Timeless Ko Lanta

I spent the last week on a beautiful island off the coast of Krabi called Ko Lanta.

Time is a strange thing on Lanta. The days seem to stretch into each other endlessly, but my week was also over before I knew it. If I asked anyone how long they had been on the island, it always took some hard thinking to really pinpoint what day it was and how far into their journey they were.

Ignore my poor plating... I added the sauce way too early!

When I arrived, I made my way to Oasis Yoga and felt at home, even though I am a quite inexperienced student. I feel short of my five class goal, but as noted... time gets away from you on Lanta.

The first five nights I stayed at Time For Lime, which had amazing bungalows and a beachfront restaurant/cooking school. I am so glad I did the cooking class - all proceeds from the class, and from my understanding the restaurant/bungalows go back to Lanta Animal Welfare, which is run by Time's owner, Junie.

The food was delicious, and I learned a lot - for example, Thai curry is different than Indian curry because they use fresh ingredients to make it instead of dry spices. I also learned that the level of spiciness of curry can be tailored to your tastes (mine - timid, Darryl's - not) and as a result, I have a newfound love of red curry.

Fresh, simple ingredients are such a delight to photograph

What my plate should have looked like

The next day, a very kind woman I met at Soi Dog (Kajta), who coincidentally lives on Lanta, welcomed me along to her family's Sunday ritual at Somewhere Else - a confusing name to an outsider, but it's a restaurant with beachside salas and epic relaxation. Katja and her family are from Sweden and she is the reason I ended up at Oasis Yoga. Two other very sweet girls, Jana and Gen, who I met at cooking class joined as well.

Jana/Gen extended their hospitality into next day, when we rented scooters and explored the island. We managed to escape our explorations unscathed, which I can't say for everybody I met on the island.

The next day my new friends made their way to Bangkok, and I packed up my belongings. At no fault of Time For Lime's, there was a bar nearby that had ridiculously loud bass playing at all hours, so I couldn't sleep (sign #1 that I am old). I irrationally decided it was a good time to move into a treehouse hostel, called Chill Out House, thinking I was staying at one of the bungalows behind the hostel.

It turned out I booked a private room in the main hostel.. At this point I came to realize how old and out of place I felt.

All signs pointed to awesomeness, or so I thought

I think I'm generally an outgoing person, but I just didn't feel like I fit in. Almost everyone was in their early 20s and while I tried to connect, I couldn't seem to succeed, outside of with a handful of people who extended themselves to me. I didn't have an issue with younger people at any other point in this trip, but this just felt more insular for whatever reason, which was possibly all made up in my head.

I moved into the bungalow (that I thought I initially had booked) for the next two nights and continued to try to make friends. I decided it was OK to continue to branch out on my own and made a trip Lanta Animal Welfare.

It was so nice to see their operation and all the volunteers (who have to make a month minimum commitment and live on site) caring for the animals. I tried my hardest to not fall in love, but it's impossible. I even watched a live sterilization!

For my last full day on Lanta, I signed up for a 4 island boat tour, and while the snorkeling wasn't as impressive as my first outing, there were other parts that more than made up for it.

The first place I was really excited for was Emerald Cave. So.. it was really cool..

but OH MY GOD, the water there was teeming with thousands of jellyfish eggs, which was a huge issue because A) I do not like being in close proximity of jellyfish, which is probably why I've never explored becoming an expert diver and B) I had no idea if they could hurt me. I later found out they are harmless, but I don't think that would have made the temporary nightmare any better.

I made it about halfway into the cave, had a secret panic attack, and swam like hell back to the boat.

ohmygod get me out

Why am I such a baby

I'm sure some of you will be like "Oh cool, jellyfish babies, that's harmless," but there were so many I was hitting at least 5-10 with every swim stroke.

Emerald Cave - 1, Erin - 0.

I did not share my panic or fear with anyone on the boat, and another woman made me fill silly as she picked the eggs up out of the water and squished and played with them. Ugh.

Then we made it to our last destination and my favorite place - a place I want to take Darryl to when he comes to visit, even though there is probably nothing to do besides snorkel, eat and drink.. but that sounds like a great place to catch up.

It's called Ko Ngai; there are no roads on the island, and it is picture perfect. Also because it is only accessible by smaller boats, it's not as touristy.

Again, this is the Thailand I have seen in my dreams.

In reflection, I made some great new friends on Lanta, but also at a point felt completely awkward and like I didn't belong. Even on a beautiful island, away from everything, you can feel doubts and miss home horribly. These are all feelings I have to look at as necessary - as one lovely person pointed out to me, it's a good sign to miss home/friends/family, because it means you have something nice to go back to.

Full set of photos here.

**Edit, I forgot to note an amazing trivia night I went to with Jana and Gen on Monday night at the Irish Embassy (yes, that's the name of the bar). We were impressed that we managed to come in 6th place, Jana was not as impressed that her 3 ciders cost 660baht.

-Erin