Off To Koh Lanta

Having completed our one day quarantine and successfully passing our second Covid test in less than a week, we decided to get outta Bangkok on Monday morning and head south to Koh Lanta for six days of beach and sun.

Once we received our negtive test results on Sunday, we made arrangements to meet up with Ernie, one of Brenda's yoga buddies, who happened to be in Bangkok at the same time as us. Before meeting him, Brenda and I scouted out the neighborhood around our hotel in search of a pub or bar where we could have a beer with our friend. Because of the pandemic, there were no such establishments to be found. We did, however find a back street that was lined with several local eating spots serving Thai, Sri Lankan or Indian food.

Once Ernie joined us, we made our way to a little Mom and Pop Thai restaurant, filled with locals, where we were promptly offered beer and green papaya salad. Even though I had already had a dinner of Pad Thai at the hotel, I couldn't resist ordering a dish of the house specialty salad to go along with my Chang beer. And I was not disappointed. It was every bit as good as the ones we get in Chiang Mai and it whetted my appetite for much more of the same over the next three months. After spending a delightful evening with Ernie, we headed back to our hotel and hit the sack almost immediately in anticipation of an early wake-up for our 10:00 AM flight. Although we fell asleep quickly, our circadian rhythms had other plans and we both slept sporadically after 2:30 AM, eventually giving up trying at 5:00.

Unfortunately, getting to paradise requires a little effort as there are no flights directly to Koh Lanta. We have to fly 90 minutes to Krabi then ride a shuttle bus for between two and a half and three hours to the island.

Sigh....as if the 25 hours it took us to get to Bangkok wasn't enough travel for this week!Read more