07.03.-13.03.2016
After we had breakfast in Hogwarts, we got picked up by a minivan which brought us the pier, where our ferry to Koh Lanta was waiting. As always, we had to wait around 30min for boarding and then another 30min until we left the pier, heading along the west coast of Thailand to Koh Lanta. It took us about 3 hours as we stopped a few times in the middle of the ocean to drop or pick up people from traditional longtailboats.
At the pier we found a taxi driver among thousands of others, who was willing to bring us to our hostel for a better price. We are really getting better in bargaining ;)
In the evening we went to the Old Town where a cultural festival was starting. It was more like a "Volksfest" with loads of street-food and markets where tourists can buy everything they need. Anyway, we enjoyed the traditional dance show and the typical Thai music. Everything was very colorful and after the sunset there were many lights.
Our (first) hostel was set on the main road along the coast. In the end we tried three different hostels, because some of them were fully booked and we wanted to try something different. Except we had to pack our backpacks three times, it was quiet fun to see the differences in service and facilities and we got to know many different people.
As we stayed in the north and we were told that the most beautiful beaches are in the south, we rent some scooters on our second day and headed south. The bay we found was called "Bamboo Beach" and it was a quiet and mostly natural beach with only three restaurant/resorts. The sun was so hot that we had to find a place in the shadow and refresh in the turquoise water. After some time, it got low tide and instead of a nice sandy shore, there appeared big black and slippery stones which made it impossible to get into the refreshing water. So we took the road back to the north for watching the sunset on a higher place. We found a nice restaurant where we could watch the sun set over the ocean, this was really panoramic!
The next day we had some delicious breakfast in a french bakery and went to a beach next to our hostel. In the evening we went to a backpacker party at the beach.
On our last day we booked a four island tour with a traditional longtailboat. We were picked up again by a minivan and brought to the pier. It was very windy and there were loads of Chinese tourist waiting for their speed boat to do the same tour as we planned...(yay!)
The more we moved away from the coast, the more bumpy the ocean got and after half an hour we were all wet. Our first stop was a cave that was a little bit over the water surface so you were able to swim through it. We got life vests and our guide had a torch to lead us through the dark cave. The cave was like a tunnel and led us to a beautiful beach inside of the island, surrounded by big rocks and trees. Sadly, the whole beach and water was crowded with the Chinese tourists from the speed boat. As we wanted to swim back through the cave (it was now high tide and the space in the cave was smaller than before) there was a tourist group building a queue which was as long as the whole cave so it got very tight in the cave. We were really happy when we saw the light at the end of the cave so we could climb on our boat again and head to our next stop. This was next to an abandoned island and we could snorkel there. The water wasn't as clear as on Koh Tao so we couldn't see that much. After another snorkeling stop with loads of small, black and yellow colored fishes, we arrived at Koh Kradan. At this paradise beach we had lunch and some time to swim in the crystal clear, turquoise ocean. It was really beautiful and relaxing. Nevertheless, our highlight was a big crab we met at the beach. It was as a football and it was very photogenic. :D
At half past four we arrived at the pier in Koh Lanta and were brought back to the hostel. We went for dinner to our favorite restaurant which was run by a German woman and her Thai husband. They made some delicious curries for us and gave us some fresh backed Körnerbrötchen!!! for our 22hour journey to Kuala Lumpur on the next day.
We really enjoyed our stay on Koh Lanta because it's a calm and more natural island in the Gulf of Thailand.