The ferry to Ko Lanta from Phi Phi on Sat 25 Feb took just over an hour which was great. As expected we were greeted off the boat by lots of hotel touts and tuk tuks but they were actually quite pushy here, more so than anywhere else we have been in the south islands of thailand. At one point And and I had become separated for a minute and one tout actually followed me, pushing a leaflet against my arm over and over despite me saying 'no thank you, no thank you' repeatedly to him...then up strides Andrew in his broad welsh accent (he had seen it all happen) and he boomed 'she said no thank you mate, alright?!' - needless to say the tout soon left me alone he he!!

After walking about 10 minutes away from the pier we managed to get a motorized tuk tuk for a fraction of the price...problem was we had no idea where we really wanted to go! We hadnt really bothered doing much research, but quickly looked at a map and told the lado to head to 'Long Beach'. It took about 15-20 mins to get there, it was so so hot today too and so we just took the first hotel we found 'Lanta Pearl Beach Resort' , it was more than we wanted to pay but was a really nice place so we thought it will do for one night and once we are free of our rucksacks we will find a cheaper place. We were really impressed with it, although it was more than what we wanted to spend but the bamoboo hut was secure - no open bathroom, no holes the floor or roof, so i was relaxed thinking it would be bug free....hmm...not so! That night when we got back in from the wales england rugby match (More about that later :) ) and Andrew had to kill a massive evil looking spider which was climbing up our white wall....soon after there was an army of ants carrying the dead spiders body parts in piceces, up the wall, to their little cubby hole somewhere. Nice! Andrew was winding me up that in the middle of the night he would wake up to me being carried away by an ant army!

We watched the wales england rugby match down the road on our fist night, in an irish pub as we knew there would be a good crowd there. We ended up watching the match and going for post match celebratory drinks with a lovely welsh couple called Mitchell and Beth, who knew our friends Darren and Helen from Swansea, what a small world! We throughly enjoyed the rugby match and seeing Wales beat England (horray!!) and celebrated afterwards by taking the scooter to a near by busy bar while Beth and Mitchell got a tuk tuk. Great way to start Ko Lanta, thanks Wales!

We ended up staying on Ko Lanta for 3 more nights after that but we moved to a place nearly half the price and just up the road, but it air con, a TV, free wifi, a balcony and had no ant armies! Horray! Really we probably didnt need to stay on Lanta for 4 nights but we had such a good price on that room we decided just to chill and enjoy ourselves. We rented a scooter for 2 of the days on Lanta, Andrew drove of course (I really dont think id be safe!) and we explored lots. Lanta has a nice old town area and also a gypsey area where lots of gypsies moved to years ago. We went to suss it out but left pretty quickly as we did feel like we were being a bit invasivve! The gypsy area had a lovely restauarnt though with the friendliest ever people, so we had a drink there but got attached by these massive red ants who had a nest in the tree going through the restauarant, Andrew actually got bitten on his elbow and the ant drew blood! Didnt think that was posible but there we go!

There were some amazing ligtening storms on Lanta and one night we just bought a few beers and sat on our balcony and watched them, real fork lightening, it was amazing! We had some really yummy curries and food here and even spent a few hours lying on the beach reading!! We have been on the south islands of thailand for over 2 weeks now and realised that apart from maybe 10 mins here or there we havent actually stopped and lay in the sun on the beach! We much prefer to be busy and exploring on the scooter, but we did take a few hours out and lay reading which was lush!

So tomorrow is Wed 29th Feb (bonus day of travelling we wouldnt get usually!!) and we are due to sadly leave Thailand early in the morning and head south, across the border to Malaysia. We have loved our time in Thailand and particularly the food! But we are really excited about the next stage of our adventure...Malaysia!!