Ko Lanta is lovely. Quiet, only a little developed and the people are very friendly. Ollie and I journeyed with a bus of equally friendly travellers over from Krabi and we dispersed to our various resorts down the west of the island.
Everywhere I have been so far has been ‘out of season’ but Ko Lanta took the biscuit. There were no tourists whatsoever. This might sound lovely but when every bar and restaurant you go into is totally empty you wish you had waited a month or two.

We were staying at a good resort, a massive bungalow right on the beach with a brand new pool just next to it. Unfortunately the wind was that of a hurricane and the rain almost continuous. One morning I woke to the sound of our balcony furniture trying out the new pool and 3 Thai people shouting at each other as they literally held up a tree. Due to the weather we were fairly tied to the resort but the food was good and I watched films and listened to Ollie tell me the plot line to every science fiction TV show ever (I have become very good at nodding).

Check out the weather HERE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliamortimore/3975548963/

As soon as the rain stopped we were off exploring the Island on a motorbike. Occasionally I would catch a glimpse of someone from our bus shooting by on a bike and get very excited and chase after them. The east coast of Lanta is not as touristy as the West but the waters were much calmer and I thought it was really beautiful- driving through the small villages dodging pot-holes, sleeping dogs, children and wandering cows. During a quick map-consultation stop, an Israeli couple (YES!) stopped and told us we should bike down to this crazy resort they had just stumbled across. We went to find it and were not disappointed. Imagine where Michael Jackson would live if he wanted a place on Ko Lanta and were not dead. Gold chairs, resin animals, tree houses, boats as tables, sea bikes and 10 bungalows in the shape of Arks. The details were brilliant and the owner was very pleased to see us and serve us Singha, introduce us to his pet monkey and give us a tour of his fair hand’s work. He was busy building a jetty on which to put a restaurant.

Ready to leave Thailand, I booked my buses and ferries to Maylasia, leaving Ollie to await his diving trip to Phi Phi. The bus picked me up and who should we pick up but Koo and Scott the crazy brat-pack from Krabi. I was so pleased to see them. So we are now hurtling through northern Malaysia in a mini bus as I write this, laptop bouncing on my legs. There is an old weather-beaten Canadian on the bus who is on a visa-run for the night. He has been working in Thailand as a dive instructor for 8 years and every 60 days he has to do this trip to Malaysia for a night to be let back in. He has given us some good advice and tips on Malaysia including a few too many scare stories about girls on their own being raped, pillaged and made to eat curry till they die. Just tell me where’s pretty, dude. Koo asked him about the Tsunami and he said he was down on a dive at the time and hardly noticed it at 30 meters depth. When he came home his house was gone.
We are heading to Georgetown, Penang Island on the west coast. I need a curry.

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