Koh Lanta

Up about 7:45, showered and had breakfast.

As I was waiting for my ferry pickup to get to Koh lanta, I did some research on Khao Lak, where my Similan Islands dive trip leaves from. Khao Lak is the area north of Phuket island, on the mainland. Khao Lak took the brunt of the tsunami wave, in some parts, the wave swept over 4km inland! (Think about that for a minute!) The confirmed death total for Thailand from the tsunami was 5395. 4225 of those deaths were in Khao Lak.

My ferry pickup came about 10:15, and got to the pier about 10:30. I stood around with a dumb look on my face (something I pull of quite easily), and one of the tourist office girls asked me where I was going. I told her Koh Lanta, she asked me if I had accomodation yet, I told her no, but I want something cheap. She pulled out a brochure for Arena Bungalows, 400 baht/night, just south of Long Beach, about half way down the island. They are beach bungalows with a fan and private bath, so I took it.

I waited around for the boat to leave at 11:30. Boat came and we arrived at the pier in Saladan (the main town on Koh Lanta) a few hours later. The Arena Bungalows dude was waiting, holding up a sign for his bungalows, so I hopped in the brand new Isuzu truck with him, and we headed off.

Wow, the town is soooo busy now, I can't believe it. Packed full of people and vehicles. And the town has expanded way down the main highway for more than a kilometre. In fact, the whole drive, there were so many buildings, shops, hotels, restaurants, etc., all the way down. None of that existed 5 years ago! And there's so many tourists milling around everywhere.

On the drive down, I told the driver i was on Koh Lanta 5 years ago, and stayed at Lanta Sand Resort. As we passed it, he pointed it out. It's now the Lanta Sand Resort and Spa. I told him I paid 500 baht/night 5 years ago, he laughed and said "no more", meaning I would never get it for that price now.

Got to Arena bungalows. It's ok, but not on the beach. It's about a minute walk to the beach. It's stuck behind a smallish, but obviously expensive, motel with a swimming pool. The beach along here is nice, white sand, but the water isn't suitable for swimming, cus it's mostly rocks all over. I decided to walk up to Long Beach to see the Lanta Sand Resort and Deep Forest Bungalows, where I stayed 5 years ago.

On the walk up, I had to cross two small beaches. On one of them, someone had written in the sand "Exhibitionist Bay, March 20". The beach was almost empty, except at the other end, someone was sitting on a log. As I got closer, I could see that it was an older man, and he was buck naked. At the back edge of the beach, was a little shelter with a tarp over it and a dog laying under the shelter. As I walked by the guy (behind him, I didn't want to make eye contact, nor see him from the front), he said "Hi" to me. I grunted Hi back and kept walking, not looking at him. Now I know why someone had named it Exhibitionist Bay, obviously a joke because of buddy. After I passed him, another guy had just climbed over the headland, heading in the opposite direction as me. When I got to the end of the beach, the old, naked guy had started a conversation with this other guy. lol.

Made my way up to the Lanta Sand Resort. The bungalows look newer, and there's more of them, but it looks pretty much the same as when I was there. I asked at reception how much they were, she said 3000 baht ($100 CDN....5 years ago, less than $20 CDN!) Then walked to Deep Forest Bungalows, which was right beside Lanta Sand Resort. It's simply deserted now, the sign is laying on the ground, the huts are all falling down and caving in. And garbage piled up everywhere.

On the walk back to Arena, stopped at a restaurant for a late lunch.

As I walked past exhibitionist bay, the old naked guy was dragging driftwood down the beach toward his shelter. He's obviously living on the beach with the dog. When I got to the spot where someone had put Exhibitionist Bay, March 20 into the sand, he had wiped it out with his foot, obviously he didn't think it was funny.

Got back to Arena, showered, had a Coke and wrote in journal. This place is run bu a Muslim man and woman (she covers her head), there's no beer for sale here. There are a number of beach bars nearby, however.

About 6:30, walked to the beach, saw the sunset, pretty nice (most beaches on Koh Lanta face west, making for great sunsets). Walked down the beach, scoping out the restaurants and beach bars south of Arena. Had a beer at one place, then had supper at another restaurant that had a bbq happening. I got a BBQ fish fillet, baked potatoe, salad, fruit salad and Chang beer for 150 baht. Can't go wrong with that! It was awesome.

Not too much happening, along the beach, few of the beach bars and restaurants have customers, it seems to be pretty low key.

Went to bed sometime after 10:00.