Scooting around Lanta

Last night we had a beautiful dinner on the beach restaurant of our hotel - it was one of our wedding presents. The evening continued in the adjacent bar where a Thai band called 'Why Not' serenaded us and several other tourists with some rock classics - old and recent. After a fire show on the beach, an open mic session (where Norwegians sang Happy Birthday in 3 different languages to their father) and a few too many beers, we decided to hit the sack.

Today we wanted to see a little more of our temporary home Ko Lanta, so after a breakfast on the hotel beach we hired a scooter - £4 for a day... bargain!

I hadn't realised until writing this and looking at the photos that my helmet made me look like someone off of the Village People! Despite this, the day was probably one of our best days so far - Ko Lanta is beautiful. Plus I was having fun driving again.

We didn't have much of a plan to start but eventually made our way to the national park, the port where we first arrived at the other end of the island, then we walked a precarious walkway through the Mangroves, then the Old Town and finally the Sang Ga U resort at our end of the island - here the hotel rooms were made to look like boats and were all named after famous cities in the world. Fiz even had a go driving, but preferred being the passenger and watching the Thai/Muslim life pass by. On the way back we stopped for pancakes overlooking the water below, then we topped it off by stopping at Diamond Cliff Beach to watch the sun setting. It was a perfect end to the day, even if we did feel a bit windswept and bug ridden!

We've just finished dinner (9pm) at the 'Drunken Sailors' round the corner from the hotel - Fiz had a veggie burger and I had a Massaman shrimp curry - the Thai curries are some of the best I've tasted and I'm slowly making my through all the different varieties.

Tomorrow we're travelling to Krabi and eventually Railay - it's got a lot to live up to after Lanta.