Koh Lanta II Old Town - I fell in love

When we wake up the next morning, we feel a little tired. The long evening before was exhausting and the schedule for the day is also tight. We have to check out of the resort by 12 o'clock. Then we have to walk through Koh Lanta with our full luggage and look for a new place to sleep. After a refreshing shower, we stroll to breakfast. A short time later, we find ourselves in the beautiful bungalow again, packing our backpacks, which are getting heavier and heavier due to numerous souvenirs. Time passes quickly and then it's time to say goodbye to this beautiful, idyllic resort.

We walk to the nearest ATM and anxiously stare at the screen: the Visa card is working! After a few jumps of joy, we walk back towards the Blue Moon Beach Bar, as we have read and heard a lot of good things about a French bakery nearby, on the internet and on the recommendation of Ingrid and Pepe. As we approach the Blue Moon Beach Bar, we can already see a sign with the French flag from a distance. The restaurant, which is open from all sides, makes a good first impression. Thais continuously bake baguettes, chocolate croissants, and pizza in a stone oven. We order a watermelon shake and a chocolate croissant and DAMN! it tastes delicious! You have to know that good bread is a real rarity in Thailand, as mainly sandwich bread (white bread) is available here.
While snacking, we browse through various accommodations on the internet and decide to visit one afterwards.
For this, we have to walk all the way back and even further. Almost there, we pass a well-looking hostel with complete wooden cladding. As we take a look inside, the man at the reception already calls out to us: 'We have free rooms'. We take off our shoes and enter to ask about the prices. The Muslim man offers to show us the rooms. We agree and follow him up a staircase to the first floor, which is quasi open on a balcony. The room looks great, once again we have very nice wooden furniture and a raised wooden bed with nicely draped bed linen. The bathroom is completely new and the man explains to us that the hostel only opened in December 2017. Apart from a moldy smell, everything is fine. We take the room to finally arrive somewhere and use the day for something else.

After a second shower (running with 70% humidity and sunshine with 15 kilograms on your back can be really exhausting), we stroll down and visit the 7/11 right next door. Stocked up with water, we call a taxi through the reception and drive to the Old Town, which is 20 minutes away. We immediately agree on a pick-up time and pay later - things are much easier in Thailand.

Arriving in the Old Town, we can't stop marveling. The small, sweet fishing village makes a wonderfully well-kept impression. Everywhere there are small shops with local and indigenous products - many of them handmade and traditionally Thai. This is the perfect place to buy spices, massage oils, soaps, wood carvings, textiles, and other souvenirs. In between, there are small street kitchens, restaurants, shake stands, and garage restaurants. The old wooden facades, windows overgrown with plants, and the small alleys where you can see children playing and the sea sparkling are particularly beautiful. We immerse ourselves from shop to shop and explore the alleys towards the sea. We stand on terraces that stand on pillars in the sea and find old abandoned fishing houses. It's wonderful, the Old Town has preserved all its charm. In between, I treat myself to a mango sticky rice at a garage restaurant and a passion fruit smoothie. YUM!
We spend the afternoon until early evening strolling, shopping, and taking beautiful photos.

After 3 hours, we walk to the agreed meeting point. The taxi driver arrives on time. We have him drive us back to the hotel and go directly to a tour operator. We want to book a day trip for the next day. We decide on a combination tour of mangrove tour by longtail boat, kayaking on the sea, monkey watching, cave exploration, and a swimming stop at Koh Bubu with lunch.
We book through our hotel reception and decide to go out to eat afterwards. We walk to the French bakery because we want to eat pizza again after a long time. On the way there, we meet Gen, who is busy repositioning signs in front of his bar. He immediately addresses us and tells us to come by for a beer after dinner.
After a delicious pizza, we go back to the Blue Moon Beach Bar. We also hope to meet Ingrid and Pepe, but unfortunately without success. We order a beer, and Toni and Gen join us. Once again, an exciting conversation starts about various topics. We explain to both of them that we cannot stay as long as yesterday because we have to get up early tomorrow for a kayaking tour. But Gen buys an extra round of Singha beer. The evening drags on, and when we want to pay, Gen suggests that we just pay tomorrow. Thailand: it feels so light and uncomplicated. We finally go to bed around midnight, and we are already dreading the early awakening - once again.

A cave full of giant stalactites. We continue in the canoe. We have been canoeing for almost an hour now and are now circling around the rocks in the blazing midday sun. Canoeing is exhausting but also a lot of fun. The sun sizzles down on us and the reflection of the water intensifies the heat and sun exposure. When we arrive back at Monkey Island after almost 2 hours of canoeing, I am grateful for the shade. The sun is merciless. I go back to the longtail boat and pour one water bottle after another into myself. We now continue to Koh Bubu, but I am so full of sunshine that I look for a shady spot upon arrival on the island. In the middle of the small island, there is a restaurant with several resting places. We all sit down at one table and lunch is served. There is Thai rice, stir-fried vegetables, scrambled eggs, and chicken curry. When one of the Thai people learns that I am a vegetarian, he rushes off like bitten by a monkey. He comes back with an unidentifiable 'nut' in his hand. But actually, it's a fruit - so to speak, tamarind. The fruit consists of a very thin layer of sticky flesh. He encourages me to eat it. I eat a tamarind, and the Thai man disappears satisfied.
While eating, one of the tourists starts talking about his multi-year stay in India, and everyone listens eagerly. He implemented his own development project in India and lived in a ghetto in India for about 3 years, collecting garbage. He explains that there was only one toilet for the entire ghetto. Accordingly, it was in a deplorable state. To go to the toilet, one had to wait for several hours. Therefore, people in India do their business (big or small) on the streets while casually conversing with friends, acquaintances, and relatives. A scenario that is hard to imagine in our essential culture, isn't it?
The fully tattooed Dane continues to tell about his time in India and praises Thailand for its cleanliness. We all listen attentively and soak up these things like a sponge again.

After the meal, we spend an hour at the beach. I sit down in the shade under a tree in the sand and go swimming with Edina. If I weren't so exhausted, I would lie in the sun.

After an hour, we continue: we now go to see monkeys. Again, we are on a boat for an hour. Our guide make a detour to the mangroves. We arrive at a huge sandbank. The guide explains that many crabs and other prehistoric creatures live here, such as fish without fins that crawl on land. Unfortunately, it is so hot that there is little to see at first glance. The guide says that many animals are in the water because of the heat, but we should not be deceived by that. While he is talking, he claps his hands loudly once. Suddenly, the whole sandbank seems to move: hundreds of crabs, which were not seen before, move a few centimeters to the left.

The journey continues, and a short time later, we arrive at a bank where the monkeys are already waiting. The guide instructs us to put away any loose items and hold onto our backpacks tightly, as the monkeys are about to board the boat. 5 minutes later, the monkeys take over the boat and turn everything upside down in search of food. We receive leftover pineapple and feed the monkeys, with some of them sitting on our shoulders or running over our laps :) A quarter of an hour later, we leave the shore and head back home. We are all totally exhausted, and the 40-minute ride on the pick-up truck is torture. We want to shower and sleep in the hotel.

When we are dropped off at our hotel last, we take a long shower and lie down in bed for an hour to recover. We are exhausted from the day and still have so much to do: tomorrow we will leave Koh Lanta.

After a short break, we get organized. We have to organize a boat trip to Phuket, eat something, buy something for breakfast, pay our bill at the Blue Moon Beach Bar, and say goodbye to Gen and Toni.

First, we go to our hotel reception. We talk to the nice man and decide on a boat trip past Koh Phi Phi to Phuket. From there, we want to go to Khao Lak. We buy the tickets and go directly past the Blue Moon Beach Bar to the next restaurant 'Soul Kitchen', which was recommended by Ingrid and Pepe. We sit at one of the tables right on the beach and order papaya salad and green curry with rice. The service is very friendly and is happy about the few Thai words we speak.
The food is very delicious, and as we start to look around, we spot Ingrid and Pepe at the table opposite, already waving.
Ingrid and Pepe then come over to us and ask if we could stop by the Blue Moon afterwards. We leave the option open, say a provisional goodbye, and finish our meal. Then we make a detour to the French bakery. We want to buy chocolate croissants for tomorrow because we have to get up very early, but unfortunately, all the chocolate croissants are sold out, so I order a French baguette with camembert. Eating cheese in Thailand is crazy, but I trust the good reputation of the bakery. Storage is not a problem since we have a refrigerator in our room. We get into a conversation with the staff. She originally comes from Bordeaux but emigrated to Thailand 7 years ago. She used to live on Koh Phi Phi and had her own bar there. Now she is in Koh Lanta because otherwise (I quote) she 'would have lost her mind'. Too much partying.
We say goodbye to her and move on to the Blue Moon Beach Bar.

When we arrive there, Toni is already at the bar. We say goodbye to both of them and pay for the beer from the night before.
Then we make our way to the hostel and pack our backpacks once again...