Day 16: Koh Lanta, Sun. 32°😎🌞

Crossing The Andaman Sea!!

This morning I was awake by 6:00 and we were up and ready for pick up by just after 7:15. We had purchased Premium tickets for the first ferry to Phi Phi Island which came with a complementary pickup. We had read that the Premium option provided this service and there was a less crowded place to sit on the cattle boat. We’ve sailed on more than our share of hot crowded ferries over the years, and this seemed like a nice way to wake up.

Finally we were underway and there was general excitement everywhere! The cameras were going off madly as the 2 hour cruise commenced. At least I imagined that they were because I was sitting on the top deck all by myself.😉

Nothing much actually happened on the crossing which can make for a rather slow blog post if I’m not careful Fortunately there was some lovely scenery.🙂

We did however see everything else, and certainly more tourists and their amusements than we could count!

However, before we could proceed to the harbour we first needed to offload a tour group. A decent sized boat pulled along side, and there was a flurry of activity that hadn’t been seen for two hours as a boat load of people and their luggage transferred across.

Now a few kilos lighter we headed for the main pier.

And then we arrive and it’s pretty much a free for all to get ones luggage off the back of the ship and to make your way to shore.

And then we are ashore and it’s hot after the cooling effect of the boat generated wind, but it’s beautiful!

We are instantly swallowed up in the chaos of people coming ashore, the people exiting the island on ferries or tours and those standing looking a bit overwhelmed. Amongst all this were local workers moving things around on push carts to the many tourist stores and restaurants. Pretty fun to watch.

We found the boat operator’s location (strategically placed beside the central 7-Eleven) for our second leg where we were able to leave our packs with instructions to return 30 minutes prior to our sailing for check in. Great! A chance to find a coolish place for a bit of sustenance. We found it right next door.

And there was a view to entertain us!

After a light lunch we checked in, picked up our gear, walked back out onto the jetty where we picked up one of the fast boats. Destination Koh Lanta where we plan to hang out for three full days as we approach the halfway point of our travel.

People scrambled on board and quickly under the sun cover, The luggage was quickly stowed at the bow on the outside of the boat. Once everyone and everything had a home, we literally roared away powered by three 250 hp engines. These guys weren’t messing around.

At this point I’ll backup a bit. Before we came here we did a bit of research about the ferries while sitting in the Cameron Highlands. You might recall we had something of a planned day there. We decided to take the larger ferry for our first stage today because recently the smaller high speed boats have been involved in a number of accidents. Apparently some very poor decisions have been made during very poor weather conditions. One fully loaded vessel actually sank in high seas and the passengers had to be rescued by the Thai Navy. They later sent divers down to gather all the luggage, but of course everything had to be replaced including electronics. We read lots of posted reviews and the basic message was that passengers need to make decisions for themselves and not rely on the fast ferry companies to do so. Lesson learned. We made the decision to mitigate our risk and only used a fast ferry for the short 30 minute crossing. By comparison the fast boat that we were on yesterday for a late day tour (will hopefully cover this tomorrow) appeared to be in excellent condition and it was handled very well.

We survived the crossing intact.😅

Yesterday we contacted our host for the coming days and arranged to be met at the ferry. There were many vehicles of all descriptions for hire, but seeing the craziness with 3-4 boat loads arriving at once, we were ok to spend the quoted $16 for the ride. It was pretty basic…but it worked.

Much of the road system seems to be permanently under construction, and probably will be forever.

Arriving at THE resort, we were greeted by two small Thai women who insisted on carrying our packs to reception. They commented on how light and small our gear was. We smiled. They even carried them to our unit, and would let us do it. We don’t usually stay in places like that. Mostly we are told that our room is somewhere in ‘that direction’. So this was pretty nice.

We went for a walk to find a few essentials; beer, chips and healthy stuff like that. Now sitting with a couple of those Thai beer watching the sunset. Marvellous.

And that ends another lovely travel day. Completely blessed to be here.

Ciao. 🌅

Geoff