Thailand – finally!

6th February, 2019

Yes, that is actually today’s date, so does that mean I have finally caught up or that you have missed a whole chunk of posts? Well, certainly not the latter (I left you last with impressions on South India) so you have not missed anything there. However, whether I can bring the last two and a half weeks to you in one post remains to be seen. Anyway, we shall never know until we get on with it, so here goes.

On 20th January Pandi drove us at a very early hour to catch the 8.05 plane to Kuala Lumpur for our connecting flight to Krabi in Thailand. All good there except for two things – one, Val left her stick in the car, but we managed to get a message to Pandi and he drove back and got it to us. Why we call it a stick I am at a loss to understand because it has an uncanny knack of not sticking and being left in all sorts of places. I think it is making a bit for freedom! The good news is that Val has not had to use it much on the trip and that the warm weather, the lack of stress and the general holiday atmosphere has meant that her Parkinson’s is behaving pretty well.

The other mishap was our luggage. We had succumbed a bit and bought a few, fairly weighty, items on our travels. Now, a word of warning! Air Asia, at least at Chennai Airport, weigh ALL your luggage and the cost of excess is exactly that – excessive! No amount of pleading on our part made any difference, so we had to pay up, which put a decided damper on our journey – and has got us thinking about how we manage the next 3 Air Asia flights around SE Asia. It looks as though you can buy extra baggage allowance at an OKish price, but we at least don’t have to worry until we are leaving our next destination, Langkawi for Bali, as we are taking the ferry from here to Langkawi and they don’t seem to have a weight maximum. We shall have to investigate the extra allowance versus the cost of sending it home via DHL or equivalent (other parcel companies are available!).

We arrived in Krabi about 5.30pm and were met by the hotel’s driver and his minibus and we set off southwards for Ko Lanta (sometimes Koh Lanta, it seems to be interchangeable). It took about 2 hours as there is often a bit of a wait to get the ferry, but we eventually arrived at our hotel Crown Lanta to be greeted like long-lost friends as indeed, in a way we were. This is the same hotel we stayed in 3 years ago (see mrbennsblog for January, 2016) and the reason we were staying here again is partly because they are the nicest staff you can meet and partly because the room is literally right next to the pool – or should that be litorally next to the pool? (Haha).

Some photos…

I will not go through each day as they tend to meld into one another, but try to give you an idea of our life here on Ko Lanta.

First up, our room is very nice and, as I said opens up onto the pool which stretches away to the left and right. A rough measurement is 100 metres end to end, so a couple of lengths is very good exercise!

Also good exercise is the climb up the hill to get to breakfast, where we start each day – Val usually goes Asian and I have my muesli and fruit and an omelette with bacon – and lots of coffee. We are both happy!

Of course we do not just sit around reading and relaxing, oh no, this is a holiday with the Duracell Bunny, so there is a round of activity to keep us fit and busy. Val has frequented the gym quite a few times, though as it is next to where we have breakfast I am not sure she needs to as the climb up the hill is more than enough. And then there is table tennis on a table in a disused conference room which I swear has not been used by anyone since the last time we were here and appears to be a closely-guarded secret, which suits us fine as it means we can play whenever we wish.

Off site, we signed up for yoga with the same providers as last time. It took a bit of doing as they had moved, not far, but sufficiently different that we took some time finding it. They remembered us almost immediately – or at least Val and we signed up for 10 sessions each which shows commitment, I feel, especially on my part as I think the last time I did yoga was 3 years ago, here. The following are me just before our first session before everyone else arrived and Val with her daily coconut, this one chilled in the fridge beforehand and very sweet and refreshing.

Other than this – or possibly because of it – we do like a massage or two and revisited our favourite haunt, Serenity massage, who of course remembered Val from before (everyone seems to remember Val). They are lovely people (most Thais seem to be) and there are a variety of treatments from the traditional (and sometimes quite painful!) Thai massage to something a bit more relaxing. It is pure indulgence, but so worth it. Here is a picture of the place in the evening with some of the ‘crew’ outside. It is run by a lovely lass called Picnic (I kid you not) and one of the best bits is at the end when you sit out the back over the sea and eat fruit and drink some tea. Check the blog of 2016 for more photos.

There is not a huge amount to do on Ko Lanta other than eating, swimming (diving and snorkeling) and generally lounging about, which is what actually rather attracts us to the island. The place is swarming with Scandinavians avoiding their winter and putting in some serious tanning. There can hardly be anyone left in Sweden! They are almost all tall and slim!

A few of the restaurants are run or owned by expatriates and you can eat very well for a pretty reasonable price. You could be here a year and probably not eat in the same place twice there are that many. We use TripAdvisor to guide us and have eaten a combination of Thai and western (I need a break every now and then!). Lots of seafood, as you might expect. There are both restaurants and stalls, though the latter we have found are not that good (except the pancakes!). One quite original establishment is run by a Swede and his Thai partner, call the Table (the restaurant, not his partner), where you can only eat whatever she is going to cook that evening and you all sit at one table (hence the name). It was quite fun although much depends on who you sit with and how good their English is. We were lucky to have a nice Swedish couple and a French mother and daughter who run a Lush franchise in Grenoble.

OK, time for my swim, so I will post this and start the next one soon. We have to cover bird-watching, a visit to Old Lanta Village and our hilarious Thai cooking lesson.