We arrived on the Island of Ko Lanta very ill, tired and hungover. We overdid it in Phi Phi for sureee. We had yet again nowhere to stay but seeing as we were told that Lanta was very quiet we didn't think this was a problem...WRONG. The whole of Phi Phi decided to up and move to Lanta, meaning everywhere was full. We had heard that a place called Long Beach was the best spot to go to so we got in a Tuk Tuk and told the driver to go there, however being a dodgy Tuk Tuk driver, he had other ideas. He tried to get us to stay in this run down shack village place but we werent having it. Then Liss found the address of a nice looking dorm and we told him to take us there but he had no clue where he was going and ended up dropping us off at a random 7/11 shop...cheers thennn. However as fate would have it, we were in fact on Long Beach.

As everywhere was full, we were getting desperate and asking around. These two boys told us about some bungalows they were staying in up the road that were quite nice so we went to check them out. The name of them was 'Hutyee Boat Housena' and the guy who ran them was Hutyee Boat himself (or Tacky Boat as Lissy likes to say). He was a tall, skinny, very old man in Muslim dress. We approached and asked if he had rooms and after a few loud phonecalls he discovered that he had a cancellation..hurraaaay! He showed us to our bungalow which was a wooden/bamboo hut on stilts with a tin roof. It had 2 double beds, mosquito nets and our own private bathroom. It was actually really nice...few more bugs than normal! The group of bungalows were shaded by the jungley trees and there were chickens running about everywhere. We were also literally 30 seconds from the beach-we were impressed by our luck. It turns out that Hutyee is a bit of a local legend. He's a really kind man who will do anything for his guests, including offering them dinner with his family and providing his own tent as accommodation if he has no bungalows free. He was also there during the Tsunami apparently! He had quite a few grandchildren running around and they were obsessed with Lissy's Iphone and my tablet. I left the door of our bungalow open briefly once and came in to find children clambering all over lissy and her bed! It was cute at first but to add to Lissy's never-ending bad luck it turns out the little rascals had broken her camera!! She hadn't used it once.....

Our first night we went to 'the busiest saturday night' in Lanta at Korner bar on the beach, but compared to Phi Phi it was dead and we had a quiet one with our cans of Sprite. The next day we enjoyed that the beach wasn't as crowded and had the best nap of our lives. There was also a beautiful sunset that day which we both have about a million pictures of (lissy's on her phone of course) but they don't do it justice! In the evening we went to a free BBQ at 'Funky Monkey's'. It was great to have a free meal and the bar staff were really funny, getting 'Connect 4' out for us to play against them. We'd like to note that we are both extremely good at Connect 4 now. Unfortunately the pool tables weren't free and we've both been craving a good game of pool!

The next day we went to hire mopeds to see the island but they were all out (we were slightly grateful) so instead we got bicycles! It was a fun day riding around the island but we were knackered and so hot!! In the evening we went to a Pub Quiz at an Irish bar that we'd seen advertised in the day. The questions were definitely not aimed at us though! We came joint last with 2 other teams on 15 points and lived up to our teamname 'the unlucky ladies'. It was surreal being in an irish bar, full of brits, on somewhere so remote. After our loss we took ourselves home for an early night ahead of our trip to Ko Samui the next day.

We were rushed out of our rooms before 8am when our minibus taking us to the ferry was early?! (It is very unusual in Thailand for any form of transport to be early!) Our driver was a lunatic and we grabbed for our seatbelts straight away. We were in a rush because there were two car ferries and one big passenger ferry to catch to get to the island of Samui which is the other side of the mainland. They do this massive rush everyday of course but we have no idea why they just don't set off earlier! It was such an uncomfortable and squished journey too, but luckily we knew we had somewhere booked for our stay in Samui so there was one less stress when we got there!