10.12. 1237 steps

Today we went back to the mainland to the coastal town of Ao Nang. For some reason, our first bus forgot about us, so we had to wait for a while and started to worry. However, we were then given a private ride in a minivan and since it was still early, this didn't bother us much.
So we left Koh Lanta behind, along with our hostel, which had an incredibly nice Italian owner who helped Andra a lot with her sunburn and was always ready with advice and small conversations.

Arriving in Ao Nang, we rented a motorbike for the remaining half day and drove to a slightly more distant viewpoint. Unfortunately, it started raining on the way there, although the drive through the tall and green cliffs, which strongly resembled those in the Halong Bay region of Vietnam, would have been quite beautiful. The rain continued when we arrived at the foot of the mountain at the Tiger Cave, so we waited a bit at the bottom until the rain subsided a bit. This turned out to be a good decision, because to reach the top of the mountain, we had to conquer 1237 steps. Some of them were very high and we needed a few breaks until we reached the top.

Once you have struggled your way to the top of the mountain, you have an incredible view of the surrounding mountains and the flat coastal land on the Andaman Sea, the sea that stretches along the west coast of Thailand. At the top, a large golden Buddha stands guard and is very impressive against this backdrop.

The way back is not as strenuous as the way up, but it always feels more dangerous because you look forward into the depths and would fall far in case of a misstep. But after we made it down, with monkeys that left us alone this time, we were proud to have done it, even though we were a bit sick.

We went back to the hostel and after dinner, we slowly made our way to our beds as we will go on a climbing tour to the beautiful cliffs by the coast tomorrow morning.