Please press play to set the vibes for the Koh Lanta read
HIZOTRA – ALALA
DAY 15 – Island Gyal
After a sleepy 3 hour journey, we had crossed the ferry and had arrived on the island of Koh Lanta (Koh meaning island in Thai). The bus stopped and I hoped this was not my lovely bungalow location. Eventually we reached Lanta New Coconut Bungalow which was a sight for sore eyes. I had found a really good deal on booking.com to stay for a few days in a Budget Bungalow. You can imagine my gratitude when I found they had upgraded my room, so naturally I extended my stay for another 3 nights.
I went for a stroll and found that so much of the island has closed because it’s low season. While it was quietly desolate, the peace and calm was exactly what I had been looking for. I stopped at a Reggae Bar for some food and watched the sunset which was glorious. The food actually ended up giving me a belly ache, but I still shed a tear watching the young families on the beach, playing in the water and with the local dogs.
DAY 16 – Cooking Class
I woke up ready for my cooking class (£32 for 4 hour class), something I have wanted to do since I got to Thailand. I chilled on my hammock and awaited my pick up.
ON THURSDAYS LANTA THAI COOKERY SCHOOL TAKE YOU TO THE LOCAL MARKET TO PICK UP THE INGREDIENTS FOR YOUR MEALS
The cooking class was a highlight of my trip. The head chef was very charasmatic and the group we were in were lovely. There were people from all over the world taking the class. I met 4 teachers who work in international schools, 2 of whom had just got engaged so the vibes were really cute. I really enjoyed cooking again as I didn’t really realise how much I was missing it.
#1 Tom Yum Soup
This was my favourite meal of the day. We prepared our vegetables (tomatoes, coriander, oyster mushroom, wood ear mushroom, shallot, chilli, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, lemongrass). The ear mushrooms were absolutely delicious and the lime leaves are what have the soup the typical Thai flavour. They do eat the fruit of the kaffir limes because it’s too sour, they use the juice for things like shampoo. It’s not traditional to add cows milk to the soup at the end, but when dairy was introduced to Thailand they started to adapt the recipe.
#2 Vegetable Pad Thai
This Pad Thai was probably the nicest one I’ve had so far. I missed out the fish sauce in the recipe and added less sugar because I find the dish quite sweet out here. I added chilli and peanuts on top. Pad Thai uses tamarind paste (typical of both Thai and Indian cuisine) and I also got to try a tamarind fruit for the first time. It was so sour, like a toxic waste, but you can see how it brings flavour to the dish (I think this is usually why they put so much sugar in it, to counterbalance the tartness of the tamarind).
#3 Panang Curry
The Chef showed us how to make the curry paste for a Panang Curry. She was explaining to me that any curry in Thailand uses some kind of fish in the paste, Panang uses shrimp paste. It actually smelled of fish food, nasty. She added 2 different chillis to the paste, but made mine veggie. We learned a cool technique of cooking coconut milk down to make coconut oil to fry our ingredients in. I wish I had used a bit more curry paste in my dish because I feel like the taste was masked by the coconut base, but very delicious nonetheless.
#4 Bua Loy
This dish surprised me the most. It was the only desert on the menu (we picked 4 dishes as a group from a list of 10) and there were 2 little girls who really wanted to make it. I absolutely love mochi and the texture was similar so I really enjoyed this dessert. The sweet coconut milk brought the dish together as the balls didn’t really have much flavour, but I would definitely recommend giving this desert a try.
When I came home I had a bit of a fright. None other than a giant cockroach kiki-ing in my bathroom. They are absolutely huge in Thailand I’ve never seen such a big one, and they move so quickly too. After some googling I found that they’re really common on the islands, but not so common somewhere clean and busy. Reddit warned me not to stay in the room. Safe to say I was petrified. I told the front desk but didn’t want to make too much of a fuss and hoped it was a lone wolf. But after seeing another scurry out of my front door I thought enough is enough. The lovely people at the bungalows were quick to move me to an even bigger room and made sure I was happy to stay.
DAY 17 – Modern Whip For A Modern Woman
Today I woke up at 8.30 and chilled on the hammock, but feeling very sleepy I returned to my bed and slept till 10.30. I picked up a very high scoring Thai Tea from the place I am staying at and decided to order a scooter to explore the island. I was very apprehensive as I have only ridden on once, and have never done it by myself. But in the interest of pushing myself out of my comfort zone I paid my £5 hire fee for the day and got cracking on exploration.
People say Koh Lanta is the perfect place to learn to ride a scooter because the roads are really wide and quiet, and I must say, I agree. After 2 minutes whizzing round the car park I felt ready to get on said roads. People are generally good drivers, apart from when they drive on the other side of the road because in the main bit of down its more of a dual carriageway set up.
I found it quite hard to navigate where I was going because there was no phone stand so I ended up mooching. I stopped for a Thai Tea, but the game had officially been upped because this one had a metal straw in. Abolsutely delightful scenes.
Dropping my new packet of cigarettes in the Koi pond afterwards was not so delightful. Originally I thought this was a sign for the universe for me to stop smoking, but the fact I bought another packet immediately afterwards suggested it was probably not so strong of a sign.
I managed to fill up a full tank on my scooter for £2.50, people sell petrol in bottles on the side of the road for 80p and will even put it in your bike for you!
On my travels I found some really cool second hand shops (unsurprisingly there were lots of Shein clothes in there), but with my little backpack I was very frugal. If I was back home I would have bought bagfuls, but I only opted for one black top and one white top.
I ventured to the Old Town which is a must see in Koh Lanta. It is an old Chinese fishing village so there’s a real mix of Thai and Chinese culture here. The whole town is built on stents into the sea so definitely worth a visit. I was absolutely roasting by this point, especially because it took me ages to get here due to lack of secondary navigator.
This evening I was sitting back by the beach watching a lovely sunset. I heard 2 girls speaking English in front of me and after 15 minutes plucked up the courage to introduce myself to them and my god am I pleased. Emma and Rosie were the kindest, most fun and friendly Welsh girls and after chatting for a bit they invited me on a hike with them the next day.
DAY 18 – A Physio, A Speech and Language Therapist and a Teacher
The girls ordered their scooters and we were off at an 8.30am start. We went to the National Park, somewhere I was apprehensive of going to by myself because I am deathly afraid of monkeys. It was the perfect way to get to know each other as we chatted and laughed for hours. The hike was absolutely beautiful and not too difficult. We did see some monkeys and a kimodo dragon but they kept to themselves.
We headed off back to the Old Town and had a really nice meal. We were in hysterics the whole time, I can’t remember the last time I was table slapping whilst eating.
After coming back to shower we reunited for some chippies and a beer. We ventured to 7/11 for a delicious and nutritious meal of microwaved food and cake (and bao buns). The girls were leaving early the next morning so we said our goodbyes. Emma and Rosie, it was an absolute pleasure meeting you. I have never laughed so hard and spoken about so much in a single conversation. Good luck with the rest of your studies, I really really hope we meet again <3
DAY 19 – Monsoon Season
Today was the first day of really bad weather, but I did manage to get on my little scootie before the storm started. I went for a drive around the North of the island and stopped for a Thai Tea (I bet you guys are so sick of hearing this lol, think I’m going to give myself type 2 at this point). I imagine that in high season Lanta is giving Bali. There are so many cute cafes but loads of them are closed or really quiet which is a bit of a shame.
I sat down back at my place to do some blog and the storm actually fucked me up. It was very cute at the beginning, bit of light wind and rain but after 2 relocations in the bar we were fully in the eye of the storm. You’ve never heard thunder and lightening like it, very cool to watch.
It continued to rain for the rest of the day so I sat in my room and had a nap listening to the rain (and a long-form YouTube video about the rise of JoJo Siwa). I also realised that I bloody forgot to hand in my moped keys so I got fined £3, I was very annoyed at myself given it’s only £5 to rent the scooter for the whole day. Learning curve girls, learning curve. I called Greer and Ambie and felt much more settled afterwards. I think because of the weather and a day of not doing very much I was feeling a bit down, but I did get some Changs from 7/11 which cheered me up.
DAY 20 – A Day of Cruising
After a day indoors feeling a bit down at points, I had a nice chilled day in the sunshine. I read some book, wrote some blog and decided to have a stroll along the beach. As I said before, Lanta is quite deserted in the low season meaning that no one picks up the rubbish from the beach. It’s a pretty harrowing site at times, especially because the monsoon season tends to bring more rubbish up to the shore. Honestly, it’s not surprising because the amount of plastic they use in Thailand is incredible. There have been times I have got an icy cold drink from 7/11 and assumed they have charged me for a re-usable cup because the plastic of the single use cups are so thick. Often they will put your icy cold drink in a plastic sleeve for literally no reason too.
I had a shower with the tunes blaring from my speaker. The vibes were as follows:
Pink Pony Club – Chappell Roan
Just Wanna Be With You – High School Musical 2
We Don’t Talk About Bruno – Encanto Soundtrack
There Are Worse Things I Could Do – Grease Soundtrack
I got chatting to this English bloke who is a teacher in an international school in Chiang Mai. He said he would take me out on his motorbike to get a drink. He actually ended up being an unusual man and he didn’t even pay for my mango sticky rice, but he didn’t drink so I got to enjoy a safe ride around the island at night which was nice.
DAY 21 – Four Islands Tour
I paid my 20 British pounds and embarked on the 4 islands tour. Given that Koh Phi Phi was to be my next step, I thought to island hop from the less touristy Koh Lanta would be a better shout. I opted for the cheaper longboat tour and we stopped off at Koh Chuck, Koh Man, Koh Mook and Koh Ngai, starting from Lanta Old Town (the price included pick up from the hotel). Even though I was scared I did engage in some light hearted snorkelling. The Emerald Cave was a real highlight as we had to swim through a dark cave, but my god was the view worth it.
After a very tiring day I met up with Teigan for some chippies and a beer on the sea front.
Koh Lanta was just the slow down that I needed. After a couple of full on weeks, I took some time for R&R and while a little bit bored at times, I look back on this time very fondly (minus the cockroaches). Said R&R has prepared me for my next stop of Koh Phi Phi – ladies, it’s party time.