Koh Lanta: Quiet Beach, Friendly Resort & Aussies Last Few Days

I didn't think I would have much to post about Koh Lanta, as it was more relax and chill then seeing a bunch of things. But after leaving there, I think it warrants it's own post. 

Koh Lanta from the ferry

Hammock on the porch of the hut we stayed in;
 how I spent my mornings

First of all, the resort we stayed at was great; Lanta Pearl Beach Resort. The staff were so friendly. They learned our names, got us whatever we wanted, they even took Megan to the pharmacy on their motorbike so she wouldn't have to get a songthaew or tuktuk and figure out where one was. Though when we got there, and our 3 person room we booked for 4 people (which I swear I emailed about before booking to make sure that was okay), was not acceptable, they helped us out with a cheap extra room for Nicole and Nick, and Megan and I stayed in the air-conditioned family room with two beds. They made excellent fruit shakes; switched between mango and lemon throughout the day. Their food was cheap for a resort; about 80-110 baht ($2.50-$3.50) a meal. And not just cheap, it was delicious. I mean I have had pad thai in just about every place I have been, and theirs was delicious compared to most restaurants/resorts. Still not as good as the super cheap street food, but nothing can compare really.

Little hut on the resort grounds

The hut we ate dinner and spent our nights in

Lanta Pearl Beach Resort

The resort was just a minutes walk from Long Beach. This beach was so quiet and peaceful, not to mention beautiful as well. Very few people out in the water or on the beach, or even at the scattered restaurants and bars lining the sand. It was a lovely change from the crowded beach of Phi Phi. Both beautiful in their own rights. We spent some time sunning on the beach, playing in the water and relaxing. It was quite lovely. After everyone left and it was down to Megan and I, I went for a nice stroll down to the end of the beach and sat on the rocks listening to Jack Johnson and taking it all in. It was lovely.

Long Beach in Koh Lanta, see all the people?

The end of Long Beach 

Listening to Jack Johnson

Walking in the water

Storm clouds a-brewin'

Koh Lanta was filled with much socializing, even if it was just Nicole, Nick, Sam, Becky, Megan and I, sitting in a hut at our resort talking, reading, drinking and eating. For two nights before Nicole and Nick had to head back to Australia, we spent our nights in the hut enjoying each others company. With our favourite resort dude, Ton aka Fat Boy Slim, making sure we had what we needed, due to his crush on Nicole, we had a great time. Sam is Nicole's friend from the UK, and Becky is her friend, who happened to be in Thailand at the same time, so decided to meet up with us in Koh Lanta. It was great to have a good group of people to hang out with, when there wasn't a ton of people around to really meet. Unfortunately, after 2 nights in Lanta, they all left us and it was down to just me and Megan.

Nick reading in the hut after coming in from storm clouds

Nicole and her flowers from Ton

I enjoyed a couple beers one night for once

Then came the fun. After my stroll down to the end of Long Beach, I walked back to the resort. Megan was napping in the room, so I went to the resort restaurant area and sat in a hut to finish my blog post about Phi Phi. Then I felt like watching New Girl. As I lay in the hut, with my headphones on, a random lady came up and told me that there was a tsunami warning and that there is talk of evacuating. So I decided I should probably go wake up Megan and we should figure out what is going on. After some deliberation, we threw our stuff together and headed to the front of the resort. We hopping in Ton's 'tuktuk' aka motorbike with a side cart type thing, and headed up to higher ground. The resort brought all the guests to the same place, a resort called Lanta Loft, to wait for word on whether or not there is going to be a tsunami or not. For a few hours we sat and waited, reading news articles that all said the same thing "8.7 earthquake in Indonesia, tsunami warnings for coasts on the Indian Ocean". Eventually they told us we could go back down at 8pm. It was 7:30pm when Ton came around rounding us all up. We hopped into the back of the pick-up truck and headed back down, straight to our rooms to drop off our stuff and to the restaurant to get food. It was an interesting last night in Koh Lanta, to say the least.

Ton driving us to higher ground

Little boy waiting for the tsunami

The next morning we woke up early to head here to Koh Samui, which was an 8 hour day of mini bus and ferry but worth every second.