After I left off on my last post, I walked the quiet roads into Saladan to get beer and snacks. Nota bene farang: You save about $10 CAD by buying a case of beer instead of six packs. With the heat sweltering at 33ºC and the beer to carry, I flagged a tuk-tuk for the way home.
We went for our aromatherapy massages that afternoon. Each massage here has been a little different and the best way I can describe this one is: loving. She asked beforehand if I wanted medium or soft and I’m not sure what I would have gotten had I said soft–Reiki?–because this was no muscle rub massage, it was very gentle.
For dinner, we walked down the beach about 15 minutes to Lanta Smile Beach and enjoyed a whole fried fish. I have no idea what kind of fish it was but it was delicate and seasoned with pineapple, onions and garlic.
The next day marked one week on Koh Lanta and we took it easy again. I walked the beach in the morning and hung out by the pool for the afternoon. It was the first time on this trip that I actually laid down on a pool lounger. So, it takes about two weeks of vacation before I can really get relaxed!
We went for an early dinner at around 3:45pm at Sea Sand Soul, which is perched over the water near Saladan pier. Like many businesses in Thailand, you take your shoes off and leave them outside the front door when you enter. Because it was early, we were the only ones there and got such great attention and interaction with the staff. The owner chatted at length with us about the nature of the area and taught us more Thai. He speaks many European languages, which he says he easily picks up just by talking with his customers. His wife cooked us a delicious meal of deep fried soft shell crab, shrimp balls and stir fried morning glory.
We got a tuk-tuk ride home with a lovely Muslim woman who had the biggest smile. Wind negotiated the price in Thai but we guess that her pronunciation was a bit off because the tuk-tuk driver and her friend shared a big laugh over the interaction. It wasn’t a case at laughing AT you, just some fun joviality.
In the evening, we walked down the beach to the roti stand and ordered a couple of these yummy Thai pancakes: one with ma prao (coconut) and one with ma muang (mango) and caramel. There wasn’t much of a sunset so we headed back to the villa for an early night.
Phi Phi Islands Excursion
The next morning, I headed out at 8:25am for my pickup to Saladan pier where I boarded a speedboat with about 30 other people headed to Koh Phi Phi Don. Five or six passengers disembarked to spend the day there while the rest of us sped off to Koh Phi Phi Lay, home to the beautiful Maya Bay.
Made famous by the movie The Beach, Maya Bay is visually stunning. However, it’s precisely its beauty that has caused it to suffer. Due to overtourism, Thai authorities shut down access to Maya Bay in the summer of 2018 and it re-opened in January, 2022. While it was closed, you could only view it from a distance by boat. Now that it’s accessible again, throngs of tourists visit. The place was packed!
My breath was taken away when I got my first view of the beach. But I immediately noticed that something wasn’t quite right: the beach was crowded but no one was swimming. Since re-opening, there’s no swimming allowed at Maya Bay. You can wade in to about knee level but venturing any further will net you swift admonishment from a beach guard’s shrill whistle. My disappointment was fleeting though because I started picking up the heavy wafts of hair spray, shampoo and sun block. It’s a damn good thing that people aren’t allowed in that pristine water! A good majority of the people there were all done up for snapping Instagrammable photos and I highly doubt these are the kind of people who research reef safe products.
I took some photos of Maya Bay, strategically cropping out all the people, but didn’t realize that my waterproof case still had some protective plastic over the camera lens window so my photos aren’t as crisp as I’d hoped. I spent most of my time at Maya Bay just taking it all in with my eyes, something that a lot of people just don’t seem to do anymore, preferring to see everything through a phone. An official-looking Thai tourism woman snapped several photos of me with a very nice looking camera that had a big lens. I’m not sure why, maybe I just had that look of real pleasure and satisfaction that might go well in a tour brochure or something.
I didn’t take any photos of the Philieh Lagoon because there were just so many boats and people that the photos would have, well, sucked. But I imagined what it must look like in the early morning hours before the boats arrive and it was gorgeous.
We stopped for a short snorkel right off the boat in Nui Bay and it was OK but there wasn’t a lot to see. The coral reefs are dying and there weren’t many fish but I made friends with a very colourful parrot fish. Maybe it was my neon sunburst swim trunks, I don’t know, but it seemed to enjoy my presence. Next we went to beautiful Bamboo Island and had a lunch of rice, yellow curry chicken, chicken wings and stir fried vegetables. Most people were coupled off so I found a spot on my own in the sand but was then joined by a Danish man named Christian who’s company I enjoyed. He’s lived and traveled extensively throughout Southeast Asia and has a deep love for Thailand. He plans to pack everything up back home over the next few years and move to southern Thailand.
After a quick swim, we were off in the boat again, stopping briefly at Monkey Bay–there were no monkeys today–then back to Koh Phi Phi Don for an hour long visit to the beach and town. There were so many people there, either staying on the island, passing through and catching a ferry to elsewhere, or visiting on a day trip like me. I’m incredibly relieved that I changed our trip itinerary from island hopping, which would have included several popular Thai islands and a night or two on Koh Phi Phi Don, to just staying put on Koh Lanta. Life is much better here on Lanta without the crowds. Christian agreed.
We were running late so snorkeling at Shark Point was nixed. As I had for much of the day’s journey, I grabbed a seat at the front of the boat. This is where it was most exciting! Hitting the waves would SLAM! the boat and cause the four of us up there to bounce around and whoop and holler! I wasn’t sure that it was the best idea for my back, which I’d injured just weeks before going on this trip to Thailand, but figured “Oh well, I’ll just have to get another massage on Klong Dao beach!”
I was done with the crowds when we docked at Saladan pier so I opted out of the ride with everyone else back to our respective accommodations, choosing to hire a tuk-tuk instead. Muhammed spotted me right away and off we went!
Wind had adventures of her own while I was gone for the day. Intent on some more power shopping at Lanta Plaza, she hired a tuk-tuk for the ride into town, but she noticed that she was treated a little differently as a woman on her own. First, the driver tried to charge her 115 Baht but she told him she always pays 100 Baht with other drivers and he accepted. Then, he took a right turn instead of a left heading off the resort property and went down a bumpy side road. She never felt unsafe with him but had a feeling something else was going to be sprung on her. He pulled into a gas station, opened the tank, pointed to it and said to her, “Unleaded.” She gave him a firm, “Mai dai. Lanta Plaza.” (No. Lanta Plaza.) He smiled, realizing he couldn’t mess with this farang, and they were off again. She went to Rajar’s shop, our friend who we met last week, and made new friends at other shops. She picked out some nice pants, a dress and some small gifts.
Back at the villa, she also accidentally set off the fire alarm! Exciting!! The alarm was loud enough to be heard across the resort property. Our friend, the maintenance man named Gai, scooted over on his bicycle and got it turned off.
We reconnected at just before 5pm and headed over to Kaw Kwang Bistro, perhaps our favourite restaurant so far because of the great food, chill vibe and super friendly Chao Ley owners and staff. We had Som Tam salad, seafood stir fried with basil and green beans, and deep fried cheese balls. I told them I would be back on my own later for the fire show on the beach and they were genuinely excited when I followed through and returned for some cold Chang beers (which they gave me at discount.) The fire show was cool with the single performer wearing a Phantom of the Opera type mask, twirling fire in sync with Asian music. Halfway through, a white boy of about 10 joined in to fire jam. Before the show, I’d noticed him practicing baton twirling and trailing the fire performer and got the sense that his family has returned to Koh Lanta several times and that he has gotten some tutoring from the performer.
I finished my night with a walk along the beach noting that I feel completely safe to do so on my own here on Koh Lanta. In many places I’ve visited, it’s simply too dangerous to walk alone on the beach at night. On Koh Lanta, you’re safe and welcomed everywhere and I hope that never changes.
ps. The pool lights died again last night! Every time I tried to turn them on, it would trip the breaker in the utility room. A maintenance man came over today, and while he didn’t seem to speak a lick of English we did a lot of bowing and smiling, and after an hour or so of work in the hot sun, he got the lights back up and running!