This morning we woke up early in order to check out, say some sad goodbyes to Phi Phi and get the 11.30am ferry to Koh Lanta.
The ferry didn’t take long at all, with us all sleeping through it and also the distance between the islands being relatively short.
Everything was going well, we arrived in Koh Lanta and were met by someone from the hotel who was going to take us there. With our bags piled high on the top of the truck, a whole group of us from the hotel squeezed in. A Thai man sat on the boot door for the journey, clearly not 100% sober, mumbling and talking to himself in Thai – I was by the door and so I was right next to him. Then he picked up a beer that had been rolling around the floor and opened it above me – of course the shaken up beer exploded going all over me! I pushed the beer in his hand away saying “woaah” hoping he’d realise what he was doing and maybe hold the beer outside the truck or out the window or anything but instead he put the foaming beer to his mouth, took a big gulp and starting angrily speaking in Thai directly at me. Then he switched to English telling me he’d never been so angry and that I’d brought all my horrible (sorry for swearing) shit from England and I was already dirty so how could I complain about having beer split on me. He kept saying how dirty I was and how he’d never been so angry – he was a scary looking Thai man anyways and when Thai men have a reputation of being aggressive, I did not feel comfortable for the rest of the journey, to say the least.
Obviously the journey from then on was very awkward and practically silent except for the Thai man still chanting under his breath. It got even worse when he stormed into the reception on arrival (not getting our bags from the roof like his job tells him to) and started yelling in Thai whilst lounging over the chairs at the check in desk where we were meant to go.
Finally once we had checked in and refused any help with our bags we had a very nice Thai man take us to our room – which made a lovely change. The room is massive with aircon, wifi and two double beds so everyone’s happy (no more three in a bed!)
At lunch there was definitely a soured atmosphere with none of us really knowing what to say about the taxi episode. It was windy, cloudy and the beach by the hotel didn’t look like the white sandy beaches we’d been promised when visiting Koh Lanta. So all in all it was not a good start.

After eating a surprisingly nice lunch, we were feeling a little but more settled, we got a map of the island and found out where we were in relation to the famous Long Beach and what other attractions there are on the Island. We found out that there’s a few things we’d love to do here – number one being find the white sandy beaches – and set off to explore.

Firstly, the hotel pool is actually really lovely with cobbled tiles, a pool seat that goes all the way round the edge and a big waterfall at the end. Then, when we stepped down onto the beach, just as the sun came out, we realised that even though it isn’t our promised white sand beach, it is actually a very pretty and peaceful beach.
After walking down our beach we came across a pathway that headed into the forrest, so we took the path and ended up in heaven… Yes we found our first WHITE SAND BEACH!

A log beautiful beach with absolutely nobody on it! We’d walked through the jungle for a good fifteen mins and so it seemed appropriate to have a celebration swim here, in our new private beach.

Then we carried on our travels, down the beach, back up into the forrest, this time for longer and on a more overgrown pathway than before!

Finally we came out at another white opening, another private beach! This time it wasn’t quite as private as before as there were two naked French people swimming with their baby and also lots of what looked like small camps or beach tents, built along the sand.

Next we came across what seemed like a hippy beach with different wooden huts, hammocks and loads of signs for magic mushroom shakes and happy shakes (I have no idea what they are!)

However we swiftly moved on, eager to get to Long Beach.

Our very helpful jungle path stopped at this point and after believing we could rock climb all the way to long beach and then getting stuck half way and realising we couldn’t go back or forward and we’d never get there, we hiked in our flip flops up through the jungle and came out at a hotel – thank god. We walked through the hotel and finally came out at long beach (ATLAST) and what a magnificent beach it was! It’s probably the longest beach I’ve ever seen and although it’s a huge tourist attraction and is very famous the beach seemed practically empty and we had a whole section of it for ourselves for sunbathing, swimming and even just sitting on fold up chairs watching the waves come in and out.

After a very needed relaxing and beautiful afternoon on an amazing beach, we found a super cute beach restaurant and bar. With happy hour, free popcorn as nibbles and a gorgeous view, we were sold, and we stayed here for the rest of the evening to watch the sunset.

Even though today started quite sour… LIFE IS SWEET