Island life

Going from Bangkok to Ko Lanta is a little like going from Las Vegas to Hana on Maui. The pace here is slooowww, and we're are definitely on "Thai time".

We're staying at The Narima, which has fantastic bungalows on the southwest side of the island facing the Andaman Sea. The Thai owners, Wan and Yodchai, are a very sweet couple from Bangkok who've decided to "retire" to live by the sea. This isn't exactly the life of luxury for them, but they've created one of those magical, rare places that has it all: a beautiful location, wonderful facilities, and a warm and welcoming staff. We feel like we're visiting someone in their home. Wan and Yodchai lived in the U.S. for 11 years, we've had some great conversations about cultural differences, tourism in Thailand, and Thai politics.







We three American women are somewhat of an oddity here. Most of the people we've seen are couples or families from either Sweden or Germany. With direct flights from Scandinavia to Bangkok, Thailand is the vacation of choice for many Swedes. Although, just tonight we met two women traveling together; one from London living in Vietnam, and the other from Australia living in Vietnam. Here at the internet cafe I met three Americans from, of all places, Portland. But for the most part, we spend our days hearing more Swedish and German than Thai.

We've been on two snorkeling trips. The first was onboard a longtail boat to a group of five islands where we went through a very long (60 meters, I believe) cave that opens up to a hong, an opening in the center of the island with emerald-green water and tall, sheer cliffs of lush greenery. The second trip today was to Ko Rok, an hour by speedboat to the southwest. Amazing! Lots of beautiful coral, schools of fish (swimming among dozens of parrot fish is a wild ride), and long, sandy, powdery, white beaches.





We saw monkeys in the trees near our bungalows, and a pair of elephants live in a yard a few meters across the road. Geckos chirp us to sleep at night, and exotic bird calls and cicadas greet us in the mornings. We watched a scorpion scamper across the sand at dinner the other night, while a table of (who else?) Swedes photographed it. It was like the "scorpion paparazzi." There's a white cat that's been died pink at a place a few doors down, but we don't know why.

Time to go. There's a coconut drink with my name on it waiting for me at the bar on the beach. I love island life.