We left Koh PhaNgan and crossed southern Thailand, heading for Koh Lanta. When we arrived, we were happy to find a laid back and environmentally conscious atmosphere.  The locals have gone to great lengths to preserve the natural beauty of the island and their efforts have not been in vain.  All along the west coast of the island were little bays and beaches, many of which were completely empty, except for a few fishing boats moored in the waters.

 We arrived at our bungalow in the back of a pickup truck that had just bounced us along a dirt road through lush jungle. The bungalows were set about 100 meters back from the beach, which had a fresh water mountain stream in the middle that flowed into the bay. The bay only had two other bungalow resorts along the sand.

Since Koh Lanta is near Malaysia, the island was about half Muslim. Being American this challenged me to overcome misperceptions that were pushed on me through the American media. Our hosts were exceedingly kind and friendly. The mystique of the surrounds were enhanced by the daily Muslim call to prayer that would ring out through a speaker system and echo through the mountain sides that surrounded us.

The day after we arrived on the island, Meg and I set out on a motorbike to explore the island. We first rode along the bumpy dirt road to the southern most tip, where our map showed an unnamed tiny beach. We arrived to find a beautiful national park that had an empty beach and alot of monkeys!

 

We discovered the presence of the monkeys as one cheekily galavanted up to my bag and began to dig around in it to find out what treats I had for him. I managed to discourage this behavour with some hand waving and shooing. He got the message and looked for entertainment elsewhere. I grabed my camera and followed him. Moments later he discovered a crab in the grass and proceeded to take a seat and begin to devour it. ( he politely allowed me to photograph him at this point.)

When I walked back to find Meg, I became aware of how pristine and empty the beach was.

 The beach was also home to hundreds of sand and hermit crabs.

 

Some of the colors where striking.

 

As we were walking back to our motorbike, we noticed some more monkeys on the rocks, probably looking for more crabs.

 

We spent that evening in a cool little cliff side bar that overlooked a beautiful empty beach.

 

The next day we explored some of the bays nearby our bungalow. One in particular was hidden from the road by about 100 meters of forest. We felt quite special discovering this gem.

As we left, we got caught in an afternoon rain storm. We took shelter under the thick canopy of trees.

 

Our bungalow was set among lush tropical plants with a view of the our bay peaking through the greenery.

 

That evening, as we watched the sun setting on our bay, we began to realize how little time we had left in SE Asia.

That night, we sat under the stars and were treated to an amazing shower of shooting stars that seemed to never end. The next day, we simply enjoyed the beach near our bungalow. That evening, as the sun set, it felt like Thailand was saying goodbye to us.

 

Sitting under that sky, we vowed to return to Thailand and that this was only the beginning of our adventures.

The next day we took a ferry to the main land and boarded an overnight bus to Bangkok. On our last day in Bangkok, we took the river ferry to the center of the city.

We did some shopping, saw the big buddha, and had some great thai food.

 

As we sat at a cafe watching the boats go by on the river, we felt like we finally had gotten a handle on this crazy city that had seemed so overwhelming when we first arrived.

The next morning we boarded our plane to Australia to begin the next chapter.

(p.s. We will be posting about our time here in southern Australia in a few days when we get back from our beach hopping and boogie boarding trip along the Great Ocean Road.)