An hour long speedboat ride from Trang to Koh Lanta was the perfect start to another tropical island weekend. The sun was hot over the aquamarine waters, typical Andaman Sea style. It was good to finally be back!
Six weeks since I'd been on Lanta and it really showed. The majority of tourists flock to nearby islands after hitting up New Year's Full Moon parties all over Thailand. The resort I'd previously stayed at had bumped up their prices and were still completely booked. Good thing Alex and Wes found a steal of a place further down the beach the day before. The location was perfect too, being just down the strip from an amazing restaurant, Sonya's. The boys did a make-your-own lasagna there the night before, never heard of before so a must-do. There are some things on Lanta that make it just that much better than the other islands in the chain. With Lanta being the biggest, we decided to rent motorbikes and tour for the rest of the afternoon. I only saw a chunk of the island when I was there before, so it was the perfect opportunity being the next stop on Alex's route down to Malaysia . It took two hours to cruise around the entire coast, not including stops at the viewpoint, a sea gypsy village, the rubber tree forest and a couple gorgeous beaches. After a big day of riding/exploring, we dug our feet into the sand and cracked a couple cold ones while enjoying the especially vivid sunset, reassurance that Lanta's still got the best.
We didn't waste much time after waking up the next morning before hopping back on our bikes to pop down to Long Beach. We all felt overdue for a lazy day in the sun, so we floated in the luke warm Andaman until the tide went out and the sun went down.
A fresh seafood stand caught our eye on the hunt for dinner that night, with huge catches waiting to be grilled. Including a buffet salad bar, we thought six dollars each was a wicked deal for an entire snapper and squid. They both turned out as succulent as could be, leaving us all wanting more. It was great fun to see my brother again after two and half months, the story exchange hadn't ended in two days. We slowly but surely packed up the next morning, then had our last brunch at Sonya's. The land owner of our bungalow was a total hoot so we were sad to say goodbye, even though this photo says the opposite.
A two hour minibus back to Trang and then a quick transfer into a bus for three hours landed us back in Hat Yai, a buzzing metropolis. Crazy for Chinese New Year, the four day celebration will be posted next... here's a quick preview.
P.S. The boys made it the the border of Thailand & Malaysia this afternoon, and I'm meeting them on Langkawi Island for the weekend! ...duty free
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