...such an island life <3...

Hello from here to there... And welcome to the 6th blog on this 6th of January...

Not much has happened actually... I mentioned before that time seems to have stood still here.

On the other hand, time seems to be in a hurry... The sun sets here in our area around 6:30 PM and with the sun, all daylight disappears. It becomes so dark immediately, almost like in nighttime mode...

It's almost 2 PM here on Koh Lanta and I'm lying on a hammock right on the beach. The Indian Ocean is within reach in front of me. A few waves are gently splashing.

The sky is cloudy. Thick clouds are forming. No ray of sunshine will probably touch me in the near future. :(

But it's warm. And that's what matters. :)

We're so glad that the continuous rain has subsided.

Only at night it still rains heavily.

But we only notice it because we either wake up at night for other reasons (more on that later) or because of the wet roads we pass with the scooter the next day and all the puddles that don't dry up quickly due to the lack of sun...

But other than that, we have fully entered vacation mode.

It felt like it took some time this time to acclimate...

But since we've been here... and especially since the weather gods finally showed mercy.. Ah yes... 😏

But the surroundings also make it really easy.

Lanta my Love 💙

By the way, it's really exciting at night in our accommodation.

I already mentioned that it's very 'airy' there.

When we sleep, it seems like all the animals from the surrounding jungle come together and pay us a visit.

The conference of animals.

Live in our bungalow.

Whether it's geckos, monkeys, toads, monitor lizards, or cats - they're all here... 🐒🐱🐾🐊🐸🕷

No, but seriously.

You have to imagine, we're sleeping peacefully... suddenly a rustling sound... footsteps... even more rustling... little steps... Very close... Loud sounds whose origin we can't identify in the dark and especially in half asleep and probably don't want to know :D

Most of the time we keep sleeping and the next day there are still the animals that missed the end of the animal gathering or simply couldn't find the way out.

Today, we had a big ugly toad in our room for the third day in a row.

And since I don't believe in fairy tales and a kiss wouldn't turn it into a princess, we have to figure out how to get it out of the room... :/

Well. What else can I tell you.

So on January 4th, we extended the rent of our island scooter and drove around the island again.

Past several accident victims looking at their bleeding limbs... Plastic parts of the machines like memorials on the side of the road...

All tourists who probably underestimated the winding roads here and are simply driving too fast with their tuned scooters.

Well, I can easily reach 120 (or more) with the Honda, but I haven't driven faster than 80 yet. Although I know the routes and almost every pothole here by now...

But I value my life and we all know how my first scooter trip in Greece ended 2 years ago... 🙈

Anyway. After various visits to the beach, we ventured to the west side of the island.

We recently spotted swings that awakened the child in us.

Just seeing them was a reason for us to go there again...

They were located directly on the pier.

So if you swung up and jumped off, you would land directly in the ocean! :)

Well, would have, could have, if...

...we obviously didn't do it.

But we had fun anyway.

After a delicious meal and the best coconut shake I've had in Thailand so far, we went back. And by the way.

Coconut shakes are my essential food.

Coconut milk is practically flowing in my veins by now.

Oh, and in Oldtown there's not only good food, drinks, and great swings,... There's also the most original waste-saving program I've ever come across...

When you're done eating and the waiter comes to clear the table, they pour the remaining food that's still on the plate ice-cold into the sea.

I couldn't believe my eyes. :D

...After that, not much happened.

Oh, except...

We treated ourselves to a nice oil massage next door.

300 Baht for 1 hour.😎 We couldn't resist that offer.

Unfortunately, mine wasn't trained yet (if they even have that here).

At first, everything was quite relaxing.

But when it came to the neck-shoulder area, uh...

Me in my mind: {Ouch}

Thai woman: 'are you okay'

Me in my mind: {Noooo!!}

But said: 'Yes!'

It really hurt and was generally very uncomfortable.

Plus, you had to get completely undressed, and I'm not a fan of that...

Well, if only I had known that before... :D

Continuing with the story...

In the evening, there was live music announced at our resort.

Oh man.

You couldn't even call it music, in my opinion.

A Thai woman plus a band trying to perform English evergreens.

It was already difficult to understand your own words under her screaming (we were eating there at the time)... But it was just as difficult to make out the English words in general.

Since you knew many of the lyrics, it was sometimes very funny (and creative) what they made of them... :)

Well then. After a relatively short night, we got on the Honda again and headed to the waterfall we had read about.

We knew from Aunt Google that we had to go a good distance through the jungle to get there... But NONE of us expected THIS:

It's a miracle that none of us fell into the river or down a slope.

Really.

That was one hell of a crazy path! 😌

Through ups and downs and completely unsecured.

It was soooo slippery and some parts were really difficult to pass...

But it was still fun.

I love such adventures.

On the way to the waterfall, you also pass a small cave.

Nothing special. But still quite nice.

So, back on the trail towards our target.

A few monkeys here and there...

Overcoming a few more dangerous obstacles and there it was.

The waterfall.

A real one this time.

Not like in Khao Sok.

I find it hard to estimate, but the water poured from about 12 meters high, where it collected in a pool where you could even swim.

However, it was quite rocky and not very deep, which is why we headed straight to the waterfall.

We stood under it and oh.. the feeling of being able to take a shower in the middle of the jungle.. It was indescribable.

A proper RAINFOREST SHOWER!!!

Do you know those handheld showers for home, they're called that?

And we had it for real. ...

There were basically 2 shower streams coming from above.

The right one was quite hard and made you think small stones were raining down on your body... the left one, on the other hand, was gently splashing and on top of that, you were surrounded by a rainbow.

For this experience, the way there was more than worth it!

Past chicken families and rubber plantations, we went back to our favorite beach. 

When we arrived there, we chilled in the sun for an hour. (Yes, 'sun'. You read that right.)

Okay. I relaxed.

Jule collected seashells.

At some point, we wanted to go into the water.

So we took off our clothes. And into the cool water we went.

We threw ourselves into the roaring surf... splashed each other and joyfully splashed around in the sea as if there were no tomorrow...(until tomorrow came)... Because... Suddenly, our joyful activity was interrupted.. We weren't thinking anything bad until we saw it... Just a few centimeters away from us, it gently floated on the waves... Coming straight towards us... The metabolic end product of someone... Big and brown, it was getting closer and closer... People- There was actually a huge turd floating past us!!! 😷

Jule and I looked at each other...

We checked if the other saw what we were seeing. Everything happened in fractions of a second.

Screaming, we got out of the water as quickly as possible... 💩 😱

I'm so sure afterwards that it was the old Thai woman with her 'rich' German benefactor next to us. She was in the water for a remarkably long time, moving strangely and just gave the impression of being that old pig.

Disgusting.

Really.

Why on earth on my favorite beach?? 😭😭😭

Our mood was ruined. At least when it came to swimming.

So off home....

Today, Friday the 6th, I slept until 9 for a change.

First, a delicious breakfast on the beach.

..for the equivalent of 2.50 euros (and that's actually 'expensive') we had the most delicious stuff you can imagine,

...wow. I love Thai street food...😍

After that, we finally bought the tickets for our onward journey.

We have to go back to the capital first... And by the way, we're going back to Bangkok by bus... We'll be on the road for about 18 hours.

But the night train is still completely booked out.

It's really high season here.

But the VIP buses are supposed to be quite comfortable. Seats that can be fully reclined, food and a toilet onboard.

We'll start on Sunday.

So we still have this afternoon and tomorrow before our adventure continues.

We want to go further to Cambodia or Vietnam.

So both are on the list.

The question is just which one is easier to reach from Bangkok in terms of organization.

And we still don't know if we'll travel by land or by plane.

We'll see...

In the end, it will be the wallet that decides.

With that, I close this blog... but you'll soon know how it goes on... Because... Yes... You guessed it... I will continue to spam you with my journey... 😇

'Adieu' from the cloudy paradise. 👋