An escapade to the sea
again. This time a shorter one
Following, among several other things, the change of seasons and overall unhelpful geography of the region surrounding The Best Town On Earth, we took a swift dash towards the coast. And by swift, I mean it took us about two days to get to Lanta island in Krabi province by means of two flights and a reasonably short ride on a minivan, combined with a ride on a car ferry from the continent to the islands. There are actually two air carriers that have direct two hour long flights from Chiang Mai to Krabi, but we’ve missed the opportunity with one (there is only one direct flight per day and it’s elusive and highly popular) and we did not like the traveling time offered by the other (first flight required us to be in the airport at 4 a.m. and the second one arrived around 9 p.m. which then would make us stay overnight in Krabi town due to car ferry being closed). So obvious bottom line — plan your trips beforehand.
Thus we took a segmented path to our final destination — first to Bangkok and from there next day to Krabi. This option provided me with the opportunity to visit the largest book store in the country, which I promptly took and subsequently had to exercise considerable willpower in order not to tear apart my already stuffed backpack. I also visited a large book fair but being English speaker (or more importantly reader), I had not profited as much from it, unlike hundreds of Thais I’ve seen in the convention center and it’s MRT station.
On the downside, one day in the capital gave me an unrivaled opportunity of having an unusually close contact with tons of people as well, since I managed to get into public transport at about 5 p.m. I was not lucky enough to have a dinner of hummus with chicken kebab and ayran as well, but one could not have everything. However, I got three books two of which we read and discussed as per usual.
Some time before noon next day we were already in the Suvarnabhumi airport (NB! Traveling just after or around 10 a.m. makes the MRT and airport link train half empty). Even though it was more than a week before Songkran (former Thai New Year, now widely popular national holiday), the airport was packed and coming earlier proved to be good idea.
I rather like air travel and even though this flight was a bit bumpy, the views were gorgeous and once more I could not help but feel amazed in what probably is naive and childish way.
Soon after the landing we were surrounded and efficiently maneuvered to buy non-refundable tickets for a two hour minivan ride from the airport to our hotel followed up by “now you have to wait here as the van will start one hour later” with what, on subsequent reading, proved to be not the greatest option. We had to cut our losses and hired a grab car, and got another minivan for the two of us. Now I have to admit that throughout our vagabondage in the region we’ve seen a lot of minibuses, and this one was at least one level up: it had less seats (and thus they were wider, comfier ones), it has a well functioning air-con and usable seat belts, but as a huge and not very talkative cherry on top, was the driver — I’ve never had such a calm ride in this country: I think he only accelerated above 50 km/h to overtake one or two cars we encountered and did not take any risky maneuvers at all. He told us straightaway that the ride will take around two hours (similar time with the above mentioned option) for the 80 or so kilometers, including a queuing up for and a twenty-ish minute ride on a ferry and we were paying for that one too. We were lucky as we were able to board a boat without additional wait and it was a bigger one with shaded seats. It was a nice and breezy ride across the strait and not much later we were at the reception desk of the hotel.
April turned out to be the beginning of the low season and both the hotel and the beach were almost empty. There are several options for more active stay on Lanta: diving and snorkeling trips to nearby spots (if you are lucky enough, you could see whale sharks and manta rays among other sea life), several beaches, a national park and a lighthouse on the southernmost part of the island. Here is a good post with further info on what to do on Lanta. But ours was the Path of the Seal and accordingly we’ve found some food (in local Irish pub) and spent the rest of the day seating on the beach, watching a few humans humaning and sun setting.
We’ve stayed there for almost a week, true to our objectives and never strayed to activities more demanding than a walk on a beach. Unlike some other islands, we have encountered only three or four dogs but a lot of cats, and most of the animals did not give a damn, so walking around was easier and less stressful. The food was good, the scenery lovely and the prices surprisingly affordable for the seaside in general. We enjoyed the fresh air and swimming (or rather waddling) and took refuge in the room around noon with the books. From now till further notice, Lanta is my favourite island to visit over Phuket, or Samui, or Chang.
The three books I bought in Bangkok were “When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi, “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking, and “The Drunkard’s Walk” by Leonard Mlodinow. I also brought another book from Chiang Mai (“Bad Astronomy” by Philip Plait) on an off chance of not finding anything good (yeah, that was a long shot: on my entering the hotel room after shopping in Bangkok with only one, mildly full bag of books, my spouse remarked that he had expected me drag in two large strip carry bags). It turned out that our hotel on Lanta had a library of sorts, more like a bookcase with rather typical content: detectives and romance and drama, most of them in European languages I do not know. And anyway, I never felt particular need to justify purchasing books.
“When Breath Becomes Air” is not a typical book I am interested in (kind of autobiography, but not only that), nevertheless I enjoyed it — the content is exceptional and I found the writing to be perfect, so I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who can read and is a human. I think I’ve said the same about Robert Sapolsky’s “Behave” but this one is a differently worthy read (and much shorter one). As for the “The Drunkard’s Walk”, it’s amusing and amazing, instructive and informative on a topic I came to know about recently — randomness and it’s quirks, and how we are very bad in understanding it intuitively. I have just started on Hawking’s book so nothing to say on it, even though I know of its value and position in pop-sci book world. As for the “Bad Astronomy”, I was almost through with it before the trip but was more intrigued with the new books so this one will have to wait.
