Thursday, February 26, 2009

100 cc's of sheer power (Feb. 25/09 - Koh Lanta, Thailand)

It was deja vu to our days on Phu Quoc Island when we climbed onto our rented motorbike this morning and set off to explore the island. Koh Lanta is about 20km long, with a short little connector road linking the two coasts half way up. Resorts pretty much lined the road most of the way down the west coast, and countless restaurants, cafes, and shops hugged both sides of the road. We missed the turnoff to continue down the west coast and found ourselves crossing over the connector road. We followed it down to the south tip, where the road ended at a small sea gypsy village on the water. Lots of small islands popped up out of the ocean between Koh Lanta and the mainland, some of which are protected in a marine park. We crossed back over to the west side, stopping at a restaurant right on a beautiful, long, flawless stretch of beach where the ocean was so calm that waves didn't even lap the shore. From there, it was about half an hour to the end of the pavement, where a bumpy dirt road persisted to the south tip of the island. Between the trees, we caught a glimpse of a pretty beach down below the road, and decided to park the bike in the shade and hike down. It was beautiful - bound on both sides by jagged black rocks, the big stretch of sand had only a couple other people on it. So we swam for a while in the water that was almost too warm to be comfortable, then kicked back on the sand for an hour or two, entertained by the speedos and topless sunbathes that had no problem showing off their European goods. Eventually, we hiked back up to the road and made our way north, crossing over on the connector road and returning to the north end on the east coast, where mangrove forests and grazing cows occupied the roadside. It made for a fun little adventure, tearing around the island without a plan or a decent map, dodging giant potholes and deliberating over which beach to spend the afternoon at. Life's rough :)


Later on, we met up with the diver friend we went out on the boat with yesterday, shared some Thai food and some stories, and then called it a night since it would be an early start tomorrow to head for the Phuket airport, Indonesia bound.

1 comment:

  1. yup, sounds like a pretty rough day. You'll enjoy it even more to know that it snowed here yesterday while you were lying on the beach. Sounds like quite the day!

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