Activity Summary
Wednesday 28th September - Day 27
Travel (speedboat) from Phi Phi Don to Ko Lanta
Rent scooter
Thursday 29th September - Day 28
Scooter trip round Ko Lanta
Ko Lanta old town
Drive along the west coast with various stops
Summary
Ko Lanta is a weird one. It hasn’t appeared very touristy at all since being here and the set up of the island is that it has one long stretch of road going down the east coast and west coast. There are a number of beaches that have recommendations but they aren’t particularly easy to get to and it just seems to be an island of resorts near them anyway. Scooter is 100% required to do anything here.
Our favourite place was the 100m long old town simply for the delicious food from the small and charming owner from “Grandma’s place”. Otherwise there wasn’t a whole to do and given Luke isn’t feeling anywhere near 100%, the weather was awful and we are a bit beached out anyway this didn’t prove to be a trip location of choice. We imagine in high season with the sun and beaches it would be much more idyllic but Phi Phi had a much more desirable array of these.
The weather really didn’t help but would not recommend off season and in the wet season.
Accommodation
Sabai Dee Manson & Hotel - 2 nights - 697THB/n/p
Given Luke was feeling really under the weather the back end of Phi Phi we made the decision to go for a hotel that was close to the pier and appeared nicer so that he could recover in a bit more comfort. It definitely ticked these boxes and fortunately he didn’t need to spend much more time just in bed.
Travel
TO
Phi Phi Hotel -> [Walk] -> Ao Ton Sao Pier -> [Speedboat] -> Sala Dan Pier -> [Walk] -> Ko Lanta hotel
Diary
Luke was now over the worst of his fever and the only risk left was risk of his dodgy stomach. It had appeared that 2 days of popping Imodium like tic tacs had finally delivered some tangible results and he felt brave enough to tackle the speedboat (emphasis on not ferry) to Koh Lanta. This was at 1pm so had plenty of time in the morning to check out, relax and eat some sensible but still risky bananas. After waiting in a restaurant for a while due to being caught in torrential rain we headed to the pier and joined the disordered chaos in waiting to get the speedboat to Koh Lanta.
Once on the boat Nicola donned her “don’t speak to me or I’ll vom” headphones and cracked on with her tried and tested anti-seasickness methodology of staring at the islands in the distance and focus on anything other than the movement of the boat and us.
Boy there was movement.
We weren’t very keen at all about getting any form of speedboat across the Andaman Sea (or any sea for that matter) given the weather had a habit of changing pretty dramatically. Rain we could cope with but the wind would rip a hole right through Nicola’s sensitive stomach (ironically Luke is absolutely fine with this despite his precarious situation) and also probably rip right through the speedboat. Lo and behold, grey skies ensued and about half way into the 30 minute ride the sea and boat got proper chops. Nicola was pretty oblivious to the pretty horrific cracks and crashes (headphoned and focussed) as waves pounded into the boat as the driver mainly just tore into oncoming swells, with the occasional last minute turn away, while Luke cut an anxious passenger as he hates travelling on the sea at the best of times. Various other people on the boat did not have Nicola’s coping mechanisms and started throwing up left, right and center and also getting soaked in the process. The life jackets became more widely used as a rain cover than a lifesaving tool.
The driver's reckless approach came to a very quick end when he tore into a wave that was probably 3-4m high which was absolutely terrifying. The wave was as tall as the speedboat whose windshield, comprised solely from plastic Perspex (thankfully), took on the full force of the oncoming water and shattered with the water effectively knocking the driver out of his drivers seat, wiping out the other crew on their feet and soaking the first half of the boat and passengers head to toe (and also all our main bags at the front of the boat). Fortunately by the time it came over to us at the back the water had dissipated significantly to that of only knee level… Reassured now that all those negative thoughts we had harboured before setting off about our safety in this thing proven to be valid, and everyone else making that realisation, a rapid wave of life jacket assembly ensued that was so in sync it could have rivalled doped up Russian athletics. Fortunately, Nicola with her anxiety always chooses the back of boats near the exit and this had a double benefit this time of not being totally drenched and reduced sickness risk. Luke also noticed the driver had AirPods in at the start of the journey and they were certainly not there by the end of the ride.
The driver, now having learnt his lesson the hard way, decided that going at a much slower speed and turning appropriately was a sensible idea after all and we limped to the harbour which was thankfully close now. Nicola, shaking and looking very green, was desperate to get off what should have been an easy 30 min boat ride - she however did not vom and so that was a win! Hilariously we found out subsequently boats were cancelled the next day because the waves were too big because of incoming tail end effects of Typhoon Nora. We feel like we contributed to this decision. Luke however seemed to have perked up quite considerably from the adrenaline.
We wobbled to the hotel which fortunately was close enough to walk to and allow ourselves to wind down from the adrenaline fuelled ride, checked in, rented another scooter and set off for some food down the road. The evening activity consisted of Luke doing a round of laundry, which is actually quite painful in Thailand. There are a million places to get it done, which charge anywhere between 40THB-80THB per kilo which is quite expensive once we have amassed all our clothes and towels between us for the week which also involves washing and drying. Luke has a large amount of merino wool items that cannot be stuck in a drying machine which to Thai people is basically ridiculous given the humidity and therefore ‘air drying’ a nonsensical idea (he was actually laughed at by the hostel in Pai). So now he goes through the arduous process of finding standalone machines, which are 30THB for the whole load (so much much cheaper) and fits everything in one drum. Takes an hour of waiting around which he doesn't mind, although on this occasion he felt a bit rough (but had to do it as driver) and got bitten by mozzies about 10 times. Hero.
The next day after a slow start (been quite a lot of these lately) we scooted over to Koh Lanta old town. The town was small but was clearly suffering from a lack of tourism. We wandered around and eventually settled on a cute cafe called “Grandma’s place” for some brunch. After scoffing down our avocado and roasted tomatoes on sourdough bread we were getting ready to leave before the owner told us to wait for a little while as the heavens opened and wind speeds picked up and she didn’t want us to go outside for fear of getting hurt which we thought was a very nice sentiment. So we just sat for a while longer chatting with the owner and ended up ordering a homemade mango crumble (which was exceptional and better than apple crumble for sure).
We learnt from her that cost of certain foods such as cheese and Thai avocado were astronomical and that gas and electricity costs were super for a tiny little cafe. We chatted about inflation and the differences between Thailand and the UK, with many of the same frustrations. It was a very enlightening conversation into the world of Thai cuisine given how cheap it is to eat.
Once the rain slowed we booked our bus tickets for the following day and headed off around the island. Thankfully the weather seemed to hold and we headed for the west coast. We planned on stopping in cafés along the way but none took our fancy so settled on stopping at various coastal points/beaches and we watched the waves pummel into the beach laughing to ourselves about how we’d packed our swimmers in the faint hope we could have a beach day. The beaches we had marked out as tourist spots also seemed to be incredibly challenging to get to.
After a zoom around the island on the bike we headed back and watched some TV before heading for a Pizza at a local restaurant which had better reviews. Luke’s is still better. We did go to the local market but after Nicola spotted what apppeared to be 2 day old intestines and liver for sale we decided to go for something closer to home.
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