The Adventures of Doug and Bec: Thailand

We arrived in Koh Lanta at about 11:30 am after a very quick ferry ride from Koh Phi Phi. The boat was definitely a lot better than the one from Phuket to Phi Phi and the weather was excellent. While on the boat we were approached by a man offering a minibus to our hotel (and hotel accommodation if we needed it) and we took him up on the offer of 150 baht for 2 people (whereas another lady had told us 600 already). We are a little skeptical at first in case it was a scam, but sure enough, he was waiting for us at the dock and we set off with another two travelers. If we had have left the boat dock and searched for a tuk tuk we would have paid about 100 baht.

When we arrived at our hotel (The Nakara Longbeach Resort) we noticed straight away how quiet it was. After talking to the reception clerk we learnt that they have 250 beachside villas and only 5 of the were booked. Despite this there were 3 nice pools and a nice restaurant. There were more staff that guests, but this meant we had a nice relaxing time staying here.

The first afternoon consisted of a swim at the beach (which was unfortunately very littered) and a swim in the pool followed by lunch. We ate at the restaurant and had a very nice coconut curry. After an afternoon of relaxing we headed back to the hotel restaurant for some dinner. It was nice to not have to travel anywhere! Nakara is a beautiful and cheap resort on Koh Lanta and i would recommend it to any one. We were paying about $25 a night for a big villa 50 meters from a deserted beach!

Day two saw us heading into town via tuk tuk to try and book a half day snorkeling adventure, but unfortunately only full days seemed to be on offer. I am not sure if this was due to how quiet it was due to low season, but in the end we booked a full day with Green Hill Garden for 1200 baht which included speedboat pickup from our beach, full day snorkeling at tree locations and lunch. As it was only mid morning we decided to head back to the resort and hire a motorbike to tour the island for the afternoon.

Motorbike riding is definitely the way to see Koh Lanta. The roads are great and quiet, and the bike hire is cheap. We payed 200 baht for 24 hours hire of a new looking automatic Suzuki bike. 150 to 250 baht seemed to be the going rate around town.

Once on the bike we headed down the coast in the heat in search of the Waterfall we had seen on a few maps. After a quick lunch at the beachside restaurant on the way we unfortunately took a sign for the waterfall as being correct and headed up what ended up being a rocky 4x4 track... which our bike handled quite well surprisingly... We were not sure if we were going the right way and Bec had to get off the bike several times so we could get it up the hills! Even with just me on it i had to basically walk it up the hills. After about a km of this we saw a local man who indicated that we need to turn around! Once back to the road, with a muddy bike, we headed further south until we found another sign which looked more correct, and we headed finally on the correct road to the elusive waterfall.

Once we parked the bike (in what we discovered was 20 baht parking which we did not pay) we headed up to a reservoir which seemed to be the start of the waterfall walk. there were no signs indicating the way to the waterfall but we decided to wing it. For about one kilometer we followed what could nearly be referred to as a path, and on the brink of turning around we ran into a french couple who had been to the waterfall. From here we continued the extra kilometer to find a small but refreshing waterfall where we could have a swim.

After a hour or so of swimming we returned to the bike and Bec decided to have a go at feeding the elephants which are used to trekking near the carpark we left the bike in. After feeding several elephants pineapples, one promptly decided to push Bec with its trunk (i think because she wouldn't give it more food), and of course this ended with Bec in the mud quite to the amusement of the locals.

After trekking we headed across the island and back to the Hotel, and after cleaning up, headed to a restaurant on the bike for dinner.