Ko Lanta

This is going to be a real short blog because we only stayed for the night. We got back to Phi Phi Don at about 10:30am and had our ferry to Ko Lanta booked for 11:30. We pretty much had some food and left on the 1.5 hour trip to Lanta. We arrived to a rickity old wooden pier in the baking sun with no idea where to stay or where to go. Me and sarah had different ferry tickets to the other 3 (Dan, Rach and Gem) so our first challenge was to try and find them. We thought that we would arrive at the same place but we found out that their ferry docked further up the island.

We went outside to find a taxi or tuk tuk but i decided to walk it instead, apparently it was only 5 mins up the road. Sarah wasnt to impressed with me making her walk what turned into a 15 min walk in the baking mid day sun with our big ass backpacks on haha, but we made it just in time to cath them as they got off the ferry and they had already found a real good deal for accomodation so she soon forgave me (i think). We got a free transfer all the way down to Klong Nin Beach where our beach huts were, yes more beach huts :) We also found out from our driver that we had picked one of the best areas to stay as lots of the accomodations further up the island loose the chance to swim in the sea because the tide goes so far out whereas where we were the sea stays much further in at low tide. It was quite stange as it all the same island but we did see on the drive the beaches with no sea and when we got to our huts there was plenty of sea to swim in!

We were only there for the day and night and it was to be where the group would split again :( so we booked our transport in different directions for the following day. Dan and Rach were heading back to Phi Phi to do their PADI license and me sarah and gem were heading off to Malaysia. The resort where we were staying had great food and the dining area was on the beach. We sat in the sun for the rest of the day enjoying our last day together. We watched the sun set and then went back to get ready for our last dinner together. The resort where we were staying had great food so we decided to eat there, the tables were out on the beach, the atmosphere was really chilled and was nice and quiet. We had some crazy food, check the pics, flaming hot plates cooked in front of us and rice in a pineapple all of which tasted lovely! We had some funky cocktails and chatted about our travells, it was a sad but nice night.

Later on that evening me sarah and gem needed to get cash out and the closest ATM was apparently a 10 min walk up the road. I grabbed my torch and we set off up the road. We chatted for ages and then realised that we had been walking for ages and still not come to the ATM, we asked someone and they said we still had a fair bit to go so the 10 mins we were told was a load of rubbish but hey we got to see some more of Ko Lanta so it was ok. We carried on up the road for a while longer, we must have done a mile or 2 by now when we decided to cross the road, just as were were half way across a moped came flying round the corner and swerved to miss Gem, the guy fell off and hit the floor, we saw loads of liquid around the front of the moped and thought the worst but as we got over to him all we could smell was whisky and realised the liquid was the bottle of whisky he was carrying that had smashed on the floor. The driver was thai, he got up and had a few scratches but nothing major, he didnt speak english but we made sure he was ok and we both went on our way again. People came out of their houses after hearing the crash but once they saw he was ok they just went back inside as if this stuff happens all the time! We saw the moped driver talking to his friends afterwards, we were in the middle of a pretty local area with no other tourists around so we decided not to carry on to the ATM and made our way down to a bar onthe beach where we saw more people. It turned out to be a really cool bar so we had a quick Chang and walked home on the beach just incase the moped driver tried to cause any hassle.

Walking along the beach we saw loads of crabs running all over the pace and found a pretty big hermit crab which was cool. When we got out of the lit up area i looked down and saw neon blue lights where i was walking after each foot step. it was the plancton again! it was really nice, we started hitting the sane harder as we walked and lots of tiny blue neon lights would appear, very cool!

We finally got back to our hut and pretty much went staright to be after our eventfull walk. We woke up early to catch our minibus that would take us to the ferry that would then take us over to Trang. In the morning we said our goodbyes and went on our way. Me, sarah and gem only bought tickets to Trang, a town on the mainland and were then planning to get the public bus down to Pinang (Malaysia). We arrived at Trang and found that the only way to malaysia was going through Hat Yai. It was all a bit confusing, there were no public busses and no trains so the only option if we wanted to get to Pinang that even was another private minibus. We had to do it so jumped in the last bus to Hat Yai and the lady was nice enough to ask the linking minibus in Hat Yai to wait for us as were going to be a bit late so it made spending the money seem worth it. Usually, the minibus to Pinang would have left about an hour before we were due to arrive.

We got to Hat Yai and swapped minibusses and carried on down towards Malaysia. Sarah was getting a bit worried because her Thai visa had run out and they fine you or if you stay to long they can put you in jail, this plus me and gem making jokes about her goign to prison amde her stress out a bit...ooops. We got to the border of thailand where they stamp you out and sarah had to pay a 5000 baht fine, about 100 punds for being over by 5 days. It was a lot of money but at least it was done now so we could move of without the worry, well....untill another few hundred meters where we then had to go through the Malaysian border. me and gem went through and got out visa stamped, sarah came through and the officer didnt stamp her visa, she didnt think anything of it but then our driver said run back and get it stamped so she ran back but the officer had gone of the pray so she couldnt. We had to carry on but now sarah was worried about not having the stamp on her visa bless her, the journey wasnt going to great for her! We later found it was ok as she wasnt staying long so we relaxed and let the bus take us all the way to Pinang.