I thought it would take me about 5 hours to get from Langkawi to Ko Lanta. Oh how wrong I was. A car journey, a ferry, a van, a bus, a tuc tuc, 2 hours in a random town, another mini bus (which drove onto 2 ferries)..... 10.5 hours later, I had arrived! Dear god! What I hadn't realised when I decided to go to Ko Lanta was that it's low season, so not many ferries running, making journey's much longer. Got to my hostel & they couldn't have been more welcoming. It was just me & one other person staying! I went out for dinner & had a lovely Pad Thai in a restaurant overlooking the sea, only me & a Chinese family (with a screaming ill baby that should have been in bed) in the restaurant. Quick & friendly service. This was a theme for the next few days... minus the Chinese family thankfully!
Woke up the next day after a great sleep. The hostel is built over the sea so you can hear the waves as you sleep. It's so cute with a balcony out the front where you can chill, or you can walk up the wooden steps to a sun terrace. After chatting to the owner, she told me the scuba diving doesn't operate from there at the moment. I could go to Ko Phi Phi (an hour on the boat), but the boat had been cancelled that day & the previous day due to bad weather! Oh dear, someone should have done their research!
I went for brunch & decided to hire a push bike to explore the island a bit. I must have tried 6 shops but all they had were mopeds. The place was like a ghost town. Finally someone pointed me in the direction of a shop 5 mins walk away. The lady in the shop was lovely & after trying to pump up tyres on the 4 bikes she had, she realised that they all needed a tyre replacing. Her English was a bit broken but next thing she'd closed her shop & I was on the back of her moped going to a bike shop.... I think. We drove around, then she mumbled something (it was hard to hear her whilst on the back of a bike, the wind in your face, speaking broken English), and we went back to her shop. Then she asked me if I could drive her moped & she would carry the bike. Er no! She was really funny, perhaps a little bit crazy but lovely with it. We ended up walking with one of the bikes to a garage, having a chat on the way. We discovered we were both the same age & chatted about our lives. She told me she was in love with a guy & he married someone else. I just wanted to give her a hug but we had only just met so I refrained.
At the garage the inner tube she had brought was too small so off she went on the garage owner's moped to buy another, leaving me there. Had a chat with a guy from the Philippines who was getting his bike fixed. The lady returned & finally my bike was fixed. She asked if I could take her on the back to return to her shop. I was like, really?! She realised it was a daft idea & the man at the garage gave her a lift. Finally I was on my bike! Then after 15mins it started to rain so I stopped for a drink. Finally it stopped & I did some cycling!! The bike had no gears & wasn't very comfortable. Was good to do some exercise though! I returned the bike back to the shop having another chat with the lady. She was so sweet.
Later I had dinner in another restaurant. Really unusual place with multi coloured tables & chairs, flashing lights, random ceramic figurines ... secretly loved it! Tonight was a busy one.... me & 2 other tables! Food was lovely & dead cheap.
Next day I decided to try & go to Phi Phi for the day. The boat leaves at 8am & returns at 3pm. I'd enquired at the ferry terminal the day before about if they thought the boat would run. The lady said to come at 7.30am & she would let me know. I wasn't holding out much hope but got up & got ready anyway. Got there & she said it's running. Great! She was about to write me a ticket & I asked what time it would be returning. 11am. I decided not to go & went back to bed!
Had a chilled day & did a lot of planning for my trip. Ate some more lovely Thai food throughout the day & went for a long walk. The planning was definitely required after coming here!! It's been lovely though after a busy few week's & I know the next few are going to be jam packed. I will try & keep writing my blogs but they may be shorter!
Looking forward to actually seeing more backpacker's tomorrow in Krabi before I head to the north for temples & trekking!
Jackie x
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