Ko Lanta, Thailand

After our 8 hour bus ride and two ferry crossings we had finally made it to Ko Lanta. Ko Lanta is a very chill, laid back island. When we arrived right away a random guy tried to sell us one of his friends bungalows for 400 baht (30 baht = $1 US). So I decided to check it out and when I got there his friend said they were 450, typical scam they do to get you to the hotel then raise the price when you get there, when I went back to talk with Teala about it the guy called his buddy and got him to finally drop to 400 if we would stay 3 nights. He reassured us we would not find anything cheaper so we decided to walk there and check out a few places on the way. Sure enough the place next door was just as nice and it was 350 baht! Plus the guy who ran it, Hyutee, was super cool, invited us to dinner two nights and was willing to honestly help us with any questions.

The following day we slept in till 11:30, which we havent not done the entire trip. We grabbed a little lunch and then went down to the beach to hang out only to get rained out an hour later. The rest of the day was spent playing cards and yahtzee on our front porch. Hyutee gave us dinner that night which turned out to be rice and beef, but hey were on a budget so we couldn't argue with that. After dinner we rented a motorbike and drove it down to the central market. We caught the very end of the market and walked around the street checking things out.

Since we had the motorbike for the next day we decided to venture out and explore the island. We drove as far south as we could until the rode ended. When we were on our way back north we turned off eastward to head to the otherside and arrived in Old Town Lanta. The town was small but nice. It had an old rustic feel to it with one main drag with stores and restaurants on each side. When we finished walking around we walked out onto the pier. It must be gelly fish hatching season because at one time I could count over 15 from where I was standing. Throughtout the walk out on the pier there must have been hundreds them! When we finished up in old town we were driving back and stopped at a book exchange to see if there was anything good. With no luck we continued on because you could hear thunder and see a storm rolling in. Five minutes before our bungalow it started raining, turning into a down pour by the time we arrived. We waited out the rain doing what we do, cards and yahtzee. When the rain finished we went back towards the market area and found a place to eat. Teala who was struggling because she read all her books found a book exchange and was able to trade some of her old books for two new ones.

The next day was a beach bumming day. We sat in beach chairs, read our books, played a few games of yahtzee and went for the occasional swim to cool off. "Living the dream" as Teala would say. I was amazed it didn't rain the whole day. Its kind of ironic, our entire trip it had rained a total of two days and then in Ko Lanta it had rained everyday. We still got lots of beach time in though and visited a lot of the island. After hanging at the beach we went back and cleaned up and walked around looking for a place to eat. After dinner we went to an internet cafe to catch up on some emails. We walked back home and packed up our bags for our 7:30am departure to Khao Sok.