Thailand – Ko Lanta

Why Thailand for our winter break? Because we love good food, massages and exploring new lands? True. It started with a BBC programme by Rick Stein. I love watching that man travel, when he gets his little notebook and gets lost in writing every detail he sees exploring other cuisines. After I saw his trip to Thailand I knew I had to try this street food as soon as possible. And trust me it was worth it 🙂

I’ve never been to Asia before and I will explore more when I get the chance! Everything is so different. And from what I had read Thailand is the best place to start. I was really impressed with their tourism (how to call it?) management? They live of tourism and they know how to do it well.

Today I’ll write about our first of three weeks there. We decided to head to the islands first. We’ve been tired after hectic time at work and needed a week of rest- we wanted to adjust to the time change and get strength to see and do as much as we could. And it turned out this strategy was perfect for our family.

We flew with KLM/Air France. The flight is long, I won’t lie to you. Ours took 16 hours and had only one stop so I guess it wasn’t that bad. We took all the electronic devices with us and watched tv series, slept and talked, so the time passed by. We landed in Bangkok and took another flight right away to get us to Krabi. Then we were taken by motorboat and then by a car. I couldn’t remember my name when we got to the hotel 😉 I chose the hotel through trip advisor- since it was time to rest, I wanted a nice place with a pool for Gaba. We weren’t disappointed.

The week went by really quickly. We traveled by tuk tuk, enjoyed little town Saladan every evening- we went for massages, Gaba indulged in sticky rice with mango and cocktails made of fresh fruit. THE FRUITS are nothing like the ones you can buy in the supermarket. Mangoes, pineapples and coconut are to die for and their taste is just pure perfection. I drool just by writing this 😉

For lunches or dinners we’d go to Maladee Restaurant. If you ever on Ko Lanta dine there. I didn’t know at the time I was there, but I guess that was the place I’ve eaten during three weeks in Thailand. Coconut curry on freshly caught fish-OMG!!! Heaven!

We took a few trips by motorboat- visiting little islands- Koh Kradan and Koh Mook- they had the most beautiful beaches I have seen in my life plus we were almost alone there, which later turned out to be a true privilege when we visited popular places like Phi Phi later. We also went snorkeling- loved it. The rainbow of colors you see underwater and those little fish almost touching you is pretty amazing.

And we visited elephant camp and went into the jungle to see the caves.

It was a calm week, full of lazy hours, talking, just enjoying ourselves and the sun. And did I mention massages? I took them everyday for the whole three weeks- in the islands they are more like Thai massages in Europe- they often use oil. When we went to Chiang Mai later it turned out that true Thai massage is more like yoga that the masseuse is doing for you. But more on that later.

Enjoy the pictures! If you have any questions ask them in the comments section below, I’ll be happy to answer!