If so, please avoid this post.
Oddly enough, even though we didn't get to bed until well after 3:30am, we got up at 9:30 and headed to the restaurant across the street to get breakfast. We started the day with a vegetable omelet, mushroom omelet, banana pancakes, juice, and coffee. The best part? There were monkeys helping in the kitchen! (They were helping in the same way that I used to "help" my mother in the kitchen and was inevitably in the way and stole a bunch of food before it actually hit the table.)
These caramelized bananas were the cat's pajamas!
After breakfast, we were determined to make it to the tip of the island. We had jokingly called our vacation the "Just the Tip Trip" because we were only going to the lower tips of Thailand. And because of this, we were determined to make it to the tip of Koh Lanta!
We drove and drove and about an hour later after driving through mountains and hills where the gradient of the road reached 19%, we arrived at the tip: Moo Koh Lanta National Park. It cost 200B each for us to get in plus 20B for the moped. 620B lighter, we headed down into the park.
This was the steepest mountain I've ever driven down. It was a whopping 22% gradient! For my skiers out there, that's like driving a moped down a blue square. Now, as comfortable as I am slapping two pieces of wood to my feet and sliding down this, driving it is a whole different story. I didn't get to see the beautiful sites on either side of the bike because even though I was breaking at 100% the entire time, the bike was picking up speed and smoke and steam was starting to come from the tires and engine.
Unless my mom is reading, in which case: we went down a little boop of a hill and arrived safely at the bottom.
It was all worth it when we got to the bottom.
A picture is worth a thousand words... so I'll leave that here:
This was the sandy beach (as opposed to the rocky beach)
Showing off atop the mountain
I was determined to reach the tip
I did it!
"Strike a pose"
The rocks on this outcropping looked absolutely incredible
Amanda wanted in on my swing time
My mother taught me that sharing is caring
One cutie on a swing
Two cuties on a swing
Two gangsters on a swing
Whenever someone was laughing like this on the trip, it's because I'm awkward. Whenever someone needs something funny said, I always screw up and say something completely un-funny. Thankfully my friends think me screaming things like: "THE AMERICAN HOUSING MARKET IS CRASHING!" is absolutely hilarious.
I am the girl with the dragon tattoo!
Vacation Genie is merely regular Genie who has stolen Vacation Amanda's hat.
THE AMERICAN HOUSING MARKET IS CRASHING
Ok. A real selfie now.
We weren't allowed to take rocks from the park. So I took many photos of this one.
And this one.
And also this one.
And this one. Wait. That's Amanda. I get to bring this one home.
We found a small cave on the rocky beach and took many photos from within it.
Amanda did not want to come in the cave
I was determined to climb on every odd rock.
You can really see the difference between the rocky and sandy beaches in this picture.
Look at the color of that water!
Sea lice are jelly fish larvae (little bastards) floating in the waters of the Andaman Sea that sting anything in their paths.
We were in the path.
OUCH!
When we were done being stung and taking beautiful pictures, we headed off and made a brief stop for a view atop a nearby mountain.
The girls were slightly confused when I brought the bike to a halt at the height of the hill, but it was an easy explanation: when you're driving through mountains on bad roads with three humans on one bike, you don't get to enjoy the view. I merely wanted a moment to put the image in my mind.
We zipped off a minute later and headed off to Old Town. We wanted dinner at our favorite coffee shop as it was our last evening on Koh Lanta.
However, when we arrived an hour later, we found the coffee shop closed! It was rather logical that a coffee shop wouldn't be open for dinner, but we were all disappointed. We instead went to another place down the road. It had very promising views based on where it was in comparison to our favorite coffee shop.
We were disappointed with nothing. The view was spectacular. We got treated to a double rainbow over the sea's horizon! And the food and service were, as always, flawless.
The tables were made from Singer sewing tables!
Prawns wrapped in egg roll wrappers and fried: flawless.
These were like adult Pop Tarts. They were problematically delicious.
Amanda ordered a soft-shell crab that I will dream of for the rest of my life.
Roxi ordered a Greek salad even though we got Greek the night before? It was still delicious.
Another one of these bad boys. The blonde ones were bananas wrapped and fried. The dark ones were a pudding that was wrapped and fried. Both were served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.
Not a shabby view
for some cute pictures
of cute humans
who like each other
and also these two weirdos.
We were trying to take it all in. We knew it was our last night in Koh Lanta. We were all ... miserably depressed at the prospect of our plans for the rest of the trip: a van to the Krabi bus station, another bus to Surat Thani, and then a train up to Bangkok. This would total us about 2 days worth of travel that we weren't going to be here...
I was two bites into my main course when I had an idea.
I immediately brightened.
I refused to tell the others why until I'd done some quick research.
*Googles*: "flights from Krabi Airport to Bangkok Airport
*Google Result*: "Same price as your bus/van/train fiasco but it doesn't leave until Tuesday?"
I looked up from my phone, beaming.
"Guys. I've got a scathingly brilliant idea."
We finished the rest of our meal in a buzz of excitement. We needed to check in with our hostess and see if she had rooms available, but otherwise we were mentally set: we were staying on Koh Lanta for an extra two nights!
How do you celebrate news like this? Because we went and got massages! Roxi opted for an oil massage and Amanda and I got Thai Massages.
Post massages, we headed back to the hotel and found Noy. She was beyond thrilled that two rooms would be booked out for another 2 nights. She said not to worry about paying right away (because this is Thailand and also because she had my passport tucked away somewhere) and that we should all go to bed.
Instead, we Google Hangout-ed my mother and booked flights from Krabi to Bangkok.
... and then we went to bed.
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