- Koh Lanta -

When we wanted to exchange our room keys for a deposit of 1000 baht (about 30 francs) at 6:20 am in the morning, there was no staff to be found anywhere. The telephone set up for emergencies also didn't help. Inside the unattended office, we heard the ringing, which went unanswered. Fortunately, a hotel employee appeared just a few minutes later. He was able to wake up the responsible person. With only a few minutes delay, we were able to board the pick-up taxi that took us to the dock. We exchanged the voucher for tickets and stickers and boarded the boat. We spent the crossing on the sundeck.

The journey was very well organized. Each passenger received differently colored stickers for themselves and their luggage depending on their destination. In our case, these were brown stickers with the inscription 'Lanta'. After arriving at the Surat Thani port, the passengers were assigned to the correct bus for the onward journey. It all happened so quickly that we didn't have time to get breakfast. After about two hours, we arrived in Krabi. We had half an hour to grab a snack. We decided on a pad Thai.

We were called and boarded a mini-van. It was comfortable and we liked it right away. We settled in comfortably. What we didn't know was that it would only take us to a travel agency about 10 minutes away. Here our journey ended. Somewhat clueless, we unloaded our luggage and got into line. As it turned out, it was only about paying for the mini-van until we reached the hotel. The travelers were assigned to nearby hotels. We shared our minibus with a French family. When we arrived at our hotel at 5:00 p.m., everyone was relieved.

The Baan Nok Resort in Koh Lanta is run by an extremely accommodating family. We received a lot of valuable information about the surroundings and possible destinations when we checked in. We moved into our small but fine cottages.

Since we had to recover from the travel, we spent the first day at the nearby beach (Long Beach). We really liked the long beach lined with palm trees and trees. We found comfortable bean bags that perfected reading and sleeping on the beach. In the evening, we celebrated Mättu's birthday with good Thai food and tasty Chang beer.

On the second day, we went on a boat trip. We aimed for the islands of Koh Maa, Koh Chuek, Koh Mook, and Koh Ngai with the longtail boat. We made a stop near the first two islands for snorkeling. At the island of Koh Mook, we swam through an 80-meter-long cave. At the other end, we found a large clearing. Without the huge groups of tourists – inside the cave it was sometimes uncomfortably narrow – the detour would have been even more beautiful. A simple lunch was served at the last stop. The beach at Koh Ngai is like something out of a picture book: fine sand, turquoise blue water, and rocks in the background. Simply fantastic! After lunch, the boat took us back to Koh Lanta.

After two relaxing days, we're headed to Phuket.