Koh Lanta - Days 180-183
We had an event filled day in Bangkok, but we were ready to show Hayley some island time! With our early morning flight, we thought we’d take advantage of the priority lounge food for a free breakfast. Most of us appreciated the spread. Ben did not, and opted for a McD’s breakfast. On his excursion, he got some [seemingly reliable] info from the departures board that our flight was delayed 45 min so we relaxed a bit longer in the lounge. But when we got to the gate, it was already closed. Flight was taking off. Without us. We missed the flight despite being in the airport. Idiots. Fortunately, it was a very easy fix and we got on the next flight a few hours later. Back to the lounge!
We finally made it to Krabi and went straight to pick up our scooters at Eugenes (the same guy we rented from when we were rolling 14 deep on our way to Ao Thalene). The 2.5 hr drive down to Krabi quickly became awful due to down pouring rain. We pulled over a few times when it was really bad, but it was already late in the afternoon and we needed to catch the ferry before dark. Ben, in particular, was not pleased with this adventure. It rained nearly the entire time. We made it to Horizons on Koh Lanta just in time for the rain to stop and to enjoy a pretty decent sunset with some much needed drinks. It was a rough day.
The best kind of lazy day today. We slept in (except Hayley - jet lag is the worst) then Hayley and I then posted up on the excellent beach beds for the rest of the morning while the boys went to a coffee shop. The afternoon activity was beachside massages back at our same lady - she even recognized us! Tay and Hay attempted a sunset yoga sesh but the class was cancelled, so we enjoyed a few Chang’s on the beach instead. Told Hayley all about our Nepal trip and she got a little taste of how much those boys like to talk about poop (hint: all of the time).
The evening ended with delicious gourmet burgers at Shanti Shanti. Then even had a veggie burger for Hayley! She was going to get the cheese platter, but rudely and hilariously decided against it after learning about the homemade bread.
Hayley: “Does the cheese platter come with anything else, like bread or crackers?” Owner (proudly): “Yes, I make the bread myself!” Hayley: “Hmm, I’ll take the burger.”
Tay and Hay went off on their all day Koh Phi Phi snorkeling adventure and Ben and I lounged at the beach again. Swimming and lots of reading (I’m so close to finishing up the Dark Tower series!). And massages again. Tried a different place this time but it kind of felt like we were betraying our typical massage lady. The snorkelers got back exhausted and were able to squeeze in a quick nap before some beach vball at Horizons. Night ended with some rowdy karaoke with Pat - the owner of the hostel.
During our time in Koh Lanta, it sprinkled occasionally and never lasted very long. But of course there were constant showers the morning we needed to drive our mopeds back to Krabi. It was a very long and very wet drive back. Made even longer by Ben’s bike chain falling off and needing to stop at a shop on the side of the road. The guy didn’t speak a word of English, but somehow him and Ben were able to communicate fairly easily and get the problem fixed within 15 min for less than $1. We made it back to Eugene’s completely soaked with only one casualty - my phone didn’t survive in the pocket of my “waterproof” jacket. Rice is in abundance here, let’s see if we can work some magic.
We had a few hours to kill before our 11pm flight so we hung out in the lobby of our previous Ao Nang hostel (thanks, Ideal Hostel staff!). Ben somehow lost his phone in the half hour between mopeding and being dropped off in Ao Nang so he was off on a mission to find it (found it eventually). The rest of us grabbed some food at a local cafe. Our original intent was to spend our middle-of-the-night layover in the Bangkok priority lounges before our 7am flight to Hanoi. Thought it’d be kind of fun to take advantage of the free drinks, play some games, attempt to get some airport-sleep. At least it would be a good story. No dice - we found out upon check in that we’d have to stay outside of the airport. Bummer. But we last minute booked a dope hostel right outside of DMK and were able to catch a few hours of sleep. Time for the next country: Vietnam!
Other significant occurrences during our 3 nights in Koh Lanta: we each ended up getting a bamboo tattoo done by Eacho!
