Day 39 - Wednesday, March 23 - Travel to Ko Lanta

Woke at 7AM and brought my bags across the street to Olawan's place. I paid a little extra baht in order to take a private car from Pak Bara to Trang so I could catch the earliest bus from Trang to Lanta. If I didn't pay extra and took the scheduled mini-bus, I wouldn't have been able to leave Pak Bara until 2:30P and the connection in Trang cuts it close sometimes. It was well worth the $5.25 extra.

Olawan took me in the songthaew to a little mini-mart in town where she gave me over to the driver who would take me all the way to Trang. I thanked her, said goodbye to Tam, and was on my way.

Got to Trang at about 10:30A and as I got out of the little black car, I heard someone calling my name. I thought I was hallucinating from the exhaust that was pumping into the car the entire way from Pak Bara to Trang. I looked across the street and there was Logan. They missed the connection in Trang yesterday and had to stay overnight. The bus they were taking to Lanta was about to leave and it was full so I had to wait til 12:30P for the next one. I waved them off, told them to get themselves to Miami and I would see them later.

Two hours later, I was waiting in line on the mini-bus to get on the ferry to Ko Lanta Noi. It felt great to be on my way home. The ferry came pretty quickly and as we crossed over Ko Lanta Noi and as we approached the ferry to Ko Lanta Yai, I was real excited to be back.

As I got out of the mini-bus at Miami, I got a very warm welcome from the staff. Even the lady who I had the argument with a few weeks earlier was happy to see me. I got my bungalow, put my bags down, and ran into the Easau's whos bungalow was right next to mine. Saw Dave and Katie. Saw Natalie. Saw Barry and Nathan and Aisha. Nothing seemed to change. I was home. Dia and Mong were excited to see me as they thought it was going to be a whole year before I came back.

The Esau's and I rented bikes and I took them on a tour of the island. Les rode on the back of Marlow and Logan and I had our own. They had a blast and coudn't thank me enough for bringing them to Lanta. They definitely liked Lipe better and I'm beginning to think the same.

Back at Miami, I chatted with Dave and then joined the Esau's for dinner at Miami. Watched the fire show at 10P, Les and Marlow went to bed, and Logan and I went on a bike ride south. There's nothing better than riding a motorbike, in the dark, 60 or 70 km/h, on the roads of Ko Lanta with the night wind in your face. Heading back to Miami, we decided to continue south and we rode all the way to Sala Din. The town was locked up tight and on the way back to Miami, we stopped to hear a local Thai band at this street side bar. He asked for requests, we said Bob Marley. He played the only song her knows, "Redemption Song" and he did a fine job. After that, he sung "Stairway to Heaven" and after those 2 songs and a Chang each, we moved on. We then found the Reggae House. This is quite possibly the coolest bar I've ever seen. It's basically a giant treehouse with multi-levels and reggae paraphernalia all over the place. It's all made from natural trees and logs and it's pretty great.
We talked with the bartender all about the place, his love for reggae, and how cool his bar was.

It was late, I was exhausted and it was time to get back on the bikes and get to Miami so I could get some sleep. Once again, a great day, even though some of it was spent traveling.