Active Em on tour: Koh Lanta, Thailand

Time of year visited: Mid October

Favourite place visited: Klong Khong Beach

Favourite food: Vegetarian Med Brunch at Kunda Restaurant

Favourite activity: Snorkelling (apart from when I thought I might die)

Most random thing that happened: The host at our hostel rubbing talcum powder on our hands to make us better at pool (whilst he was wearing a towel)

There’s a strong chance that you might get this blog post quite soon after the Krabi post because this weekend we are at the Kuala Lumpur Major Dota 2 Competition (video game). Ant has dragged me a long and as much as I try and watch the games I just can’t get into it so I’ll just sit here and write while he watches magical heroes fight...

So! We travelled to the Thai island of Koh Lanta by mini bus from Ao Nang. Our hotel offered better prices than the numerous tourist offices in the town. It took about three hours and was a really easy way to get there. We stayed at a hostel/ guesthouse type place called ‘Peace Lanta Mansion’. It was nothing swanky and very cheap but perfectly fine for a few nights. The hosts were really welcoming and eager to help up organise what we wanted to do on the island. There was a little lake (I’d call it a swamp really) at the back of the building, and the local children were driving over on their parents’ scooters and playing in it, climbing onto floating boards and pushing each other off. Very cute!

 Peace Lanta Mansion

 The "Lake"

 Path to the beach

Quiet area of Klong Khong Beach

On our first afternoon there we took it very easy, sussing out the surrounding restaurants and trying to figure out how to get onto the beach. To get to the beach from Peace Lanta Mansion we had to walk past ‘the lake’, through some cows and past the coconut trees. The beach was so beautiful but the less busy parts were covered in rubbish. Bottles, flip flops, childrens’ toys etc... it was such a shame. We are all really aware now about plastic pollution but it was still sad to see it.

We discovered two really cool bars on Klong Khong Beach. The first was called ‘Freedom Bar.’ The bar was made out of drift wood, scattered with bean bags and low tables and covered in neon writing and paint. If you enjoy partying then I imagine that their weekly party is really quite something. We also discovered our favourite bar of the adventures so far, the Lighthouse Bar. Cheap but tasty cocktails, chilled music, it was the perfect spot to watch the sunset (there is a time lapse on my Instagram highlights). AND it had some cute dogs, one became best friends with Ant and just chilled at his feet. The owner of the bar and his staff were also amazing people, very genuine.

Freedom Bar

 Lighthouse Bar

Ant and his new best friend

It’s all well and good sitting about drinking cocktails but this is Active Em! So what active activities did we do?

On our second day we went on a snorkelling boat tour. I can’t remember the names of the islands that we visited but it was a four islands tour. At our first stop there were a lot of fish and some were really amazing! I’m no David Attenborough so I’ll probably call them the wrong things but you can get the gist of what they looked like. I saw some black clown fish, parrot fish, a Dory fish like on Finding Nemo! I saw a sort of angel fish and I saw a needle fish jumping out of the water. It was so awesome! Then, disaster struck. When I got out of the water I started feeling REALLY sick but not sea sick and I had really bad pins and needles and my hands went all claw like and I couldn’t get them to unclench. It was so weird! The cute Spanish lady opposite me kept giving me the thumbs up and winking at me, I think to try and make me feel better, she was very cute. After a Coca-Cola I started to feel a little bit better.

Unfortunately though, it meant that I didn’t do any more snorkelling as I didn’t feel 100% again during the trip and I didn’t want to start feeling weird again when I was in the water. I did have a nice, peaceful nap in the sun when everyone else got off the boat though so that was a bonus.
During the boat tour we stopped off at this amazing beach for lunch. We enjoyed curry and rice whilst watching Juan the crazy Spanish man with the long hair covering himself in sand and shouting about how the sand had amazing energy. But he gave us some chocolate biscuits on the way back from the boat so he was a pretty cool guy!

Snorkelling trip!

Whilst on Koh Lanta we also went kayaking in the mangroves. It was really amazing, there are monkeys living there. The highlight/scariest moment was when a monkey climbed onto our boat, sat on my knee and stole my water bottle to bite a hole in it and then throw it away. We did the trip with two German girls who were actually terrible at steering their kayak and kept on crashing into the trees, it made it a pretty funny morning. It was definitely an upper body workout, my arms were very achey the next day!

Kayaking in the mangroves

We really liked Koh Lanta, it has some beautiful coast and beaches. There were a lot of tourist restaurants so I think you have to specify if you want or enjoy spicy food otherwise you will get toned down versions of meals. But if you want a nice place to relax in Thailand then Koh Lanta is a great shout. It’s also a top world diving destination if that’s your thing!

From Koh Lanta we travelled by bus to Krabi Airport and then flew up to Chiang Mai for the next part of our adventure...

Em x

Instagram : @active.em.blog