Koh Lanta

Using the one sensible bone we have between the three of us, we decided to have a chilled out few days in between the 2 party stops in Phi Phi and Koh Phangan. I'm going to change the usual structure of my blog by starting with the best bit about Koh Lanta. THAI LEWIS. This fella was an absolute riot. We met him halfway through a horrible 3 hour boat journey without air conditioning, nursing horrible hangovers and feeling like death. Out of the darkness emerged the white loafer, oversized sunglasses clad god of a man. After spending a while doing the usual trying to get us into his accommodation, he got onto his favourite subject.. football.

Now you would expect that a man from a country with a very poor international team, not a single well known player, miles from any decent side in the world, wouldn't have much knowledge of the beautiful game. You would be VERY wrong. Lewis loves football more than Kerry Katona loves Iceland party food and clinging onto any semblance of fame. He spent a good 10 minutes running through all the teams in his head, this included such powerhouses as Forest Green Rovers, Altrincham and Dagenham and Redbridge. We were also blessed with a lecture on his favourite players, why he supports Man Utd and what position he plays for Koh Lanta Beach Resort (a very big team he assured us).

Lewis was definitely a brilliant hangover cure and bless him didn't speak brilliant English but was trying to learn it from his friend. We were in awe of this superb human being and so decided to stay at "his" resort. Interestingly, Lewis also referred to having a bar, football team and restaurant. Consider him the Thai Richard Branson.

The little resort we stayed at was pretty nice, made up of lots of little bungalows and only 50 m from the beach. The overall vibe of Koh Lanta was definitely laid back. The style of seating they go for here is basically cushions inside a raised wooden hut. This meant that the majority of our time was spent horizontal sipping lemon juices (remember this is our detox period!). As ever with Thailand the sea was well nice and warm and we often spent long periods playing a game Rob invented which involved laying dead still like a bit of driftwood and letting the sea keep washing you up onto the sand. The only minor drawback of the sea here, like the other places we had visited so far, was that you are constantly being stung by little bits of dead jellyfish. It doesn't hurt at all but it's a constant itch that you have to get used to.



Many of you (I'm still not sure if I'm writing this to many people outside of my immediate family!) will have noticed that me and food get on very well. I eat a lot, talk about it a lot and often plan my meals WAY in advance. Well, the food in Thailand is very, very good. However, on one occasion in Koh Lanta we were well and truly let down. Firstly, we broke one of our rules by going in the first restaurant we came across. Secondly, the food took absolutely ages to come, with the waiter disappearing for a while to talk to his mate on a motorbike. When it did come it was absolutely awful! A starter of mixed vegetable tempura was absolutely mental. The chef/couple of kids employed had managed to deepfry bits of onion, mushrooms, green beans pretty poorly and make them taste not very nice but he/they had also deepfried tomatoes. This absolutely blew my mind as I thought that surely a tomato would explode when dropped in hot oil. Needless to say it tasted like battery acid. The curries we requested also turned out to be soups, and literally when poured onto a plate, flooded the whole thing. Luckily, Lanta is pretty cheap and we weren't left too out of pocket by the worst food ever.

Unlike a lot of the other areas of Thailand, Lanta is not particularly commercial, or a 'party' island if you like. We found that this meant that there was a number of family resorts nearby and the general age of people in the area was older. This wasn't a problem during these 3 days as like I said we were basically recharging our batteries before the intensity of full moon and Koh Phangan. For me, recharging my batteries involved me getting properly addicted to Solitaire on my ipod and playing it for hours on the beach with some dubstep on. Not a bad life aye?