Our stay at Ton Sai gave us a taste for the white sandy stuff so we made plans to get to another beach
as soon as possible. It wasn't that hard, just a 2 day ride got us on to Ko Lanta.
Ko Lanta. Its an island but
quite a large one close to the mainland and reached by two big car ferry crossings. After an early start
we arrived at the top of the island around lunch time. The idea was to go to the National Park at the
very southern tip of the island, as we knew we could camp there. It was 28km away and the coastal road
had resorts etc nearly all the way down. It started to get hilly and then the real hard part came - the
road became dirt track with the steepest gradients we have come across, so bad that we saw a trip first -
pushing our bikes up the hills! It lasted for about 8km then the last little stretch to the park was sealed.
Man was I a happy chappy when we finally arrived!
It was a chilled out spot, a big area to camp right on the beach, which we also had all to ourselves. Settled
ourselves in and went for a much needed swim. Then climbed up the hill and to the top of the lighthouse for a
great view of the sunset. Awwwwe. That night we lit a fire and cooked dinner and gazed at all the stars before
crashing. Indeed the spot would have been perfect if it weren't for one (or about 20) increasingly annoying
drawbacks. Monkeys. Yup, cute and entertaining they may be but here they rule the show - as we continued to
find out. First it was nicking a bit of food from on top of our bikes, then from inside bags and pots...
The next day we had to leave the serenity to do the horrible journey back to the closest shops to restock food
supplies only to find the monkeys had unzipped our tent and put a big hole in the top, taking all our food
left behind. Great. So the next day we made sure one of us stayed by the tent at all times but by this stage
they were too confident, especially the big daddy monkey who came over as we were making lunch. We went to
shoo it away with sticks and noise etc only to be met with a big pointy teeth baring monkey running straight
at us! It's hard to convey but we were shit scared. I ran to get help from the park people, and came back to
find Tabs to one side as the beast was munching away on all our lovely food! Together with 3 helpers we kept
them at bay long enough for us to make the speediest pack up ever and high tail it on outta there. Round the
world cyclists zero. Monkeys one.
There is always a silver lining as they say and for us it was the Atcha Hut. We were planning to cycle straight
on out of Ko Lanta but we passed a sign saying dorm accommodation outside a chilled looking place and decided to
enquire.. well the dorms were nice but better yet we could camp for even less right close to the beach and it
was guaranteed monkey free. Happy to be staying put we were back in the water and meeting the other guests, 2
nice Dutch lads. Totally chilled out the next day and had a big de-dusting mission on the bikes. That evening
we had a few drinks at the bar on the beach with other Atcha hut folks and all headed down to check out a fire
show bit further down. Had front row seats and enjoyed the action over one too many cocktail buckets.
Next day saw us nurse our hangovers from hammocks over looking the beach.. hardly moved from them all day and
why would ya want to?! Our plans were totally sorted out for us by the cool folk at Atcha, as they also do small
snorkeling and camping trips. So the following day we put us and the bikes on their boat and along with the
Dutchies and a Canadian couple we went sailing the seas. Stopped for some great snorkelling and a swim through
a pitch black watery cave took us to the Emerald beach,
surrounded by sky high cliffs and utterly beautiful.
Then on to , Ko Kradan.
a real quiet island with white sand, blue water and snorkelling right off the beach.
Sweet. Put the tents up and spent the rest of the day in the water or just relaxing, really nice. Dinner, drinks,
bonfire on the beach and guitar playing into the evening...Next day we said goodbye to the crew and sorted out our own lift to another island, Ko Mook.
It is a bit more
developed but has a neat place a bit further from the beach where Aussie Brian has unique 'tentalows'. We put
our own tent up under the rubber trees. I wasn't feeling too flash and had an early night and a quiet day
following. Just as well there was only lying on the beach on the agenda. Did have a cycle round the island as
well, its very small and took an obvious heavy hit from the Tsunami - lots of clean up and building still
happening. A late one in the bar playing celebrity head made getting up at 6 for the once a day ferry to the
mainland a struggle... and then we were back riding again after over a week of island beach bliss.