To Ko Lanta: yes there's a ferry, no there's not a ferry

November 19, 2006

We leave Trang in the dark. Our hotel is still locked-up but we have a key and can open the padlock on the security grill that would keep us in. We find the secondary road via Sikao that is actually much more direct that following Highway 4 the main road. It's pretty flat at first, then a long climb and a downhill towards the Andaman Sea.

We have some neat vistas of karst islands. We get back to the main road, follow it for about 10km and then turn again off on a side road to reach Ban Ban Muang. It's getting hot by now and its quite a bit further than it appeared on our map. The reason we're going to this fishing town is a dashed line on the map that indicates a ferry to Ko Lanta.

After 18km we find a concrete pier but no ferry!

There is a guy though that has a food/drink stand on the pier, selling to fishermen that get on and off their boats. He is very helpful jumps on his scooter and is off to talk to some friends about a long tail boat to take us to the island. Patrick clarified this by waving his right hand behind him and making a purring sound. It's expensive, the starting price 2500 baht ($60) and we have to wait an hour...we are committed though. We don't want to go back 18 km to the main road with a long hot ride to the "real" ferry at Ban Hua Hin. Patrick gets him down to 2200 Baht and we wait for the friend that doesn't show.

Our helpful guy gets more and more agitated, calls on his cell phone and rides off several times. Then he comes back for the money so they can buy the gas for the trip. It's a four hour round trip ride. Ten minutes later a good sized fishing longboat rumbles up to the pier. We are talking with an American from Santa Fe who just showed up on a scooter and quickly load the gear and bikes on the boat, hop on and off we go.

We have barely cleared the pier when our captain passes a beer bottle with a tiger label that contains some strong tasting whiskey-like stuff. Rachel likes it. The ride is beautiful, we see karst islands and fishing boats. About halfway, the chain that connects the motor with the drive shaft breaks and takes some skin off our captains hands. For about 15 minutes we bob around while he fixes the chain. Rachel puts a band aid on his hand and we are off again.

After about two hours we are dropped off at the long pier of Ko Lanta. We load up and set off immediately headed North along the East coast, then cross the spine of the island to get to the West coast where all the beaches are located. It's a tough climb, part of it so steep we have to walk. Another 10km along the West coast and we find one of the recommended bungalow places, Papillon Resort, nicely set in a garden and even a small swimming pool for 600 Baht a night. It's 100 meters from the beach, a Dutch guy runs a diving outfit from here.

We take a refreshing swim and walk down to the beach for pad thai and spring rolls. A beautiful thundercloud makes for a nice sunset.