11/13/98: We were up for seeing what all the fuss about the islands of the Malacca Straight was all about, but the overnight and all-next-day trip turned out to be nerve wracking… Train to Surat Thani, then a bus crowded with unruly backpackers to Krabi. Krabi is a port town that launches those unruly backpackers all over the Thai islands of the Andaman Sea, so it had a flurry of touts shouting at all of us trying to get us to come to their islands and hotels, etc… We wanted to go to the furthest away spot we could find, so we got on a questionable looking ferry/taxi boat for a long ride over choppy seas to Lanta Old Town on the island of Koh Lanta… From there we had a very bumpy ride in the bed of a pick-up truck to the furthest place we could get away from the town, to a newly opened beach-side hotel on Kantiang Bay called Lanta Marine Beach Resort… Still mostly a fishing village, there is only one other hotel near this mile-long stretch of beach with lush jungle behind, but I bet within a couple of years this place will be overrun just like all the other little bays on these lovely islands… Ruth said it reminds her of Maui when she was growing up in the 60s and 70s, before it got touristy…
NOTE: The photo above shows the inside of the cabin of the taxi/ferry that we rode from Krabi to Koh Lanta Island.
