Ko Lanta

So after anotheeerr boat journey we arrived at Ko Lanta, a quiet fishing village in the South of Thailand. We got there and booked a bungalow on the beach, it was made of bamboo and was pretty basic but it was nice. We decided to rent a scooter so that we could explore the island more. We drove around in the unbelievable heat and decided to stop for lunch at a local street stall, we looked inside the silver pans and we didn't know what anything was...so we just pointed at some yellowy greeny looking sauce and hoped it was nice. It was nice but it was sooooo spicy my eyeballs started to burn my nose started to run and even Ben thought it was spicy! So we eat what we could thanked our chef and drove of on the scooter.We drove to the other side of the island and stopped in the old town. It was really cute and full of locals this place was hit by the Tsunami in 2004 and had just finished rebuilding itself, they had done a great job as it was lovely! We visited the Hammock museum...we weren't quite sure why...but it turned out to be good hah! Its surprising how many different types of hammocks you could need! Even one for the cat!! We Stopped of at a bar had an ice tea and a coke and decided we needed to get back, as the weather was taking a turn for the worse. We headed back in the rain...and thunder and decided after our long day tonight would be a good night to relax! We bought some snacks and drinks and played cards till early hours in the morning on the beach...Bliss!

We decided that our bungalow even though it was cute was a little bit far out for the center, so we went to look for a new gaff, we found one in the name of Lanta House..Should be called Bargain House!! 5quid per night for both of us and it was surprisingly nice! We took our backpacks down to Lanta House on the scooter we looked like a right pair! The 2 of us with 2 backpacks and 5 litre of water and a beach bag all squashed onto a tiny scooter haha! Well its the norm round here! After moving house we went to the 'Lanta Animal Welfare Centre' We thought it would be good for us to do our bit the community like, so we decided to take some dogs for a walk. After taking a tour of the centre and learning all about how the dogs came to be here (pretty sad!) We got our dogs, I took one and Ben took two and we took them on a half an hour walk, it was lovely and relaxing and we felt good after some exercise! So we decided we would come back again tomorrow. After eating tea at our favorite local street food place we went to a bar to watch the Everton Vs Man U match! After the good result we had a few drinks and went home to play a few games of cards. Ko Lanta is a really quiet village so there wasn't much nightlife however after all the partying we have been doing it was a nice change to relax!

So as we promised the next day we came back to walk some more dogs, we were looking forward to it and today we got different dogs, it was all going well until 5 seconds out of the gate! My Dog "Lanta" decided she hated another dog that was passing and tried to leg it after it, she was barking crazy and was dragging me everywhere...She was an Alsatian..So pretty strong haha! Then after that we headed towards the beach as we were doing an hour walk today, when suddenly Ben held up an empty lead and said 'OH NO'................ THE DOG HAD RAN AWAY!!!!! So he gave me his other dog and ran after him! Meanwhile the 2 dogs i was holding were going crazy because they knew something was going on, and poor Ben was legging it round everywhere after this huge dog! I had no idea how we were going to catch it, luckily Ben had picked up a few doggy biscuits from the shelter and lured him back with these! PHEW we had all three dogs back again! Next minute my dog Lanta froze on the spot and literally wouldn't move, i was pulling her and trying to get her to move but with no joy, then we realized that she was scared of Thai people as her owner abused her and threw hot oil on her! We felt so sorry for her, and continued to try and persuade her. Finally we were on the way back to  the shelter..sweating.. knackered... sweating...hungry...SWEATING and thirsty! But not before the dogs gave us one last challenge and all decided to chase a cat, its surprising how hard it is to control such big dogs! We arrived back and the owners of the center thanked us, and we hurriedly got on our scooter and drove of before they could ask us to walk anymore dogs haha! That was not the leisurely dog walk along the beach that we had in mind haha!

For the next four days we decided we could allow ourselves to relax, we chose a really nice pool in a really posh hotel and kept on going there that much the people who worked there actually thought we were staying there so they never even tried and kick us out!! We met a really nice pair of American sisters who we had a laugh with, they thought it was hilarious we were paying 5quid per night and spending most of our time in a 40quid hotel haha! We thought the joke was on them really tho! We spent our time swimming sunbathing and chilling out...What a hard life! We decided we have had enough time relaxing and we wanted to move on, so after much haggling we booked our bus to Ko Phi Phi, for the next morning. That night we spent the night in our hotel with 2 couples from Bristol a German Guy and a South African guy, we swapped stories, drank beer and had a really good laugh! We went to pack our backpacks around half 12 and got ready to leave in the morning!