Chapter 2: Southern Sun, Sand and Nemos

B and I left Bangkok early on Monday to travel to Ko Lanta. Ko Lanta is a fairly large island near Krabi, not that far from Ko Phi Phi and Phuket.
We chose it because we wanted to see some of southern Thailand’s beaches, but weren’t keen on the crowds, overdevelopment and general tackiness that we suspect exist in some of the better known resort areas.

Ko Lanta is somewhere in between a developed area like Phuket and the really remote islands. Some of the beaches like Klong Dao are overdeveloped. Long beach (Phra Ae) was really pretty and peaceful. I really liked the atmosphere created by the various hotels, bungalows, cafes and beach bars scattered along the beach.

My first encounter with the local wildlife was not the best, though. I got up early for a swim only to be stung by a jelly fish across both my feet and around my ankles. It stung for a couple of hours, but it was the allergic reaction I started having a week later that was really annoying. It necessitated a tiring search around Chiang Mai’s chemist shops for cortesone cream. From all my research (after the fact) on Thai jelly fish, it was highly unlikely for me to be stung given where I was and the time of year. Lucky me, I suppose!

Valentine’s day was spent with friendlier wildlife. We travelled by speedboat down to Ko Rok, a national park with some pretty good snorkelling. We had a random run in with Ernie Dingo (an Australian TV presenter and Actor) who was filming something on the island.
I’ve never really snorkelled anywhere too interesting and I have never dived. This might be the start of a new underwater hobby. I spent much of the afternoon chasing clown fish around the coral.

We found some great places to eat on the island. There are a number of places offering seafood BBQs (pick the fresh fish from their display, they cook it how you want it) and both places we tried were good. Thai Cuisine (creatively named) made some pretty authentic thai food as well.


We set off the next day for our next destination. As we had a couple of hours to kill in Krabi, I decided to see what the beaches on the mainland were like. We went to Railay via long boat, and it really wasn’t worth the trouble. The beaches were crowded and littered. The food was expensive. B and I both stepped on a sea urchin. The only positive was seeing the contrast to Lanta. Where Railay was covered with long boats touting for tourist dollars, Lanta was a peaceful shore inviting you to swim. I could certainly see the reason why the tourists originally came to Raily and Pranang, the limestone cliffs are stunning, but I don’t know why they are still coming.

If I go back to the Andaman region I would try to find an even more remote beach than Lanta. I will stay for more than 4 days. I will drink more cocktails, swim with more fish and avoid jellyfish and sea urchins!

Stay tuned: The charming city in the south and my favourite market