Ferry to Koh Lanta

We pulled ourselves out of bed at 7am to pack our things and head to the Awana Porto Pier, just a few kilometres down the road.

We arrived at the terminal with 15 minutes to spare, purchased our tickets and instantly began wondering how we would go about getting our bikes on board the small boat at the pier that was meant to take us out to the ferry awaiting us in the middle of the bay.

The winds were already strong, the pier was moving beaneath me and the boat looked as though it might sink with the combined weight of us and our bikes but we managed to get them on and make it out to the ferry without too much trouble. Next was the hard part. liftting the bikes onto the ferry (almost 2 metres higher) from from the little boat. Climbing up the railing I quickly did the math and figured that there was about a 40-50% chance that we'd (the bike, gear and I) end up the water, but with a bit of luck, we both made it on.

The night we arrived in Langkawi the locals told us that the wind had arrived and wouldn't leave for at least a week, and it was telling when we got out into the open ocean. After five hours of swaying from side to side on the wind torn waves, a couple of stop off's at small islands and a whole lot of stomach squelching, we finally arrived. Well at least that was what I thought. But apparently, from what we could make out (nobody spoke any English) we had to board another ferry, which was two boats across from us.

Another two hours later and we had finally arrived in Thailand. We got off the boat looked around at the beautiful ocean and reallised that we were on a stunningly picturesque remote island, and smiling to each other we pedalled down the pier and found the two biggest and most delicious mango smoothies we have ever had. We were starving and the food we ate soon after made all the funny tummy business dissipate quickly.

We then found a motorbike wash with a high pressure hose, borrowed the hose from the completely baffled attendant and washed all the salty water from our bikes and re-lubed them. Getting back on our bikes the difference was incredible, they felt better than ever, and the mechanical gremlins I'd been putting up with before had dissapeared. amazing!!

After getting lost and then finally finding our way we got to the bargain Kaw Kwang resort at about 7pm, only to be told that our reservation had not worked and that we couldn't stay. After hearing this I jumped on the internet and soon after Shanna took off on her bike to look down the street for somewhere to stay. She soon came back with bad news, they were all super expensive. But luckily for us during this time someone else cancelled, leaving us set to stay for three nights. We threw our bikes in the room, ripped off our clothes and eased our tired bodies into the beautiful pool facing the sandy beach. With a couple of ice cold sprites, we layed back, washed the sweat from our faces and decided that life couldn't get any better...