Thailand: Last Night on Koh Lanta

We really enjoyed Koh Lanta. It was quite and beautiful and the beaches weren't crowded. It was close and convenient to other islands. The accommodation was cheaper than a lot of other places. It was nice to be able to afford to stay on the beach and watch the sunset.


The beach was totally dead at sunset. We had it all to ourselves. It was about to storm, so there was no one.




We enjoyed more awesome lemongrass margaritas and the best mohito I've ever had (see below). That was some seriously well muddled mint and fresh lime. I would go back to Koh Lanta just for the drinks!

Thailand: Good Food=Good Times

After we got back from snorkeling and Koh Phi Phi, we took a walk on the beach and then went to "Time for Lime" which is a popular restaurant near the hotel. The food was okay, nothing as good again as the food we had in Chiang Mai. On the other hand, the drinks were so fantastic, we kept coming back for more. Above is the lemongrass magarita. That's right, FRESH lemongrass and FRESH Lime with some good o' tequila. It was the most awesome drink ever. I think they are quite dangerous. I highly recommend one. Below is the chili margarita and to the right, Mark's boring regular one. So so good though. It's really hard to get a good one back in the states, as they are very rarely real lime and usually full of cornsyrup. The lemongrass mixture was unimaginably good though. I wish I knew how to make it!!! We enjoyed these while overlooking the sea at night. We did this twice more during the trip I think. SOOOO GOOD!!!

The next day we were too sunburnt to go out again, so we opted for a cooking class instead on the island at Lana Thai Cooking School. They came and picked us up from our hotel and drove us about ten minutes down the road to the next beach. There were chickens everywhere! I hope we didn't eat their friends...
Above is the cooking studio. It was open air which was really nice. First we voted on what dishes we would make from the daily menu and then we cut up all our ingredients. Below is the ingredients for the coconut milk soup. It's one of my favorites, but this one didn't have enough kick I though. It was dumbed down for westerners.

Above: Fresh chilis, but I didn't use enough. I used more than most, but I should have used more closer to a Thai amount. Below are the ingredients to make chicken with holy basil leaves.

Above: Our table
Below: The ingredients for ginger chicken.

I was armed with a deadly weapon and I was wearing a stupid hat, so I shouldn't be messed with!
Below that is chopped FRESH tumeric, which was so so so orange it amazing me. I've only ever seen in powdered and dried. We used it to make the Massamun curry paste. That curry is the muslim one from the south and it was one of the best things I had in Thailand.

Ingredients for the paste are chopping and then put into the mortar and pestle for grinding.


It took forever to grind it down. Our teacher worked on it while we ate our soup.


The turmeric stained my fingers!

Thai coconut soup with chicken! I made it!

Thai Chicken with Holy Basil

Ginger Chicken Thai style
And last, but not least, the massamun curry which I miss so much!
Oh and this is a strange plant at the cooking school. We had fun and glad we planned to go only the night before!

Thailand: Koh Phi Phi

We paid for a boat to take us out to some islands the next day. It was a tour, but still kinda pricey. We got on this speedboat we had reserved the night before which picked us up at the beach at our hotel and it was crowded. A bunch of French people pitched this huge fit and we were delayed about 45 minutes, but after it was all said and done they decided not to go and well, the boat was hardly crowded at all, which was pretty fantastic! The first place we went was Bamboo Island which doesn't have anything built on it, which is probably why it's so beautiful. I should have taken more photos, but I was too busy snorkeling. It was my first time, and I loved it! I got way too much sun though, even though I kept applying sunscreen, so after that, we couldn't go snorkeling again on this trip. We ate lunch on the island that came with the tour and there were wild chickens running around everywhere. I think they wanted some food.

The beach was beautiful white sand and there was coral everywhere. It was like something you see on a postcard. I'd never been to a beach like this before. The fish were everywhere! I had angelfish swimming around me when I was in the water. It was like jumping into a giant aquarium, and the fish didn't care!
I have more photos, but find it embarrassing, so I only posted the ones where you can't see so much of me. I wasn't too happy with my swimsuit, but it was the only one that remotely fit we found in Bangkok.

Then we reached Koh Phi Phi. It sucked. Highly disappointing. Maybe it was beautiful at one time, but I don't like the crowds and all the trash. It was really dirty. I was glad we only stayed 30 minutes.
See all the people. No fun.

Look at the beach! It was so crowded! I can't enjoy a place like that.
Below: An awesome sign. The spelled Phi Phi with "E"'s . haha

I was bored and ready to leave. I played with this stray cat.

Then we left for Monkey Island. It's a tiny little beach full of monkeys that tourists feed. I didn't find it that interesting because I've seen so many monkeys in Japan and these monkeys were unnaturally not scared of people which freaked me out a bit.




Then we went to the second most beautiful place of the day, the small Koh Phi Phi island. First we passed Viking Cave, seen below.



Then we made our way toward the lagoon where the movie "The Beach" with Leonardo Di Caprio was filmed. I've never seen this film though.



Finally we made it to paradise, Maya Bay. Because of those French people we were 45 minutes late, which meant we only got 15 minutes here which was sad! But I was sunburnt and tired. The water was warm and shallow and so clear. You could see many fish swimming around. I wadded out a bit, but not too far. It really is a beautiful place and I see why so many people come to this small island. It's much nicer than the bigger one because there is nothing built on it and you can only get her by a small boat. It reminded me of some place you'd see in Pirates of the Caribbean or something. So anyway, we had fun and I like snorkeling now, so I'd like to go back or go to another great place to see many pretty fish.