Koh Lanta

I finally made it to my bamboo bungalow on the island of Lanta. It's not on the beach. It turns out it's in the middle of the jungle! It wasn't false advertising I just didn't think it would be so far out as the island is larger than I expected. They have bicycles at the "resort" for free so on my first day I tried one out. One of the pedals was broken on my Grandma bike and I was laughing as I rode the shitty bike through the jungle. Beats walking! 

For the past two days I rented a scooter and drove around the island checking out all the beaches. Man it's fun driving those things around! Each beach is very different. Some are never ending with white sand while others are private little crescents of black lava tucked down below a winding cliff-side road. The trick is to find them. Simple. Just look for lots of scooters parked by the side of the road and follow the path down. I went swimming at five or six different beaches in the past two days. I'm still doing too much!

The beach bars down here are really incredible and are beyond mellow. There's a ton of them. At night they glow in a multi-coloured row along the sand. It's a mix of laid back reggae and Tiki. The island isn't overly developed yet and although it is high season it is not very crowded. My favourite place to chill out is at the Freedom bar on the north end of Hat Khlong Khong beach. They light Tiki torches in the sand and it has a psychedelic glow. The food is good and cheap and more importantly the beer is cold.

I'd come back again. I highly recommend staying at "Where Else?" on Hat Khlong Khong beach. They have the bamboo bungalows and at night the resort looks like Tiki heaven. Food is a bit expensive and the cocktails are average but the atmosphere and location is incredible. Koh Lanta is my favourite island so far.

It's really comfortable sleeping in the bamboo bungalows. It's very basic. There's electricity and a couple of lights, a fan, and a bathroom with a cold shower. The water is warm later in the day so it's very refreshing. A family runs the place and they have a small restaurant where the owner will cook for you.

I was staying in the shade a lot and got a sun burn at the start of the trip so I've been a bit paranoid about staying out in the sun too much. Use sunscreen before you head out and aloe vera after. That's the trick. Mostly because there is no hot running water and also because it's fun I decided to go a bit cave man and not shave for a bit. We'll see how that one goes.