Hellooo!

 

We are back with normal electricity and wifi now so the blog can be resurrected. We are currently in Phuket but have been staying at TonSai Beach for 12 days, partyly due to its awesomeness and partly due to unforseen circumstances...we attempted (mainly in our heads) to leave 4 times. Anyway, before TonSai was Koh Lanta, which feels like a lifetime ago so will be a short update, although this is also due to the fact that we generally didn't do anything descript there.

 

So we arrived from Lipe via various methods of transport, we took the long way round to save money, but definitely not to save time. Last leg of the journey was a car ferry, see below for the passing one!

 

 

 

We also passed a Thai family along the way, this being normal...

 



 

 

One of the craziest things about Thailand are the mental mo-ped drivers dipping in and out of the rest of the traffic, we tried to give you a snap shot with these guys. You see some risky manuvures happening, for example, the other day we saw a mo-ped, with a wodden side rack hammered to it, with a baby seat and baby in it, just sliding around the rack!

 

 

So, we weren't hugely active or explorative on Lanta but we did enjoy a few lovely sunsets, from the beach, usually with a Chang.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bit of beach volly ball happening with a couple of lady boys in tow.

 

After Langkawi and Lipe where the beachfront was full of boats and people, we were impressed by the first sight of the Lanta beach-fine, clear sand, see-through water and relative emptiness. It was so refreshing and picturesque with the sea just seeming to go on forever.

 

 

We hoped to be able to enjoy a few days soaking up the rays since we'd been avoiding sunbathing after getting sunburnt but unfortunately it was cloudy for 2 days out of our 4, hence the laziness.

 

 

We did, however, manage to get our hands on a pancake in time for Pancake Tuesday. At least we thought it was a tuesday, its pretty hard to keep track these days!

On our first day, we did a little exploring, which is the pattern forming for when we reach any new destination. We don't always explore the whole island (need mo peds for that and we’re still managing to abstain) but at least our surroundings. We walked the beach we were staying near called Long Beach, it's 4km long. Then the beach after that called Klong Dao Beach, it's 3 km long. Then a bit further until we realised we could then only be heading towards the car ferry port, and found a tuk tuk to take our tired legs back to the first beach for a well deserved drink...which was probably a Chang.

When we first arrived in Lanta it was the eve of Chinese New Year and the place was crawling with tourists. Having not booked any accomodation in advance, we ended up on the back of a very questionable looking tuk tuk (Mo-ped with a tray hammered onto the side for us to sit on) in the dark, driving up an extremely long, winding track, wondering when to pull out the pepper spray. Eventually we were dropped at a "resort" where an incredibly large Thai man greeted us and showed us to a room. The room actually ended up being one of the nicest we've stayed in, however, the near heart attack we had to endure driving up and then walking down the lane in the dark just to get some dinner meant that we decided to move on to a different accomodation asap! We ended up the next day in a very cute little bungalow down the road next to the beach, which was much less scary!!



 



This is one of the restaurants on the street running along side the beach. Its literally stood up on 6 stilts but theres plenty of people inside testing its strength!!!

Fire shows are huge in Thailand and at lots of the beach bars are performers flipping, throwing and breathing fire.

 



Last day on the beach we managed to get a bit of sunshine. This is on Long Beach, which is one of our favourites so far because of how clear and empty the landscape is and the water was amazingly clear too.

 



 

 

 

After Koh Lanta we headed to TonSai so will post about that as soon as poss so we can catch up! After TonSai was Phuket, where we had 5 days with Glenn and Sean and tomorrow we head to Koh Phi Phi so will post again asap!!

 

Lots of love, Lu & Kate

xxx