October 20th - 23rd
It wasn't only difficult leaving Ton Sai because it was such a beautiful place. The official departure time for the boats back to Ao Nang is "the boat leaves when there are seven people". There was only one other man waiting with his bag at 7.30am but luckily the arrival of an Indian family at 9am meant that we didn't have too long to wait for the call we had been listening out for from our breakfast bar: "boat boat!" - ie. "We're off!"
After a couple of buses and ferries, we arrived on Ko Lanta, an island further south on the west coast of Thailand, mid-afternoon. As usual, we were greeted by a number of locals thrusting pictures of accommodation and calling out room rates at us on arrival at the bus station (whilst sometimes overwhelming, you have to acknowledge and appreciate that travelling in Asia is made very easy for the backpacker). Despite having circled the cheapest place in the Lonely Planet, we decided to go along with one of the ladies who seemed trustworthy enough. Fortunately, we were not let down. She brought us to a beautiful beach resort and we managed to get a beach hut next to the swimming pool (!). The hut came with our own concrete toilet and bathroom attached, a veranda with table and chairs and a view of the sea through the palm trees. We had even managed to get the rate down to 200 Baht a night (approximately $6)so couldn't want for anything else. I was a happy chicken.
Delighted at having a long beach on our doorstep, I got up early both mornings on Ko Lanta to go for a run (despite hating the sound of an alarm at 6.30am, I love beaches first thing in the morning with the new shells scattered on the sand and the crabs still darting around). On my first run, I didn't feel tired so went back and swam some lengths at the pool and then did some stomach crunches and stretches on a make-shift yoga mat (plastic bags) outside our bungalow. It dawned on me that the huge pile of banana fritters I had eaten the night before must have been a great source of energy.
Apart from lounging at the pool and strolling along the beach in the evening as the sun went down, the other fantastic thing we did on Ko Lanta was a cookery class. We were allowed to choose, make and eat five Thai dishes during the course of an afternoon. After been shown and told the names of the raw vegetables and herbs, we prepared the ingredients and then proceeded to make and eat one dish after another: coconut milk soup with chicken, fried rice with chicken, stir fried chicken with hot basil leaves, massaman beef curry and, to ensure I had my daily banana quota, banana fritters. Despite having gone on a longer run than usual that morning, I struggled to finish the courses and ended up bagging the chicken with basil leaves to eat for dinner (but, as you can work out, I still ate 3 chicken dishes and a beef dish that day!). It was a memorable afternoon and one that gave us a real "taste" (oh, terrible pun, didn't want to write it but then I did) of Thailand that we can bring back home with us.
