23/2/25
We slept a lot better the second night. There was a really unusual noise that we decided must be man made. It was too consistent. We actually felt cold overnight with our fan and had to turn it down and push it further away. We hoped this was a positive sign of adaptation.
We’d initially planned to leave early to avoid the heat. But changed our minds. We’d have a lazy morning instead and take advantage of the 11am check out time. We were loving the coconut milk in our coffees, it didn’t split and made it into a tropical delight. For our second coffee we sat on the balcony and ate a little watermelon we had.
We almost visited the meditation centre before we left for our ride, but online it suggested there would be lots of photos and videos while the daily tourist session took place. We’d also have the ride hanging over us. Instead we opted to go straight to the other side of the island.
First we had to go back north to rejoin the main road. The heat was a little overwhelming. We passed lots of houses with Thai people enjoying their Sunday. We saw lots of children, some young ones who were completely naked playing in the water, some riding bicycles who tried to keep up and one child riding a moped. They don’t seem to have a minimum age to drive.
All the while we were gently climbing. We had to go over the top of the hill and the road ramped up. We’d been a bit nervous for climbing in hot weather but it turned out to be much easier than expected. The road was under the protection of the canopy at the top and there was a lovely view, albeit through ‘viewpoint restaurant’, before the road went down twice as steeply as we’d come up.
It was a nice looking switchback and we’d love to have got a photo, but there were some particularly dumb tourists on scooters making the road dangerous at the time. They just have no clue how to ride them safely, where to look when pulling off or how close to pass. The Thai people are far more likely to ride then safely.
It was two more miles along the road heading south before we reached Lanta Old Town. There were no beaches on the easterly side of the island. It immediately felt like a different kind of place. Still plenty of tourists but not as part friendly. We got to our hotel at noon, but checkin was at 1pm, so we ended up sitting outside looking at crabs. The owner even brought us a coconut to drink, then scrape the insides out of to eat, while we waited.
Our new room was very fancy compared to our previous two. And it wasn’t any more expensive. We even had air con, that we immediately turned off. It isn’t nice to sleep with anyway and we were confident we could be cool enough with the fan. There were two showers in the wet room. We used the cold one obviously. We were all set to go exploring the town when we heard rumbling.
It was suddenly pouring with rain. Our first rain in Thailand. We soon realised the roof made it look far heavier than it was and it was actually more of a fine mist. We were pleased to see there could even be precipitation after days of punishing sunshine. We stayed in our room for a couple of hours, sometimes watching the rain but it was a goldfish bowl so we kept the curtains closed a lot.
We ventured out into the town looking for some snacks. We’d run low and wanted some nuts and dried fruit. The first place we tried had nothing. We noticed the prices seemed higher. At the next place we bought coconut milk. It was the same price as we’d previously paid so we took a leap of faith, but the next shop had big bottles for a better price. Oops.
The dried mango was all overpriced, so we ended up buying some dried jujube. It’s a red date, also called annab in Persian cuisine, and was domesticated by 9000BC. No one will snack of them here, not sweet enough for them probably, so it was really cheap. We headed to a fruit market and found good prices there too. With a woman who actually weighed the fruit too. Armed with a pineapple, red fleshed dragonfruit and a bunch of bananas we sought some dinner.
There is a restaurant next to the 7/11 that is called, ‘The restaurant next to the 7/11’. They were on a break when we arrived so we went to visit the nearby temple complex. There were several buildings with golden Buddhas. A fancier looking one had a monk sweeping inside. There was also an old brick built building of some kind with a digger doing some work outside. It was probably the oldest building we’d seen in Thailand as yet.
When we were walking back we couldn’t help but reflect on the use of scooters again. Firstly by the Thai children who would ride about whooping. It was crazy they were allowed to ride around. Secondly by the tourists, who wore no helmets, and even had their child perched somewhere, again with no helmet. It seemed very irresponsible. There is a good discussion of Thai road safety here.
The restaurant was working again and the woman was very friendly. We sat down and she brought a jug of water and ice in plastic cups. We assumed it wasn’t going to kill us. For dinner we ate the recommended dishes: lemongrass salad with tofu, fried rice with pineapple and tofu and also a panang curry. It was cheap at £4.70 for the meal. We struggled to accept that it was much cheaper to eat out than try to cobble something together in our room. But it often was.
We strolled down to the end of the pier after dinner. The water was coming in under all the buildings that sat on their columns above. We visited a clothes market briefly, then went back to our room as it finished getting dark. We munched on banana in coconut milk again, this time with a little cocoa powder. We soaked the banana in boiling water first in an attempt to stew them, then added coconut milk.
We were continuing to watch the White Lotus. It’s a slightly weird and amusing show. The jujubes were actually very tasty to eat with some cashews. We had three nights here in total before we’d begin cycling everyday. The last stop on our ‘holiday’ had arrived.
Surly They Won't Make It 