#4 – Koh Lanta – Take to the Globe

Our 4th stop was recommended to us by our friends Brad & Dusty who had spent some time in Koh Lanta a few years ago and fallen in love with it.

Koh Lanta has a really laid back beach vibe to it. In fact you can actually purchase joints and mushroom shakes (yes hallucinogenic mushrooms) at beach bars, just in case you need help getting into the laid back atmosphere. Apparently the bars just pay off the authorities to look the other way.

While not being as picturesque as Koh Phi Phi, or having a nightlife like Phuket, Koh Lanta has an easy going way of life feel that makes you want to lose days relaxing on a beach in the middle of nowhere.

Koh Lanta is actually one of Thailands’ bigger islands!

But… in comparison to all of Thailand it’s still really small! (the Red dot with the black dot in the middle of it, at the bottom, is where Koh Lanta is located).

We decided to stay in the same area as our friends had stayed a few years before. We were told to locate their friend Danny (a local restaurant owner), and his restaurant…… which turned out was pretty easy to do, when his restaurant ended up being almost across the street from where we were staying.

His restaurant menu – he had such a large selection, he offered pizza, burgers, spaghetti and of course thai dishes. ($1 CAD = 25 Baht)

Looking into his restaurant. If you look hard enough you can see Danny shirtless in the background.

Of course we had to get a picture with Danny! We did eat at his restaurant every day of our 6 day stay in Koh Lanta!

Koh Lanta was our place to relax. We’d taken in a lot of tours, and done quite a bit on our trip so far, that we just needed some down time here.

We kicked back and relaxed for quite a few days on the balcony of our Guesthouse (of course we were forced outside because we thought that we would save money and only rent a room with a ceiling fan instead of AC – we realized our mistake when we unwillingly walked into the sauna that was our room during the day – so we spent our days outside in the shade instead!)

With all the time we had to relax I actually even convinced Mitch to read a book!

Mitch did sign up for fishing trip, but unfortuantely him and the one other guy that went (other than the guide) didn’t catch anything, and instead were rained on. He was definitely disappointed with it.

We also decided to learn to ride motorbikes in Koh Lanta because of its’ easy going, laid back feel. We rented a motorcycle and drove to “Old Town” on the other side of the island.

This isn’t our motorbike but the one we rented was similar to these.

And even though the water was pretty, the beach (if you can call it that) area was littered with trash.

We enjoyed old fashioned sodas in a waterfront restaurant in Old town

Because everything was so expensive here we decided to split Garlic Cheese Bread (yes that’s the cheese bread) and Squid (Calamari essentially) – we were very disappointed.

At least sitting on this rope swing after our meal was cool!

After Old Town, we went cave trekking (the cave was on the way back to our hotel). We paid 300 Baht ($12 CAD) to be guided through a cave. The trek up to the cave itself was physically demanding. Then the guide gave us headlamps and we descended on a wooden ladder down into a cave. It was really cool. We had a great group of people, 3 other people besides ourselves and the guide. We spent about an hour down in the cave climbing on narrow paths, looking at soaring caverns, avoiding the spiders that were larger than our hands just hanging out on the walls, and even getting down on our hands and knees to get through a narrow crawl space to exit the cave. Despite being so drenched in sweat that we were trying not to slip through the crawl space, it was an amazing experience!

Unfortunately the zero lighting in the cave didn’t provide for good photos, so this is our after photo with the other three people who came on the adventure with us!

Our last full day in Koh Lanta we spent getting Thai massages on this beautiful secluded beach that our hotel guy showed to us. Clear water, no rocks, and most importantly, very few people! Oh… and cows roaming the beaches.

The calves were actually letting people pet them!

When we finally had to leave we were sad to go. Koh Lanta doesn’t have many picturesque sites to see, but it has a great laid back vibe to it. The people there are really friendly, super helpful and Danny’s food was affordable and amazingly delicious! We’d definitely go back in a heart beat. Especially now that we found this gem of a beach!

Next Stop Ao Nang, Krabi!

Thanks for Reading!

Take to the Globe

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#4 – Koh Lanta

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