Day 12 - Lanta Happy Hills Resort

I had a fitful night sleep of about 2 hours, Jackie had not much more. We had a scare at 5.00am, when the train stopped & loads of passengers got off, but it wasn’t our stop.

At 7.00am we were forced out of bed by the steward insisting he come in turn the beds back to a seat. At 8.30am we pulled into Trang Railway Station & went to a travel agent opposite to arrange our onward travels. We purchased 2 tickets for the 9.30am mini van departing from
Trang Bus Terminal costing just 350 Baht each.

We left our rucksacks with the ladies in the travel agent & went in search of breakfast. We ended up in the same ‘1952 Cafe’ that we visited in similar circumstances about 10 years ago. We ordered coffee & a baguette each.

Returning to the travel agent, we boarded a Tuk Tuk to take us to Trang Bus Terminal. Before we departed, the girls insisted on taking a photo of us in the back of the Tuk Tuk, whilst Jackie held their company sign!

The Tuk Tuk delivered us to the Ko Lanta bound mini van & checked us in....all part of the service. Not long after 9.30am we departed in a virtually full mini van for the 2.5 plus hour drive, which included a ferry ride. It was an uncomfortable ride, particularly as we were tired.

Not long after midday, we were dropped off at our Christmas destination, Lanta Happy Hills Resort. The girl who greeted us was so lovely & provided us with lots of useful information. She didn’t actually tell us, but we suspected she & her family were Muslims......the hijabs & burkas gave it away!!!

She kindly recommended Yawee Restaurant for lunch, which we soon discovered didn’t sell alcohol. Yawee Restaurant was very popular & we now know why, the food was excellent. I had chicken in coconut sauce & Jackie had a crispy chicken salad. There was water on the table, but we ordered a Diet Coke each, which didn’t actually arrive with our meal. When Jackie informed them, the waitress insisted we have them free. Probably put a bit of Hong Thong in them!

After we walked the couple of minutes down to our local beach, Relax Beach. As we walked out on to the beach, the nearest bar owner shouted over to visit his bar. One of our pet hates!!! We walked along to the southern end & found a tiny sandy cove called Bamboo Beach for a swim.

The afternoon ended with us visiting 2 bars for a beer in each, unfortunately the 2nd belonged to the shouty man & guess what it was the most expensive!

We returned to our room, got ready & then went straight out for dinner to the sounds of the call to prayer at the local mosque. Tonight was the Mushroom Restaurant where I had a Penang Chicken curry & Jackie had chicken & cashew nuts, followed by a naughty banana pancake each.

We were back on our balcony by 9pm. After failing to get the television working to watch the Man Utd game, we called it a night.

Despite Booking.com showing that Lanta Happy Hills Resort is fully booked in the days after we are scheduled to check out, Jackie has already sweet-talked the young girl at reception in to letting us stay longer & (a big AND) letting us keep our room. It is in the prime location.

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