Lunch spots:
That night, we went to Red Snapper, which plates up French tapas cooked by a Dutch couple, if that makes sense. We became excited when we saw a cheese platter on the menu. Cheese tops the list of "please don't think I am a whiny American complaining about anything that's not like it is at home but I really miss it" things. Cheese proves hard to come by, and expensive. We inhaled that platter. After a wonderful meal (and, in true low season form, being the only ones in the place) we went to the bar to sit and chat with the Dutch couple who run the establishment. We had a few bourbons and found out how difficult it is to get food imported (and then to keep it cold, keep it rotating, and keep it fresh, especially in the low season). They were very cool, and had been living and cooking on Lanta for about 10 years. We talked restaurant talk for a bit, and then asked about things we needed to do in the area. They shared their most recent trip with us, an excursion up to Khao Sok National Park in the central part of the southern strip. We took their advice, and had a fabulous time. You know though, another story, another day. Alice in jungleland:
That was a crazy place. As Lonely Planet said, "trees in the houses, houses in the trees, it's like Alice in Jungleland." It was. And the best part, it was covered in signs, all making enough sense so that you knew what they were saying, but off enough to laugh. Things like: "love is splintered many things." We didn't want to stay there, because there were too many hippies. But it was super cool. We saw a treehouse, a boathouse, and a cavehouse. The tree house was...wait for it...in a tree. The boathouse was an actual boat that was converted into a two story bungalow, the deck below was a small living area with a couch, the top deck the bed and a little outdoor deck overlooking the water. The cavehouse, an actual cave in the side of the rock, overlooking the river, dripping with...no, it wasn't really dripping. But Rebecca did her first "asian woman trying to look sexy pose." Which was awesome. National Park:
We slowly rode through the National Park, winding our way along the coastline road (the Pacific Coast Highway has nothing on this road) checking out the views and trying not to drive off the cliff. (Cut to Arlo Guthrie, singing the Pickle Song: "luckily, I didn't ride my motorcycle into the mountain. I drove it over the cliff"). We reached the bottom of the road, and walked out to the lighthouse, idyllic on the point of the beautiful island. I tried to break into the building and climb to the top, but alas, was thwarted by a rusty but true lock on the door. Rebecca astutely pointed out that I could probably see just as well at the bottom. The Old Town:
Awesome. Picturesque, quaint, and much more authentic looking than the west coast. Reba found an awesome skirt, and we met a parrot-type bird that said several things in English. When I kept taunting him, he got angry and shook water at me. I have not had the best luck with animals on this trip.
Thank the good Buddha for traveling in the 21st century.
Animals:
We saw our first elephant. I was driving down the road, just tooling along, stopped to make a right hand turn (speaking of driving, we've been here for a month, driving a lot of motorbikes, and I swear at least once a day I pull out into the right lane. It's impossible for me to make it through a day without. Habits are hard to break. The other hard thing: we rented a car (steering wheel on the right) and not only did I go to the left side every time before I realized my mistake, but try driving in the proper position within the lane when the wheel is on the right. It's very difficult. "Michael, you're halfway off the road over here." "Oh, sorry.") So I pull out to the end of the road, and look across the road, and right in front of me see a man leading an elephant down the road with a rope. Right in the road. We were floored. We then spent the next 10 minutes watching the trainer wash the enormous mammal, who really seemed to like it. She would roll over one way for the hose, then the other, then stand up and turn around. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that elephants might be the coolest animal in the world. And obviously, traveling through a heavily Buddhist country, Thailand agrees. They sure beat the hell out of monkeys.
Let me tell you what we didn't like about Ko Lanta. After some hellacious rains the last day (no big deal, I had another bout with the toilet gods anyway) we decided to make our way across to the gulf. Our destination: Ko Samui. Every month on the full moon, Ko Phangan throws a wild party on the beach that goes until the sun replaces the full moon. Being (old) so mature, we decided this was really not something we needed to do. So we thought we would make our way to neighboring Ko Samui, hang out for a couple of days, and then head to Ko Phangan once it chilled out a bit. We took a minivan from Ko Lanta to Surat Thani, the port city on the east side of Southern Thailand. There we realized, because it was Sunday, there was no overnight boat to Samui. But there was to Ko Phangan, and we could take a quick ferry there the next morning, or stay for the party. The party itself didn't worry us, but we heard it was quite difficult to find a place to stay and many places required minimum stays or arriving early. Nevertheless, we booked a trip to Ko Phangan. 
When the bus arrived at the docks, we (about 8 of us) exited and were directed to a small cargo ship by the dock. Cargo ship may actually blaspheme the lovely, sturdy, well-made cargo ships sailing the world's seas as we speak. This boat was long, narrow, and low, with two very small floors. One plush, spacious, comfortable floor for the produce and other food cargo, and a small attic for the person cargo. Upstairs. The boat appeared to be made of some sort of clay/adobe/mud material and stuck together with wood sap and spit. We were tied up, put on a sort of conveyor belt, and tossed upstairs. The deck hands were careful not to dirty the boat or food with us as they tossed us up to the top. When we reached the top floor, we had to duck to walk down the tiny corridor between the rows of mats lining the sides of the boat. Convinced we had walked onto the wrong boat, perhaps an old slave ship, we looked to our companions for guidance. No one looked nearly as concerned as my wife and I were, and we wondered why nobody was protesting or wailing at all. We settled in, and thankfully found that our companions were all really cool. They assured us that we had boarded a normal overnight boat, and were not headed for involuntary servitude in Burma. We were slightly relieved. I took a Croatian girl and a German, and we headed for the 7-11, and returned carrying an entire box of Chang. We (correctly) assumed that the more beer we consumed prior to and on the first part of the journey, the better off we would be. It really made being chained to the floor more bearable. I wasted no time drowning 2 large beers. |
| Thai fast food: note the packets of hot sauce. Delicious |
We actually had quite a pleasant trip. We had a great time with our fellow travelers, drinking beer, ducking our heads, sweating, and trying to get comfortable on the floor (made out of steel, concrete, hot coals and metal spikes). I also found out that (as Camden has told me many times) everybody loves the Fukuoka 2001. Fans of electronica, rock, hip hop. The boys just lay it down on that one. Orlando Bloom style.
We had a short, pleasant ride across the Andaman. We were sad to leave Ko Lanta, but excited about the next leg. I slipped into sleep with Allison still singing sweetly
I'm coming back to you, one fine daaayyyyy...
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