Doing Nothing in Koh Lanta

I wanted to go to Koh Lanta because I’d heard from everybody in real life and on the Internet that it was “the chill island” of Thailand. No body burning flaming jump ropes and shit like on Koh Phi Phi, and no full moon parties, neon paint, or raging and vomiting on the beach. And that would be good for me, because I’m twenty-seven and I hate techno music.

And it was actually very chill. Supposedly, there’s one big, main party at one of the beach bars on each night of the week. There are flyers around and the tuk tuk drivers can take you to wherever it’s happening. And if you’re like me, you can easily avoid every one of them.

So what the hell did I do in Koh Lanta then? Not very much…

Watching the Super Bowl at 7 AM

Okay, it was actually earlier than that. I woke up at 6 AM and made a disastrous amount of noise in my dorm room while gearing up to go to the bar at this ungodly hour. I split a tuk tuk to the Irish Embassy (clever bar name, huh?) with the one other person showing signs of life in my hostel that morning, a guy from Denver… OBVIOUSLY. Since you can’t see me, I’m rolling my eyes right now.

I was actually really pumped about watching the game with lots of other Americans, because we’re typically pretty hard to find while traveling. And surprise, most of the crowd were Broncos fans. You know those worldly Coloradans!

I did enjoy the novelty of getting drunk this early in the morning at a bar that was grilling breakfast sandwiches for a big, loud crowd. I did not enjoy missing all of the American commercials (I think we got a broadcast from the UK) and a very boring Panthers loss. But after the game was over, I met an awesome couple from the US who I sat with for a while as they bought me beers and told me how cool I was for traveling alone. The girl’s mom was from North Carolina, and we had a great time discussing quitting our jobs and their route around the world thus far.

Yoga on the Beach

Yoga was one of the many things I swore I was gonna do on my trip through South America. Mainly because it’s so much cheaper everywhere but the US and I needed some way to stay in shape on the road. Also, I figured it’d be good for me mentally. But for some reason, I never got around to it. Like, I didn’t even do it once.

I’ve gotten started on the right foot here in Southeast Asia though. And while I was pretty sure I was going to be horrible at it, I did some flow yoga on the beach in Koh Lanta. Thaim Out, a restaurant and bar located on Long Beach, offered classes at 9 AM on their awesome beachfront yoga platform. Honestly, I was a little nervous about a full hour and a half of yoga considering I once almost died in an hour-long hot yoga class.

But it was amazing! The instructor was a former Chilean architect who’d traveled around the world getting certified in yoga, teaching all over, and now living and teaching in Koh Lanta during the high season (with her Swedish boyfriend). I loved it. She incorporated a lot of meditation and practicing of gratitude in the classes, and you really couldn’t beat the views.

I will never do hot yoga again.

Visiting the Old Town

I’d read that if you have some spare time, a visit to Old Town Lanta might be in order. Um, that’s accurate. You literally need about twenty minutes max to explore Koh Lanta’s Old Town. You can see all of the older wooden buildings, a bit of Chinese influence, and several restaurants by the water. I went with a couple of new friends to check it out, and we basically strolled down the street, had lunch, attempted to bargain with some taxi drivers, and left. That was the extent of our visit. But I did eat some really good pad kra pow while I was there.

Relax Bay

I visited this spot on the recommendation of Adventurous Kate. It’s a much more chill stretch of beach with a trendy shipping container bar called Moloko where you can grab a chair and have a beer or cocktail. My only complaint is that there are tons of rocks in the water, making going for a quick pee kind of an ordeal. And when the tide goes out, the beach becomes not so pretty with all of the rocks protruding. It was cool to get a glimpse of another beach besides Long Beach, but it was a pretty damn long walk away for me as I was too paranoid to rent a motorbike.

Dinner at Red Snapper

Another AK recommendation, I decided to splurge on a fancy meal one night. Well,  it was a $16 splurge, but still. My Dutch friend and I had a tasty dinner in this nice open air restaurant. I had a small plate of Indian curry with roti and chorizo fried with garlic and brandy. Then we split a chocolate cheesecake which was damn amazing.

For some reason, I feel like this is potentially where I got my dengue mosquito bite, but I’m going to try to put that out of my mind and focus on the food…

Long Beach

We spent a lot of time plotting visits to other beaches (and I walked my ass all the way to the aforementioned Relax Bay), but honestly I think our little stretch of Long Beach was just perfect. Sure it was a bit crowded, but it was also right across the street from our hostel. It was wide (and long, shockingly), there was plenty of room to spread out, and the water was ridiculously clear and great for swimming. You could also get something to eat or drink right there and have a massage on the beach if you like. So yes, I did that. It’s also a perfect place to watch the sunset.

Diving on Koh Lanta seemed pretty damn expensive, likely because so many of the sites were such a long boat ride away, so lying on the beach it was. While there wasn’t too much to write home about on Koh Lanta, I made some good friends here and I’d say it was a solid introduction to the islands for this trip to Thailand.

Where I Stayed: The Metallic Hostel. While the hostel itself is nothing to nothing spectacular, people come here for the owner (you can see that in all the reviews). Sun is super helpful with planning anything you need, from activities to transportation to the next island. He remembers everybody’s name and he hooked me up with a combo ticket all the way to Koh Tao. It’s also one of the most full hostels and it’s super easy to meet people outside in the morning and evenings. I did enjoy the curtain on my bed and the usually powerful air conditioning.