Have you ever been somewhere and thought, "next time I need to go to my mental 'happy place,' this is where I'll think of"? Somewhere that feels like your own personal paradise? Well, I recently found mine, and I can't wait to share it with you. Read on to see more of my new favorite place on earth: the island of Koh Lanta, Thailand.
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This post is a continuation of the island adventure begun in Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, and Krabi, documented here. Be sure to check that one out, if you missed it!
Here, I will pick up on day 4 of this trip. I will start over the day count, however, to instead reflect the day on Koh Lanta, specifically.
Koh Lanta: Day 1
The day began with a multiple-hour van ride from Krabi town to the island of Koh Lanta. Part of the journey was by ferry, but interestingly, it was a ferry on which we never left the van! I had never been on a ferry like this. It was about a 20 minute ferry ride to get from the mainland to the island.
Once off the ferry, the beautiful island views never ceased to amaze. This photo is from the bridge between the smaller and larger "Koh Lanta" islands. We stayed on the larger of the two, called Koh Lanta Yai (literally, "Lanta Island Big").
We stayed at a lovely guesthouse called Pongphiphat Mansion. It is located in a very central location on the island, in the Klong Nin region, about equidistant from the top and bottom of the island. I will insert a map below to give you a better idea of the layout.
For this leg of our trip, I treated myself to my own room, just a couple rooms down from Genie and Amanda's. The guesthouse has a grand total of 8 rooms, and since we were there in low season, I think we were the only guests they had. The lovely owner, Noi, was so happy to have us. She was so helpful and kind. I definitely recommend this guesthouse to anyone looking for a laid back, quiet, homey experience on the island.
We rented this glorious, practically brand new moped for 250 THB ($8) per day, split three ways ($2.67 per day). Yes, we did our classic "three girls, one moped" for our trip. Thank goodness we perfected it while still living in Nong Khai. Don't worry - we wore helmets!
After a bit of relaxing in our rooms, we embarked on a moped journey to find some dinner.
We ended up at Patty's Secret Garden, 6 kilometers north of our hotel. We got some delicious drinks...
...an appetizer of Bruschetta...
...prawn massaman curry and thick-noodle pad thai...
...and a divine caramel cashew ice cream sundae dessert.
Bellies and hearts satisfied, we went home and got some much needed sleep before our next day of adventure.
Koh Lanta: Day 2
We got up early and headed out to explore the island by moped!
The day started with a bit more excitement than we expected. There was a construction zone on the road that necessitated we drive on the edge of a road with roadwork occurring right on the other side. Before we had gotten even one kilometer from the guesthouse, we heard a loud "pop," and within seconds, our back tire was flat. Thankfully, we had seen a repair shop just a block back from where we broke down, so Genie was able to walk the moped there while Amanda and I collected rusty nails along the path we'd just driven. The second picture above is the nail the repairman pulled out of our tire. Only 200 THB ($7) later, we were equipped with a new tube and ready to go again!
We drove to Koh Lanta Old Town (B, purple), about 10 kilometers across the island from our guesthouse (A, teal). The middle of the island is a mountainous jungle. The road we took (blue above) goes over one large mountain, so half of the drive is an impressive ascent and the other half is an equally impressive descent. We learned on this drive that our bike is a champion at handling the mountainous roads with three girls!
Thank you, bike, and an even bigger thank you to our ever-devoted driver, Genie, for navigating the roads and getting us to every destination safely!!
We walked around the main Old Town street and discovered that we absolutely love this area.
The shops were filled with beautiful items, clothes, souvenirs, and just things that made us happy.
It was so enjoyable to wander into various shops and try out lovely scented body creams, hunt for the perfect friendship bracelets, and scope out souvenirs.
Hunger struck, so we chose a sea-front cafe called The Old House to eat and get some coffee.
We got a table on their outdoor deck.
The view from this cafe/art gallery hybrid was dreamy, to say the least.
We so enjoyed that we were generally alone during our dining experience here. Sometimes other people came and went, but because it was low season, we frequently had places to ourselves.
We weren't complaining.
The coffee drinks at the Old House were heavenly. I got a mocha, Genie got a double espresso, and Amanda got a hot cocoa.
For food, I got an egg salad with French fries cooked to perfection. I was more excited about this salad than I can express; it had been a long time since I'd gotten to eat such fresh, raw vegetables. It's funny how much we appreciate the little things when we go without them for awhile!
After lunch, we explored the small Chinese Buddhist shrine on the pier next door.
The happy Buddha's expression mirrors how it felt to be in such a beautiful place.
We then walked to the main Old Town Pier.
Along the sides of the pier, there were piles of these fish, some of which were still flopping and not yet deceased. Confused and saddened by this, Genie and I were throwing the fish that were clearly still alive back into the water. We later came to understand that these fish are used as bait, and the fishermen who were collecting them were indeed coming back to collect them once they dried out a bit... whoops.
This was the view from the end of the pier. The overcast day enabled us to enjoy this long walk, as it was only in the 80s and not blazing with sunshine - the coolest weather we'd felt in a long time.
After the pier, we continued the hunt for bracelets that we had begun on Koh Phi Phi a couple days earlier. We found ones that we all liked and happily purchased them!
Next, before we departed Old Town, we stopped at Two Scoops Gelato and had some yummy ice cream. I got "old town special," which was coffee flavored and had cookie dough in it. Two of my favorite things - although, my lactose intolerant tummy did not agree with my choice to eat this. Oh well, you can't win 'em all. My taste buds enjoyed it, and that counts for something, right?
At this point, we left Old Town and were bound for the beach. There are not beaches on this side of the island due to crazy rip currents and a lack of sandy shores, so we had to cross back over the mountain to get to the beachy side of the island. The jungle/mountain views on the way were wonderful.
We had to drive almost all the way back to our guesthouse to get to the road that leads to the beaches. The road along the western side of the island is glorious, albeit so mountainous (and thus, so exciting... or mildly terrifying, depending on how you look at it). We made our way down until we happened upon a turn-off to a beach we just had to go to: Bamboo Beach (orange pin).
We parked our bike with two others (yes, you read that right: there were only two other vehicles in the parking area for this beach) and walked the short path to the beach.
We were practically by ourselves here. It was like magic.
I have been to many beaches in my lifetime (I am Los Angeles born-and-raised, after all), but I have never been to one bordered by a lush jungle.
I have also rarely been on beaches where there are practically no other people. Needless to say, I was loving this.
It still blows my mind that the sand ends where the jungle begins. Where are the tourist-packed boardwalks?? The high rise buildings?? The hotels and man-made infrastructure?? Not here. Some places are still pure, and I am so happy I got to experience one.
I couldn't wait to get in the water, so off the clothes went and into the water I ran!
That's better. Remember earlier when I mentioned my "happy place"? This, this exact place, this exact photo - this is it.
If you're worried how these photos were taken, never fear; my phone was in a waterproof case, already tested during a snorkeling adventure off of Koh Phi Phi.
Although the grey skies may have made for less conventionally aesthetic pictures, they kept the weather cool enough that we could thoroughly enjoy our experience, without ending up overheated and sunburned. The water temperature was a delightful 86 degrees, and the air was just a tad warmer.
At this point, the two other people on the beach began to make loud noises, catching Genie and Amanda's and my attention. To our amusement, monkeys had found our bags and were having fun searching through them for snacks! We motioned to the people on the beach that those were our bags, and the people kindly shooed the monkeys away for us.
Naturally, I was fascinated by the prospect of monkeys living on the border of the beach - ones that were not trapped on the beach (like Koh Phi Phi Monkey Beach), but ones that were there by choice. I got out of the water and went up to the jungle to investigate.
To my delight, I found so many monkeys frolicking in the jungle! There were families with babies, rascal juveniles, and wise old souls living their best lives between the jungle trees and the beach.
They were hard to capture in photos, even though they were so close, because they were so deftly swinging through the trees and darting in and out of view. (The monkey in the above photo is sitting on a tree in the center of the picture.) Also, I mainly just wanted to enjoy them through my eyes. I watched the monkeys for a long time.
I then wandered over to the rocky waters by the edge of this beach and explored on the rocks.
The views from every angle were glorious.
The trees the monkeys call home. I was here for so long while Amanda and Genie were in the water that they later told me they were calling me "Jane" (from Tarzan) because they thought I'd ran away to join the monkeys forever. I thought about it, but I decided I wanted to go back in the water, so I chose to return to the land of the humans.
I reunited with the water, this time free of my phone. At this point, Amanda was exploring the sand and Genie was exploring the tide pools among the further out rocks. I stayed in that water, completely alone, for what felt like forever. I felt like I was one with the water. Completely connected. Bliss.
While I was in my happy bliss zone, Amanda captured this family of monkeys having a blast playing on and around our moped! They are quite clever; they opened the latched compartment below the seat, took out our helmets, and threw them on the ground. They even chewed a hole in the lining of mine! Silly rascals!
As sunset approached, we knew it was time to head back to our guesthouse/area of the island. Navigating those mountain roads at night seemed less than desirable as we were still getting used to them. So, we made our way to our room to get showered and changed, and then we were on a mission to find some food.
I had seen a sign the prior day advertising the "best Indian food ever," and we felt like we absolutely had to find out if that was true. We searched for the place for probably half an hour before, against all odds, I finally saw the vegetation-covered sign again.
We excitedly (and hungrily) turned down the road... only to find that this place was practically abandoned and was clearly only a high-season establishment. We turned back to the main road and decided to "settle" on a Greek place that we had seen on the way.
If this was settling, I'd happily settle every single day. This meal was delicious. El Greco Greek Taverna is the only Greek restaurant on Koh Lanta, and we absolutely loved it. Run by a lovely Greek woman named Maria, this restaurant was established nine years ago and is clearly a family affair. We got tzatziki with pita to start.
For our main dishes, we split the vegetarian platter (pita, potatoes, spanakopita, stuffed eggplant, potato balls, fresh Greek salad, more tzatziki)...
...and the special of the day, vegetarian stuffed peppers with roasted potatoes. Because Maria saw how we inhaled the tzatziki (and licked the plate - no shame), she kindly gave us three side dishes of tzatziki so that we could each have our own. Everything was delectable.
Before we left, we took a photo with Maria and a group of people that seemed to be her adopted Thai family. Everyone was so excited to take a picture with us! We love this place and the beautiful energy here.
After dinner, we went to a karaoke bar to take advantage of the Friday night karaoke competition occurring there. Genie and Amanda love karaoke, and I had never been, so I was up for the adventure!
These two have done ample karaoke in their lives (Genie used to do karaoke competitions to win money and free drinks for her friends on a weekly basis back in the US), so they sang multiple songs each and scored many free drinks by doing so. Although I do enjoy singing and have performed in musical theater contexts innumerable times in my life, the prospect of doing a karaoke song on that stage made me acutely uncomfortable, so I just loudly sang along with everyone from off stage and had a blast doing so.
No surprise, these musical theater stars won first and second place in the karaoke competition! Amanda, second place, got a free bucket of vodka (which we gave away to a man who was such a kind supporter of them both), and Genie, first place, got a free bucket of a delicious cocktail. It was very fun to cheerlead for these karaoke superstars!
We made our way home around 1 AM and decided it would be a fabulous idea to attempt a night swim at the beach closest to our guesthouse. We discovered that there is a reason we hadn't been told to go to that beach - it was very rocky and not pleasant on the feet, and there were many boats in the water so we couldn't really go in it ourselves. No problem, we tried! We saw some cool crabs, got a 2 AM selfie and then went home to go to bed.
The sweet guesthouse cat greeted us when we got there! His name is Sua, which means tiger in Thai. He is so friendly - he literally came into each of our hotel rooms with us so that we would pet him for longer! I am moderately allergic to cats, so I told Sua he needed to stay outside for the night. He obliged.
This ends day 2 of our time on Koh Lanta! I will return soon with an account of our next days on the island. Get excited: the next post will be about the national park on the island, i.e., one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Thank you for reading! See you soon for another day in paradise.
🏝
This is literally the first time I saw the sign for "the best Indian food". I'm glad you captured it on camera or I may have never believed you.
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