Last Leg of Thailand: Koh Lanta & Phuket

Suneela and I both thought that it made perfect sense to avoid the tourist crowds of Krabi and Phuket and stay on a less touristy island named Koh Lanta. Everyone told us that it’s a nice place, and we didn’t know that the island was deserted until we got there. We chose to live in a villa with a private swimming pool, but realised it’s far too inland with very few tourists living there. The only transport anywhere on the island is through a motorbike. We went around and did not find many tourists on the island. The beaches were less crowded. We had this constant thought in our head:

Are we in the wrong place?

Then we met an Indian woman who was waiting at the tourist operator we went to, and both of us were really glad to meet fellow travellers. She resonated with our sentiments that this island is less touristy and very much desolated.

The following day, Suneela and I went on an island hopping tour to Phi Phi, Maya Bay and Bamboo islands and we met a few european travellers. One traveller gave us an insight that Koh Lanta used to be a nice and a popular place before COVID and it has not recovered much since then. That made sense! During our tour, Suneela had a bout of anxiety just before her first snorkel. With some help from the tour guide, Suneela loved her first snorkelling experience and enjoyed being close to the fishes and seeing the sea life with her eyes. She enjoyed it so much that on her second snorkelling experience, she didn’t have any fear at all. She was super excited and eager to do more snorkelling.

We did face one unpleasant incident in the island trip though; Suneela dropped her phone and didn’t realise. We realised it only after a while(after the boat left the island) and immediately alerted our tour guide. She helped with the search and found the phone in the next couple of hours. We took her number and she mentioned that she will collect it and hand it to us the next day. Infact, she personally came all the way to our remote villa and gave us the phone. She even charged the phone, can you imagine? Such sweet encounters have become common in our Thailand journey.

We also found one tasty restaurant in Koh Lanta, which served this yummy Masaman curry. The owners were super helpful with us. I had to drop our friend on the scooter one day, and left Suneela in the restaurant (at around 10:30pm in the night after the restaurant closed). The owners, realising that Suneela was waiting, switched on the lights and waited with her till I came back.

Wow! We were constantly delighted with the kindness & hospitality of Thai people.

We then left the desolated but memorable Koh Lanta and reached Phuket. We obviously chose a less touristy area to stay (before we left the country to go to Vietnam). Naiyang beach was really pretty with pristine blue sea and white sand.

Thanks for reading! We would like to hear your thoughts and feedback in the comments below :)