Arrived in Koh Lanta on NYE, after an easy boat ride, Kenny seeing jellyfish the size of footballs, and it was 10baht pp to enter the island. As usual you are bombarded by tuk tuks and I had figured by now that they always rip you off. So the 1st one said 300baht (I knew the journey only took 7-10mins) so as Kenny walked off with him, the next one approached me and said 150. Happy days so we jumped in with him. This caused a bit of disagreement between the drivers, oops but at least we avoided get ripped off. Next was the task of getting our luggage in; now this one was basically a small moped,aye a Honda 90, with a wooden side cart with a roof. So this supported Mr, Kenny, 2x20kg bags and two daypacks 7kg each, so a lot of wait in there. We went very slowly and when we turned corners I thought we would top over, but we made it in one piece, albeit 5imd slower than expected. We arrived at our hostel called Let it Bee, which was near long beach. There were very nice people working there, but the thai lady struggled carrying my small bag up the stairs lol. The room had good aircon,
lockers and a curtain by each bed so you had some privacy. Also a nightlight abc a plug by each bed. We walked out of hostel and found out way to the beach. Our first stop was called Somewhere, a beachfront bar/restaurant, with individual huts right on the sand. So we took one of those and had dinner whilst watching sunset. An absolutely beautiful beach. Good mix of people old and young and not too crowded. Pure bliss. We lay about hostel for a few hours, booked a snorkelling trip for tomorrow with the nicest happy smiling couple from Everyone travel just across from the hostel. We met a few more people which was nice and arranged to meet Sandra here. But the lack of wifi once we left the hostel meant we didn't get to see her. Then we headed to the beach with of couple of Leo, to see in new year with fireworks (I hid behind the tree after Lewis's horror stories and photos of his firework accident in Thailand) and watch the lanterns being set off. It was very pretty and chilled, just what we wanted :) I actually hadn't chosen Koh Lanta for any particular reason other than I'd heard it was less touristy and had cheap accommodation for NYE.

Happy new year!! We were picked up on the back of a Toyota Hilux, with benches in it and taken to Lanta old town, for our four islands snorkel trip by going south to the Trang Islands. This included stops at Koh Mah and Koh Chuerk for snorkelling, the emerald cave in Koh Mook and Koh Kradan for a beautiful beach lunch. Made it too the boats, and waited around for about 30minutes before getting into our longtail boat. We regretted the decision as soon as we got on, having seen the comfort and shelter those on the big boat had. You get what you pay for; ours was 750baht, there's was 1200baht. Our second regret was our choice of seat on the boat: thinking we'd stay away from the engine as it was really loud, we sat at the front of the boat, with still a little bit of shelter; wrong choice. So before we started he told us it was going to be a bit rocky, that was fine as we had been on a few rough boats before. But what we didn't bank on was getting absolutely soaked for one whole hour. It felt like someone was just continuously throwing buckets of water at us, soo much so Kenny had to try and shake the water out of his ear. We were freezing. Couldn't wait to get into the water for the first snorkel, as it was warmer. Very pretty, right by huge 30m limestone cliffs. A couple of cool fish, but not the best. The next stop was the cave and we realised this was one of the times that the amount of tourists ruins things. Pulled up and there were already at least 10-12 big boats there. People were going into the caves, in lines, holding onto each other life jackets with the guide at the front holding the torch. We couldn't see where we were going without the light. After Kenny grabbing an older woman's leg thinking it was mine and her turning round to me saying, 'you can hold onto my life jacket of you like', me not having a clue why she said that until later on when me and Kenny giggled about it. At the other side, there was a tiny beach but you could hardly see the sand, there were that many people. The guide said 20mins here, we said 10 as there was nowhere to go. Saw a group of 3 friends who had there passports, wallets, phones and cameras in their dry bag and hadn't sealed it up properly and everything got ruined :( poor people. I'm soo safety conscious and always wonder whether it's best to trust and leave the stuff or take it with us. On this occasion, it worked out beat leaving it on the boat. The day did get better, as the beach they took us to for lunch was absolutely beautiful. Nothing on it apart from us and the lunch was pretty good too. After that, we done our final bit of snorkelling; this was a lot better. The dread boat ride back wasn't as bad for us as we snagged better seats, but there were two guys who got completely drenched both on the way there and the way back. Poor b*****s.
Then in the car on the way back, we saw wild monkies in the trees, that's a first. And random elephants being walked along the road. We went back to the hostel for a wee snooze, love when you get a room you can do that, then ate at Papaya restaurant, directly opposite the hostel. Cheap, good and quick, what more could we ask for. We booked our boat Lanta to Ao nang for 450baht each and we were set for tomorrow.

We got picked up by the Hilux and taken to the ferry. After confusion with tickets and passenger numbers, leaving Lisa and Aaron standing, then going back to pick them up and me handing my ticket to the driver, it was a bit disorganised. That's Thailand for you. Then we get to the check in desk amongst the crowds of people, and we need to hand over our ticket. Of course we gave it to the driver who was nowhere around. We explain where we booked it and where we were to be collected from and I think that's where the confusion was. So she keeps saying, check your bag. I only have the envelope that the ticket was in but no ticket as I gave it to the driver. We find the driver and he flat out denies he took out ticket. I wanted to cry and Kenny was soo angry. Considering this was a ticket we booked and paid for ourselves, not through our usual travel company, I didn't want to have to buy another ticket and had no real backup. Anyway, she went on the phone, who knows what was said, but before she had even got off, the other girl asked where we were going and gave us the sticker (allows you on the boat). I think she just felt sorry for us and we were getting in the way with our huge backpacks. New Years resolution was to get rid of 4kg; next place we definitely will. Boat journey was fine and the scenery was beautiful, seeing Railay beach. On arrival, a tuk tuk driver tried to get us to take private transport with him. Note: never take the first tuk tuk driver, they are always going to overcharge. The staff member from the boat was directing people to the buses, turned out there was a complimentary bus, happy days and this took us to our hotel: Green view village resort. We had a nice rustic hut with just a fan, but that was fine. Decent bathroom, bench for our bags and a nice we porch out front with a table and chairs. Was just a nice temperature here, so didn't need AC. Also a nice pool that looked upon the beautiful cliffs. Really pretty. That evening, we just headed out for street food and I got a potato!! :D this made me extremely happen. Kenny had been really sick all day, s***s again, so had an early night.

The day we decided just to chill. Got up and had breakfast; O my word! It was amazing and I completely stuffed my face. You know when you get overexcited and think you need to eat everything you see... That was me. They had the usual eggs (we've had them every place that we had included breakfast) and toast, but also good coffee, a large assortment of fruit, Danish pastries, different juices, cereal with yoghurt or milk, I was in heaven. Whilst Kenny had one plate as he wasn't hungry. Went to lie by the pool but there weren't enough loungers so lay on the ground until one was free.
Went for a walk around Ao bang, right down to the beach then a bit further along, just nosing into the shops. Met up with Jo and Shaun from Koh Phi Phi and also John and Lisa from Koh Lanta and had some dinner at Cheap Cheap restaurant. Cheap and good although we had all finished dinner by the time Kennys burger had came. Popped next door to the pharmacy and they happily sold him antibiotics over the counter for his dodgey ass. Hopefully gets him sorted as the weight has just dropped off him. Went for a few cocktails with Jo and Shaun, said our final goodbyes and back to the hotel we went.