Koh Lanta kayaking and Auste steering a longtail boat

On our second full-day on Koh Lanta Auste got to drive a boat by herself when we went kayaking (read about Day 1 here)! We didn’t want to waste a minute and went to see some surrounding islands. Whilst waiting for the guide to pick us up, we had another nice chat with our host and this time he was sharing a story how the Long Beach got its name. It used to be long in the direction towards the sea. We thought that it was called so, because it is quite a long stretch of sand along the shore. Visibly, in recent years a lot of it has been swallowed by the sea. He also went on about the weird and annoying administration and rules of owning the property on the island, and then how many Thai people are afraid of geckos (like salamandra blanca) – they’re so cute!

So we got picked up and took a ferry to the north island. The ride to a small pier at the south of the island was amazing. The owner – a funny, hip, and stylish 30-something Thai man had an old rusty songthaew truck made out of wood! Racing through the hills of Lanta, ALL the locals had their eyes on the car. We then got onto a longtail boat, just me, Auste, the guide, and the boat operator. They were so cool and chilled out that they offered Auste to steer the boat! It was so funny, and she did steer it for quite a while, maneuvering through the blue waves of the Andaman.

That day was exceptional as the guy was awesome, because he really enjoys what he does. Since he saw that we enjoyed climbing and exploring and taking photos, he went the extra mile to show us more places than he usually does when he has more people on the tour – he was as excited as we were. The cave on the Skull island was brilliant – with not even a single boat in sight, easy to climb, full of bats and birds and interesting rock formations. Not to mention the views you get through the “eyes” of the skull.

To be honest, visiting all of the caves was amazing – something we didn’t expect to be as good. As we paddled the kayaks (part of the luckily private tour) around steep cliffs we had a gentle breeze from the sea, cute little splashes of waves, and an actual chance to climb up those cliffs and get inside. We were amazed by the size of the caves, we climbed around, took photos, and just listened to the waves crashing into the cliffs from the outside – indescribable feeling. Although there’s something I CAN describe – the smell inside some of those caves. If you’ve ever had blue cheese or brie, the expensive smelly ones – you’d know what I’m talking about, especially once you keep them unwrapped in the fridge for a while. In some caves you could hardly smell it, in others it felt like a Stilton party.

Towards the end of our exploration we kayaked to a very, very isolated beach surrounded by limestone cliffs and had lunch. This was the time we chatted to our guides, relaxed, and fed monkeys. People, dogs, cats, birds, even monkeys eat rice in Thailand!

For the tour we paid around 1,300 per person, which was really good. (Compared to our trip to Ang Thong Marine Park from Koh Phangan, where it wasn’t bad, but the views weren’t as spectacular, we spent loads of time on a boat with roughly 50 other people, way too many tourists in all locations and zero time to explore them – and for the same price!) It’s cheaper renting a longtail boat for a day – around 1,500, but then you’d have to know where to go!

The trip was amazing and extremely cheap for such a quality time. It wasn’t rushed, the people were awesome, we saw amazing places, AND Auste got to steer a longtail boat! When we got back we rented bicycles (90 baht for a full day – score!), ready for some Lanta cycling action the next morning.