Island Bliss: Koh Lanta, Part 3

Welcome back to heaven on earth.  This post contains the final installment of the island vacation adventure begun on Koh Phi Phi (here) and continued on Koh Lanta (in part 1 and part 2).  I hope you enjoy joining on the final leg of this idyllic time in paradise.

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Day 4 on Koh Lanta // Day 7 of Island Vacation

We began our morning with breakfast at our favorite cafe: Old House Cafe and Art Gallery, in the Old Town district of Koh Lanta.

I got a breakfast set of espresso, passionfruit juice, an omelette, veggies, and fresh fruit.

This view never gets old.

We then took a moped trip around the northern tip of the island, to explore beaches we had not yet seen.

We drove 18 kilometers from Old Town (purple, A) to Laem Kho Kwang Beach (red, B) in the pouring rain.  Rainy season always keeps us on our toes!

By the time we got to the beach, the rain had lightened to a drizzle, so we could hang our wet clothes on the bike under a tree and go for a swim.

The rainy day made for cooler temperatures in the air (I'm talking 80 degrees, brr!), so going in the water actually felt like a comfortable, warm bath (86 degrees, ahh).

I'm such a happy camper when I get to be in the sea.

After a little while, Genie and Amanda joined me in the water, too.  We were enjoying the warmth and calm waters until, surprise!, the sea lice we had felt in the sea the day before returned with a vengeance.

I call this picture set "Instagram versus reality" (in other words, posed photo versus what was really happening).  It was all smiles until we would get stung all over our bodies with jellyfish larvae.  Then, it was a painful affair.

As we were considering that it was time to get out, we saw something exciting: a real live adult thimble jellyfish!  So this is the guy whose larvae were making us mildly miserable.  It was quite cool to see an adult one, but it also made us quite motivated to make our way out of the water before we got to meet one skin-to-tentacle.

We decided to take advantage of the break in the rain and drive to the beach that a local had recommended to us as the "most beautiful beach on the island": Ao Nui Beach, close to the southern tip of Koh Lanta.

The drive from Laem Kho Kwang Beach to Ao Nui Beach (C, yellow) was 22 kilometers, a 45 minute jaunt on the mountainous island roads.  When we got there, we understood why we had been told not to miss it.

We descended a long staircase and found a remote, jungle-surrounded beach. 

We were greeted by very forward monkeys, one of which came up to me and brazenly tried to take my water bottle right out of my hand!

I successfully got past the monkey, water bottle in tow, and stared in awe at the beach ahead of me.

We got to the sand as the rain began again.

There was an empty beachside bar that had some cover, so we ducked into it to wait out the storm.

We weren't the only ones who had this idea!

Monkey bartender says, "Welcome to Robinson Bar, can I take your order?"

The rain let up, so we returned to the beach.

Determined to find out if the jellies had plagued every beach or just the ones we had been to in the last few days, I made right for the water.

This beach had a lower proportion of jellyfish larvae in the water than the one we had been to earlier, so I happily stayed put.

I got to watch the sun approach the horizon from my lovely vantage point in the sea.

So beautiful, no?

I got out to go see the small cave that Genie had gone to explore.  On the way, monkeys began having an orgy (yikes!) right in front of Genie.  The monkeys did not appreciate being watched and started chasing her away!!  That was deterrent enough for the both of us.  We crossed the beach back to Amanda.

We all wanted to see the sunset from a place we had driven past on our way to Ao Nui, so we drove up to the top of the nearby cliff to the aptly named Cliff Sunset Restaurant.

We got there just in time.

The view from the table was just glorious.

We got some drinks to enjoy while we waited for our food.  This pina colada went so well with the darkening beach.

We each got a curry and rice to fuel us after our long day - delightful cashew shrimp, for me.

We drove back to our hotel to get out of our still damp swimsuits and find dessert.  On the way, we got a picture of a staple all over the island: roadside gas bottles, a dollar for a liter.  I'm always tickled that the bottles look almost indistinguishable from something to drink, aside from the sign.  Also, "bath" is a funny misspelling of "baht" for a native English speaker.

We found one of our favorite Thai desserts: banana pancakes!  I got a Nutella one.  Delicious!

Time for bed for these tired ladies.

Day 5 on Koh Lanta // Day 8 of Island Vacation

For our last full day on Koh Lanta, we made it a priority to go to a place we had heard of on a travel blog: Oasis Yoga Bungalows.

Oasis is a heavenly combination of a restaurant, a resort, and a yoga studio.  Upon our first taste of their food and drinks, we were obsessed.  Above is our hummus plate, Amanda's green juice, Genie's coffee/peanut butter smoothie, and my French press coffee.

Genie's eggs benedict were too beautiful to not take a photo!

My potato/veggie hash with a sunny-side up egg was photogenic too, and absolutely delicious.

Oasis is a one minute walk from Klong Dao Beach, yet another lovely, barely inhabited beach on Koh Lanta.

I took a walk in the water while Genie and Amanda looked for shells on the shore.

I ultimately joined them and found some very cool pieces of coral, plus a mostly complete crab shell.

We decided to treat ourselves to massages at a place just off the beach.

It was so peaceful to hear the waves while we had the most wonderful massages.  This was my favorite massage of my life thus far!  (Fun tip: when you have mosquito bites, coconut oil massages are the best because the tiny bits of coconut exfoliate your skin and scratch your bug bites in the most delicious way.)

We drove across the island, back to Old Town, for some shopping and enjoying our last night on Koh Lanta.

Genie and Amanda shopped for many clothes and souvenirs.

I wore Amanda's hat and acted as a human hanger while they shopped.  My patience was rewarded with the perfect souvenir!  The woman who owned the shop was so grateful to get so much business from Genie and Amanda that she gave us each a free Koh Lanta bag!  I was so excited because, even though I'm living out of a backpack and don't like to accumulate many things, this is something so useful and small that I can easily carry with me.

For a drink and an evening snack, we went to another seaside place we hadn't yet tried: Fresh Restaurant.

There were swings on the restaurant's pier (not going to lie, these were the reason we chose to come here), so we of course had to use them before the daylight was gone.

I felt like a little kid in Amanda's fun hat while I enjoyed the swing set.

We got smoothies and a garlic stuffed squid to share.  It was divine!

After our evening in Old Town, we went back to the other side of the island to get changed at our hotel.  Earlier, we saw a sign for a trivia night at a pub called Irish Embassy, so we decided to try our luck at winning some cash there!

We got some appetizers and drinks while we answered the quiz questions.  My drink had a watermelon rind cut into the shape of a clover!

After quite a few hours of trivia, the results were in: we were not the best of the teams there, which probably had something to do with the fact that the target audience was in quite an older age demographic, so a lot of the questions went over our heads.  Oh well!  We had fun, and that's what really matters.

This wraps up our penultimate day on the island.  Night night!

Day 6 on Koh Lanta // Day 9 of Island Vacation

We loved Oasis so much the day before that we just had to go back for our last breakfast on Koh Lanta.

For $2, they have unlimited French Press coffee, with your choice of coconut, almond, or cow milk!  Genie and I shared one so that we could thoroughly caffeinate ourselves for quite cheap.

I got a delicious egg and veggie scramble with fruit.  Genie had a falafel wrap, Amanda had a taco salad, and we shared mixed potato wedges.  Again, Oasis did not disappoint!

The neighboring beach did not disappoint, either.

The blue skies made the clear ocean nearly glow with beauty.

We breathed in the salty air as we said goodbye to the beach.

Until next time, dear friend.

We just had to go back to Old Town one last time before our 3 PM van to the airport.

The views there made us glad we made the point of coming back.

Surprise surprise, we went to our favorite spot: Old House Cafe.  We got coffee/tea drinks and desserts to share.  The carrot cake was fine, but the true star of the show was the sea salt caramel chocolate torte.  We agreed that we could have eaten this one ten times over!

Sadly, it was time to go back to our hotel to catch our van.

The airport depression was real.

We made it better by playing card games on the floor as we waited for our 9 PM flight.

Our flight went off without a hitch.  Genie finished up bullet journalling our trip while we were on the plane, and then I jotted down my main take-aways from the 9 day holiday.

This concludes our grand island vacation adventure!  Thank you so much for coming along with us.  I had so much fun exploring Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Krabi, and Koh Lanta.  I hope you had fun vicariously living the island life!

See you soon, somewhere else in Thailand.

✈️