Ko Lanta

We wanted to go to the Thai islands. There are hundreds. We did a lot of research to determine the best fit for us and chose Ko Mak. This is what we told Tony at the TAT. He “corrected” us and told us we were talking about Ko Muk. Now, in a normal situation, I would correct him back. But, you have to understand. On six different maps, you will see Ko Muk listed as: Ko Muk, Koh Muk, Ko Muuk, Koh Mook, Ko Mok , Koh Mok and Ko Mook. I am completely serious. So, when Tony told us we were pronouncing it wrong, we trusted him. Thanks, Tony.

The way to get to Ko Muk from Bangkok is via overnight train or bus to Krabi and then Ko Lanta. We were booked on a bus. A hot pink bus. I am serious. Inside hot pink. Outside mostly fluorescent pink with a few topless mermaids on it. We hopped on and prepared for our trip...after nearly missing the bus since our driver that was sent by Tony was late picking us up. Thanks, Tony. He got us there, though and it was obvious that the bus had waited for us.


I actually slept surprisingly well on the bus. I woke up a few times, but kept falling back to sleep. Once it hit 7am, though, they started blaring music. The music we’ve been hearing here is interesting…mostly American music, sung by an Asian artist. On the way to Krabi, we heard a lot of stuff…TONS of Fergie (she must’ve sold her rights to Asia), new music (Rihanna), old music (I was brought back to the Colemans’ station wagon with “Country Roads”), etc. But, there is still a language barrier in music. For example, we listened to “Puff, the magic dragon, LIFTED by the sea.” The best by far, though, was “Pachelbel’s Canon”…to a club beat. I am serious. For you girls out there…no explanation needed. For you guys out there, it is the song 50% of your wives have walked down the aisle to. The other 50% (excluding Ang and myself) walked to “Here Comes the Bride”.


On the drive down, it was obvious we weren't in Bangkok anymore. The city streets were replaced with rice fields, cows on the side of the road, lush forests, giant palm trees (Sandy, they are many times bigger than the ones you saw in Encinitas!). It was a beautiful trip down, but we were getting antsy to be done with the traveling.


Once we got to Krabi, we had a two-hour van ride, combined with two car ferries to get to the island of Ko Lanta. When we were dropped off at the Full Moon Bay View "Resort", we were not impressed. We were the only guests they had for the evening...although it looked like it had been a bit longer than that. The bar, the restaurant, the "salon", all had tarps over them. Apparently the low season means that no one comes to Ko Lanta. I will say the room was immaculate and very big. But, we knew we did not want to be there. Thanks, Tony. This is about the time Matt started calling the island NO Lanta.


We got online (which was slower than dial-up, I swear) to check out some information about Ko Muk. Unfortunately, we determined that WE were right when we were at the TAT. We DID want to go to Ko Mak and the language barrier had us headed to a completely different island, on the opposite side of Thailand, in a completely different SEA, that we did not want to be on. Thanks, Tony. No Lanta.

We were still on an island in the Andaman Sea, so we decided to walk around and check out the beach. It was dirty, lots of garbage, even an exposed electrical wire running across the ground of the entrance to the beach. No Lanta. We went back to the dial-up to figure out how to leave. We talked about going to Ko Phi Phi (where they filmed "The Beach"), but decided to check with a trusted source, my cousin, Allison. Fortunately, she referred me to her blog about her trip in January, and we decided that Phi Phi would be too dirty and too busy for us, so we figured we'd go back to Krabi and explore there.

Since the next ferry out wasn't until the morning, we needed to make the most of No Lanta. I'm proud of us. We realized this is a long trip and stuff is going to happen, so we rallied. We went on a walk and found Bulan Cafe. We were, of course, the only people there, but we had delicious food. I had Rice Bulan-Style and the best spring rolls I have ever had...made fresh and with the most amazing sauce ever. We were in better spirits leaving Bulan, but still wondering what we would do for the night.

We saw several bars on the beach...all of which were closed. No Lanta. But, finally we stumbled upon Fortune Bar. We went in for one drink, but wound up hanging out there for nearly four hours, three of which were spent, of course, as the only customers. But, the bartenders were so sweet; they played Bob Marley all night, and served our Leos in koozies! We hadn't seen this yet and it is a great idea in this heat! We had a wonderful time chatting and drinking; Fortune Bar really lifted our spirits.

Until the electricity went out. On the whole island. No Lanta. Again, the bartenders were great. One came running over with a candleabra for our table. As she was lighting them, she kept giggling and saying, "So romantic for you."

We decided it was time to get back to the "resort". This was a bit unnerving, as we walked about a half mile in darkness. No street lights. No cars. No Lanta. Fortunately, we had Matt's SAIC pocket flashlight. Even though it's just a beam of light, it made us feel better. When we finally got to the "resort", Alex (our resort host) was waiting for us with a flashlight and more candles for our room. He even went to the bar and got us a few more Singhas to enjoy in our room.

The next morning, Alex drove us to Krabi at 8:00. Overall it was an adventure, but, Deb, if you're starting that list of places we liked and didn't like, No Lanta.