THAILAND - Ko Lanta - Part 1

It was half day on this hellish island. Don't get me wrong, this island had a beauty of it's own, but it was masked by the extreme party seekers and discusting habits of mankind. Such a sad thing to observe... But Monica and I were going to get the most of it by rock climbing the famous Tonsai Tower before we left. We got up early and did some streching at the abandoned bar and then split a whole watermelon in half to eat for breakfast. This was a breakfast of champions! It was the hardest task ever though. I had a belly the size of a watermelon after, and we both gave up before we could finshed it all. So I cut up the rest and saved the flesh in a plastic bag for later. We walked to the rock climbing place in high hopes, but they were shortly gone when we saw the place was closed and there was no rock climbing. In defeat we then tried to turn our frowns upside down and think of it as a blessing that we could leave Phi Phi early!!! So we rushed back to the bungalow and changed our boat tickets to the next island, Ko Lanta, to an earlier time. I had to leave a little early to finish up some paperwork at the dive center, but I would later meet Monica at the pier to leave together. Once we met up, she was kind enough to get us some beer for the 2 hour long ride. Herded once more like cattle onto the ferry, we found good seats and started drinking. One beer got us lightweights almost drunk since all we had in our stomaches was a pound of watermelon. We laughed so hard about the ridiculous time and experience we had on "Phi Phi Fuck No" Island. From our rock beds to the horrible sins of mankind we witnessed, we knew we would most likely never return to it. Meanwhile it was only 11 in the morning as we were already smashed. Once at Koh Lanta we were surving only on beer and watermelon, and it was really really hot. We didn't know really were to go but we followed a group of people off the boat and got into the same tuk tuk as them and hoped for the best. Monica and I were looking and laughing at each other because we looked so ridiculous and we were seating so much. Sticking our heads out the side of the car gave us a nice breath of fresh air. We were the last ones in the tuk tuk after everyone got off at thir stops but the driver could not seem to figure out where our bungalow was at. So he drove far off into the jungle on a dirt road and tried to drop us off at a random resort but I thought the bungalow was just a little further down the road so he went a little further and it turns out I was right! We checked into uor huge room that had good AC and a hammock outside, the the best part... NO ROCK BEDS!!!! The place was covered in cats. Even kittens! The day was still early so we walked down the street to the resort to rent a motor bike for the next few days. I got on and felt good and confident about riding around, until Monica got on... I haven't driven with someone on the back yet! So my balance was all off. But I got used to it after a while. We headed towards town which drove through a contruction zone that was very dusty. In town there were lots of resorts and high end resturants. We stopped at a place with healthy western trendy foods to get e quinoa salad, but were disappointed when they didn't have almost any of the things of the menu. We were forced to pay a lot for a small salad we didn't really enojoy much. I tried to get money out of an atm with my credit card but it didn't work so I still had to live off Monica's money. We then treated ourselves to our first Thai massage down the road a ways. And oh my Lanta it was good. It streched me in ways I couldn't imagine and worked out my every aching muscle. After we tipped them very well and they gave us free Thai tea. We then headed to the beach across the street to watch the sunset. We laid down in front of a nice resort with a pool and a large floating blue deck that went far out into the ocean. I napped a little and collected shells while Monica drew pictures in the sand. At sunset we got up and left on the scooter to go try to find dinner at the night market about 20 minutes driving. This island was big so scooter was nessesary to get around. We kept stopping at different places but they all weren't the night market or they were packing up and leaving. So we called defeat and headed back to a resturant we saw while driving. This resturant was right on the beach and I got glass noodle soup and Monica got green curry. As we waited we could see on the shore all the hermit crabs coming out from underneath the sand, this was super cool! Our food was delicous and big portioned, which was excellent. And Monica's green curry was the best we would have the enitre trip, it was so fucking good. Speechless. After we went back to the sotre to load up on groceries and went to bed early. Tomorrow we had the whole day to mob and explore the island!!