Location: Koh Lanta, Thailand

I decided to give Koh Lanta a really solid effort by hiring a personal guide to take me to see ‘all the things,’ as I so eloquently put it when he asked where I wanted to go. He laughed a little and gestured me into the truck taxi.

I know I could maybe have rented a motor bike, or joined a tour group but this felt more like the right call today. Arran speaks just enough English to get by, but not a ton so there was a lot of gesturing and hand flapping on both our parts as we set off to our first stop: a mangrove forest!

I’ve always wanted to see one in person and it was so cool and so alien! It was low tide so the roots of the trees, which would normally be under water, perched all along the thick mud looking like they might walk around on spidery legs if I turned my back. The tiny shoots of new trees poked up everywhere looking like little stalagmites coming up out of the ground. Crabs in literally five different bright colours scuttled around under the raised walkway, in and out of their giant mounds of dirt that I can only describe as ‘crab apartment complexes.’

Arran took me to multiple beaches all along the coast, everyone of them more beautiful and interesting then the one I saw yesterday. How is that one the popular one? We stopped for a few hours to hike into the jungle (which I was not prepared for in my dress and sandals) going under logs, around trees, through streams. The works. If I had been on my own I would not have known where to go at all as there was barely a pathway, let alone signage. We stumbled upon a Spaniard named Ethan, who seemed a little lost, and ended up following us to a bat cave and a waterfall. The smell of the jungle was earthy and sweet, and the sound was loud around us with the running creek, rustling trees and constant bird chatter. We saw a scorpion the size of my hand, a few small lizards and many many colourful birds along the way. I haven’t spent time in a jungle this dense here so it was really neat to see it guided by a local.

We wandered around a manicured national park, Mu Koh Lanta, that somehow looked more like a golf course than a protected area, and watched monkeys fuss around on the grass and in the trees along the beach. They congregated near the toilets so it felt a little like a game of chicken trying to get in there! I remembered from a few years ago that it’s not good practice to look them in the eyes as it can signal aggression so I kept my eyes averted as I took a few photos from a safe distance.

Arran honked at like every second person along the road and was constantly smiling and just saying ‘my friend!’ It feels like he knew everyone from something or other, and eventually he got to telling me about his 3 children and his wife, and how he’s always lived on Lanta and will never move because he loves it so much.

I was getting hungry at this point so he drove us to a little restaurant where he left me to eat in a shady little cabana right at the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea. Cashew chicken stir-fry has become one of my favourites here and I’m sure I could eat it every day if I wasn’t so intent on trying everything else as well!

After lunch he took me to Old Town Lanta, a little section of town that definitely has Chinese influence: the wood front shops and red paper lanterns are dead giveaways. He shooed me up the street and told me to shop as long as I wanted and he would wait. I wandered in and out of the old handicraft stores and gawked at all the beautiful pottery and jewelry, and ended up buying a few little things that I was pretty certain I could get home without breaking!

Arran told me about all the fisherman along the wharf nearby as we walked in the scorching sun, and explained that they stand directly out in the ocean for up to 15 hours a day netting in little tiny silver fish that get ground up fully into fish paste, which is used in most recipes here. Apparently the fisherman all live right on the coast and rarely ever leave their little spots. “Fish, sleep, fish, sleep” Arran said.

Most of Lanta seems like it’s been half under construction for 20 years. Things are sort of partially completed everywhere and the tourist and massage shops I’m used to seeing all around are fewer and further between. Sidewalks just straight up don’t exist, and you usually have to walk through dirt to get to a shop. But the people are friendly and happy to have you here, and the scenery is undeniably beautiful. Families with little kids frolicked in the ocean and tourists were scooting everywhere on rented bikes, likely because the traffic here is a lot less crazy and the roads a lot wider.

I had Arran drop me at a recommended massage parlour for a much needed foot massage where, funnily enough, they cracked my back and neck so hard the little headache I had blooming just disappeared. Maybe I should try the head and shoulder massage next?!

I went back to Lym’s beach bar to try the food and watch the sunset. I sat for a few hours in the warm wind, eating some kind of spicy soup I ordered purely because I didn’t recognize the name. Not a chance I can remember it now I didn’t even know half of what was in it! Rosie and Joyce found me again and we sat till 10:30 PM, catching up on our day. It started off rocky but my time on Lanta has been really lovely, and quite a solid reminder to just ‘be where I am’.

It turns out I quite liked it here.

Sav