My sleep in finished at 7am, the dogs had been quiet for me but there was a power cut half way through the night which meant the fan stopped spinning and it was to hot to sleep...I had managed to get about 4 hours in all, not nearly enough for me! I walked to the store to get breakfast, and after a cheese toasty, 2 red bulls and an ice coffee I was ready to go...
We were picked up at around 8.30 and driven to Lanta Old Town at the south east end of the island, we boarded our long tail boat and set out towards the first island. It took about an hour to to reach, I'm not sure in which order we visited the first two islands so I can't tell you their names. The first one was more like rock formation, we didn't actually go onto the island, I don't think it would of been possible, unless you are Spiderman! We jumped off of the boat and went snorkelling for half an hour or so. There wasn't an awful lot to see, a few small fish, no big or funky ones, or colourful coral... This was ok with me though, I'm scared of fish and I'm not sure why I keep going on these snorkelling tours, this was my third one!
The second 'island' was very similar to the first, a big rock. The difference with this one was that there were hundreds of bats hanging down from the cliff side. I've only ever seen bats in the zoo, never before in the wild. They were huge, and actually really beautiful! It was pretty cool to see them just hanging there in here natural environment. The other people in the group jumped off the boat and snorkelled for a while, Anna and I decided to stay aboard.
The third island was actually an island! Like the ones you imagine when you think of Thailand... A white sandy beach, clear blue water and wooden huts lined up along the shore where you could buy a beer or fruit shake. This is what had been missing from my life in the last couple of weeks, beaches like this are plentiful on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan, where I had spent the first month of my trip. Koh Lanta doesn't have this.
We stayed on the third island for about one hour, we had lunch which I think was meant to be green curry, it had raw chicken in it so I just ate the rice- I do not want Thai Belly!
Next we were off the the 'Emerald Cave', the island that looked the most stunning in the brochure. We were told to put our cameras into the guides waterproof bag and put on our life vests. We jumped in and swam towards a small opening in the rocks, as we got closer I could see how small and dark the hole we had to swim through was... I knew I wouldn't be able to do it. I'm very claustrophobic and I just knew I would not be able to swim through that cave. The guide had a waterproof torch, but he was at the front, and I was at the back, I couldn't see a thing. I shouted to Anna that I was going back to the boat and turned around. I lay in the boat and had a muddled Thinglish conversation with our driver. The group returned after about 20 minutes, Anna said it was very beautiful but very crowded, she took some pictures for me with my camera. It was about 3pm by this point.. time to head back to Koh Lanta.
Before we set out for Lanta was stopped at one more big rock, we snorkelled some more, then it was actually time to head back. The first few minutes of the boat journey home were fine, Anna and I sat on the front of the boat, sunbathing and laughing.. We have spent the last 2 days together, but we can't understand a word one another says... Apparently my English needs work!
Before long the ocean started to get choppy. About 10 minutes into the journey we were getting thrown around all over the place, the guide came out, grabbed our hands and pulled us inside. I say inside, but the boat didn't have a cabin, just a roof with an opening at each end. The ride got rougher and rougher, I don't mind admitting that I was scared! I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure that that little long tail boat was not designed for those kind of seas. We were been rocked and rolled like a cork in a bucket! Waves were coming over the bow, each time we hit a big one we would glide up into the air and land heavily back onto the water. I hated this, absolutely hated it. I was convinced it was only a matter of time before we rolled over. About 10 minutes from Koh Lanta the seas calmed and I was thankful to still be in the land of the living! They took us around to the west coast of the island to drop is off, I think it must of been to rough at the pier we started off from at the begining of the trip.
A car picked us up and drove us back to the centre. I felt sick but was just happy to of made it back. Later we treated ourselves to a decent meal on the beach, I had a burger with chips and a beer... It was the best western meal I'd had since I got to Thailand, it hit the spot and calmed my nerves!
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