Yesterday we flew from Bangkok south to Krabi, then transferred by car and ferry to the beautiful island of Koh Lanta. The drive from the airport was highlighted by gorgeous vistas of palm forests. I’ve never seen so many palm trees! And we drove right on to the ferry, just minutes before departure! As islanders who rely on ferry transportation back home, we always recognize this as a blessing!
We’re staying at the north end of the island, close to the main village of Saladan. I’ve stayed in touch with the assistant front office manager over the past few months and put in a few requests for our stay but I understood that they couldn’t guarantee that each request would be fulfilled. However, it seems that they have gone above and beyond to ensure a lovely stay for us here. For starters, they put us in their nicest villa! It’s a 2-bedroom, 2-bath house measuring 1345 square feet, with two patios and a 533 square foot private pool. It’s very airy with big wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling glass panels that fully open, and the peak of the ceiling in the open concept kitchen-dining-living room is about 15 feet high. We’ll be very happy here!!
We spent a couple of hours relaxing by the pool, grateful to just be still after the day’s travel, and then headed down to the beach for a sunset dinner. Klong Dao beach is wide and long (3.3km) with very soft, fine sand. We took a table with a perfect sunset view and ordered Phad Thai Kung (shrimp), Phad See Ew Moo (pork) and my new favourite, Som Tam salad (which surprisingly wasn’t actually on the menu.)
Apologies in advance, but I suspect TripNote will feature more than a few photos of these gorgeous Koh Lanta sunsets! In some of the images below, you can see the Phi Phi islands in the distance, at right. They are located 56km from here and can be reached by speedboat (30-45 minutes) or ferry (1.5-2hrs). It’s an excursion I’d like to make, to visit the beautiful Maya Bay, made famous by the movie The Beach.
I opted for another early night last night and am publishing this just as we are getting started on our first full day on Koh Lanta. So far, life is very good for us here in Thailand, the Land of Smiles.