From the crowded, busy nature of Koh Phi Phi, next we found ourselves in Koh Lanta and the contrast couldn't have been greater. Koh Lanta is a reasonably large island with small tourist and business areas cropping up every so often. The benefit of this is that most hospitality is situated near the beach, and so this allowed us to find Lanta New Beach Resort. A chance to stay somewhere that matches Thailand's stereotypes; a hut with an ensuite room, aircon, swimming pool, restaurants, bars, good weather and of course, a beach on your doorstep. Not only this, we had an extra traveller in the group (a holidaybreak employee of course) to join us in our escapades.
Being caught up in the hype of Koh Phi Phi for the past few days you'd have thought we would take this time to relax. Instead our days consisted of making whirlpools in the swimming pool (pretty fun - worth a try), drinking mushroom shakes and hiring mopeds. Whilst out on the mopeds we got to see a lot of the island, and unlike Bangkok we had fresh air blowing in our face and the open road. Somehow Zoe and Kate manged to get a flat tyre, but Thailand being Thailand, for £4 they managed to get the tyre repaired and soon we were back on the road. It has to be mentioned at this point that Meg had developed an obsession with monkeys over the course of the trip, so when spotting a monkey school the opportunity could not be missed. The only thing missing were Zoe and Kate as they drove past the entrance. In an attempt to do a U-turn, the throttle got the better of Zoe and they drove straight into a ditch. I think everyone would agree with me, it was one of the funniest things we'd seen all trip - sorry ladies. After some laughing we went over to help them and get them to the monkey school. Unfortunately, their U-turn efforts went unrewarded because it was soon decided that we weren't going to bother going into the monkey school - sorry ladies. But fear not, we headed back to our beach resorts to get patched up and ready to try the island's local cuisine.
As you readers already know, we've had several strokes of bad luck and traumatic ordeals when its coming to eating out. But maybe, just maybe we could manage a nice meal in the form of 'Tiger Wings' restaurant. As painful as it is to be writing this, Tiger Wings was by far the worst meals we have had as a group. Meals were left half eaten leaving us all rather diappointed (except for Zoe, she ate all of hers, crazy person). With empty stomachs we'd resigned to the fact that tonight was just not our night, but the next day promised a great beach party and our spirits were somewhat lifted.
The next day Lucy was due to leave, and so off she went to make her way back to the UK and the group returned to 6. When the party finally came around, illness had already gotten better of Zoe and Kate. But this didn't stop us. With Lucy gone this gave us more reason to party! Just kidding Lucy :) anywho this party turned out to be a dull social gathering in a bar that was situated in the middle of no where. It took us a 20 minute walk on the beach to find somewhere that had at least some resemblance of a 'vibe'. But all in all we had to accept that Koh Lanta just iwasn't the fire throwing, vodka bucket frenzy that Koh Phi Phi was.
And the day after proved to be dull as well, a 10 hour round trip to get our visas renewed on the Malaysian border. Impractical but necessary. For what I saw of Malaysia I can't really claim I have been to Malaysia either. But for now Thailand would more than suffice, and next on the list we planned to hit Phuket. In the several weeks we have been here, it still feels like we haven't found the perfect place yet. Maybe Phuket would change that.
Some travel advice:
- Don't try and do a U-turn on a moped. Actually, don't let Zoe drive a moped with you on the back :P
- Never eat at Tiger Wings, no matter how good the restaurant looks.
- Don't let Tuk Tuk drivers convince you there is a 'better' party happening tonight elsewhere.
- Visa runs are boring but if you can take a day out of your travels then its worth doing of course.
Ayden
