Time to Tour Koh Lanta
We got a bit behind with our blog. We had to rent a car to get caught up! Wednesday, February 23 we rented a car for two days.
Kate at Oasis, where we are staying, arranged for a car rental to be brought to us. The guy arrived promptly at 9 am and we had Gary’s passport and info ready for him. Gary and the rental guy checked out the car and noted any scratches or imperfections, he said take all the pictures you want. Basically it is for our protection and his that we agreed on the condition of the car when rented. He noted Gary’s passport number on the form and he also took the photocopy we had of his passport. He then told us multiple times we had to leave the passport with the front desk at the hotel. He finally stood at the front desk with us until we handed it over to Kate. When he left we put it in our safe. We have the car for two full days and they will be back Friday morning at 9:14 to pick it up. It cost us ฿2400 $95. CAD for two days. We were basically packed up and ready to head out after we got the car.
From the hotel we headed into Saladan and across the bridge to the north island. It was a really interesting drive, the highway was impressive, wide with good shoulders that the motorbikes can drive on. They have some interesting road signs!
Other guests had told us about a great batik store and so we made our way there. It was about a 20 minute drive. We arrived to find the shop and no one anywhere to be found. It was a fairly rural area with the shop on the side of the road. There was a covered area where there were several racks of sarongs and dresses hanging and more clothing in a small locked area as well. We finally found some contact info and Linda messaged them to see if anyone was around. They messaged back they were in Bangkok and wouldn’t be back until Thursday but if we were interested in anything to let them know and we could pay them Thursday when they were back, There were no prices on anything so in the end we messaged our thanks for the info and hit the road. We had noticed a nice coffee shop called Lanta’s Cafe on our way to the batik shop so we stopped on our way back and had an amazing cappuccino and a plate of French fries.
FYI: geography class. Koh Lanta is actually two islands name Koh Lanta Noi and Koh Lanta Yai. Koh Lanta Noi is the north island, and separated from the south island by a nice bridge. The only way to connect to the mainland is via ferry from the north end of Lanta Noi.
Then we headed back to Lanta Yai and Saladan. From there headed south down the island. We drove by a number of beaches, Long Beach (Pra-Ae), Klonh Klong, and Klong Nin Beach. In Klong Nin we stopped and looked around. It is a gorgeous stretch of beach, no shade and lined with restaurants. There are occasional walk ways between buildings to the beach from the road. The easiest way to the beach was through some of the restaurants where you can sit under their umbrellas on the beach in front of their restaurant. As it was hot and sunny, we found a shady spot and had a passion fruit smoothie. The place is aptly named Beach Side Restaurant. The road side of this area reminds us of seasonal resort towns that you might find in Canada.
Once we’d cooled off with our smoothie, we hit the road again and finally arrived at our destination, the Mu Ko Lanta National Park at the southern tip of Koh Lanta. It cost us ฿420 park fee admission. There is a visitor centre with a few displays regarding the area and marine life. There is also a small rocky island that you can access and climb up to the lighthouse and take in the impressive views.
We spent quite a bit of time up there and then made our way back to the concession and bought an ice cream treat and a big bottle of water. There is also a hiking trail through the forest, it is approximately 2 km in length. We started out on the hike but the trail wasn’t great, we were climbing over roots and pushing branches out of the way plus it was pretty steep in spots. We finally decided that flip flops weren’t going to cut it and we turned back! Chatting with someone later they told us there really isn’t much to see, no lookout points or anything, just a long hike through the bush. Guess we really didn’t miss anything! By this time we were hot and sweaty and decided to head back to our hotel. We saw monkeys on the road!
We also noticed a rubber tree plantation and had to investigate
We did stop along the ocean at the Family Seafood restaurant that is basically built on the side of a hill overlooking the ocean, The view was great and we enjoyed a cold drink and a tomato salad. The salad was ok but pretty heavy on garlic but we both just scrapped some of it off and managed fine. No vampires around us tonight!
We got back to Oasis about 4:30 and were happy to hit the swimming pool and cool down! Supper was back at the Pad Thai food cart!
Enjoy the Mu Ko Lanta National Park video below. To watch in full screen click bottom right corner of video or watch on YouTube