So then we left, feeling annoyed and frustrated, and headed for Koh Lanta. From what I remember it took us a couple of song taews (taxi trucks), a mini bus and a ferry to get there, but we made it eventually. Koh Lanta was not at all what I expected (not sure about Ethan’s expectations), but I do recall liking it for the most part. Once we arrived we searched for a suitable guest house and eventually (after much deliberation) found one with a pool for a reasonable price. It was a raised hut near the pool and it was pretty cute… a little dirty, but cute. I don’t exactly remember what we did the first day, but I think we checked out the beach for a little bit and I think we tried to find a place to do more scuba diving. The beach was gorgeous and a very short walk from where we were staying. I want to say we hung out on the beach for a while and checked out the scuba place, then had dinner and went to bed.
The next day I think we went scuba diving, which, as usual, consisted of two dive spots and other people of course. Not too many other people though. The boat was small and it was a bit wavy, which made my tummy queasy, but I had some dramamine which helped tremendously (it made me super duper tired tho!). The second dive spot was around a big sea stack and then they took us into a cave. I was terrified of this scenario, but the guides we super nice and made me feel less nervous about it. We went down and into the cave and then we actually surface inside of it. It was pretty cool, but I was nervous about going back down without a rope to guide me. So we had to go back down and through a very large hole to get into another part of the cave. I made it down to the bottom of the other part, but Ethan was no where to be found. I looked over at the guide and he pointed up… there was Ethan still trying to go down. I guess he was having trouble equalizing (getting his ears to pop) and couldn’t go down any farther (apparently this can happen in a cave because of the difference in the water pressure or something like that). Eventually he made it to the bottom though and the guide led us to the exit of the cave. Back on the boat we took off our gear and got back in the water to pee (much easier without a wetsuit!). So we’re swimming around and this lady from the boat says “heads up, my son is seasick!” We look over and he’s tossing his lunch into the sea about 10 feet from us. Awesome. So I’m still peeing and trying not to get hit by chunks of vomit. It was lovely. Luckily we didn’t actually encounter any of it and it didn’t attract any sharks. A little while later we gathered the rest of the group and headed back. It was another successful SCUBA trip! :]
I think the next day we rented a motorbike and explored the island. I remember Ethan wanting to check out the other beaches and so we headed out to try and find them. Along the way we ate a restaurant overlooking one side of the island with spectacular views (as always, the pictures from our phones don’t even come close to doing it justice). (stopped at a pier) After that beach we drove some more and made it all the way to the end of the road, literally, and ended up at a guesthouse/restaurant that had pretty much taken over the beach area there. Not worth our time and we had just ate. So we hopped back on the bike and made our way to another beach. This one was actually a beach, but was a bit difficult to reach. We had to hike down to it through the jungle, but were rewarded with a beautiful sandy beach all to ourselves….well actually, not quite. This beach was home to some hermit crabs and we thought that was pretty interesting. So interesting that we decided to make a gladiator ring and put two crabs in it to see if they would fight (no worries animal lovers! no hermit crabs were injured in this scheme...probably just annoyed!). They didn’t fight. They just ignored each other and tried to run away. After we had had our fill of crabs and beach we headed back.
The following day we were lounging about by the pool and it started to rain. We packed up and headed in to our hut, when we both realized we were ready to move on to our next destination, Koh Tao. I packed as fast as possible, while Ethan paid for the room. We wanted to get to a bus station asap so we could be sure to make the ferry to Koh Tao. We headed out, and into Thailand’s Song Kran water festival. I can’t remember the history behind it, but the point is basically to have water fights and party all day long. Luckily, transportation services were still in operation so we could continue with our trip, but that didn’t mean that we were any less likely to get soaked by the partiers we walked by. A couple people showed us mercy, but some were ruthless. We came out relatively dry and it was fun to watch everyone douse each other. Eventually we made it to the bus station and got a ticket to the city that the ferry leaves from. I think we had to wait a while so we got some food before we boarded the mini bus. Next up...Koh Tao!!
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