leave, and did some swimming and sunning before it was time to go.

We took the speed boat back to the harbour, only this time went around the back side of the island through all these cool mangrove swamps. We got back around 4pm and were so excited from our truly fantastic day. This one perfect day more than made up all those days of rain and cloud, and we felt that our diversion to Lanta was now validated!

You'd think that would be the end of our great day, but things were just getting going. That night our resort was hosting a big party to celebrate the grand opening of it's beachside bar, and of course we had to partake in those festivities! Everyone who was anyone was at this party, and it was such a blast. Baz and Lucie were there of course, as well as lots of other guests from all over - the chatty girls from Ireland, smiley Johnny from Finland, and the group of six Swedes who are so fucking gorgeous it hurts to look at them cause god they all belong on the cover of a magazine. Later on we made friends with Ian from England and Anthony from France, and everyone was mingling together.

Several pina coladas later, the party started to get a little more crazy. Our table was the wild one at the party, and we were the first to begin dancing. And then things really got going. Janelle ripped open Lucie's blouse, exposing her granny bra and ample bosom, much to Lucie's shock/glee. Baz and Lucie rocked out to air guitar with a broomstick, and then later with an actual guitar. Limbo got started up, and the Swedes were all gifted in that department. Shots were a-flowing. 1000 crazy photos were taken. Everyone was laughing. It was one of the craziest, funnest nights of my trip yet. It was all a wondrous blur of one crazy moment after another and was truly a great party. I passed out sometime around 2:30am, I think, and Janelle hit the hay sometime after that.

Baz and Lucie left the next morning, and luckily Nellie and I had a day to relax (and recover) on the island. It was another gray day, so we were sure glad that we had caught the nice weather the day before. The next day Janelle and I packed up all our stuff, said goodbye to Ko Lanta, and boarded a ferry for our next - and final destination of the trip - Railay Beach on Krabi. I'm sad that Project Wanderlust is almost over - can you belive how fast five months has gone by? - but I'm really excited about this place. Krabi is world-famous for its incredible scenery, and I think it's going to make a great ending to a really, really awesome trip!