Next stop? Paradise!

We couldn’t really be bothered to leave Koh Lanta as we really enjoyed it but before we knew it we’d spent a week there and we wanted to see more so we jumped on a boat to Koh Kradan, a smaller quieter island two and a half hours away - needless to say when we were sold the ticket they said it took 80 mins, clearly he meant 180mins but by this point we’ve learnt to just get on the first mode of transport and just see what happens! It was fab as the speedboat had been fully booked we got a slower boat (crap) but there was only 6 of us on it, all up on the top deck, enjoying the view and the sunshine. Lush, and only Ed and I headed to our Island... a sign of the quiet island to come.
Koh Kradan is one of the Trang Islands in the very far south of Thailand. We’d called ahead to book a room as there are only four beach resorts/hotels on Koh Kradan so we didn’t want to leave it to chance with no easy way off the island. We jumped off the boat through the sea and onto the beach-no pier here! And walked up to the hotel on the beach, a guy greeted us looking pretty surprised to see two folks with rucksacks, asking if we had a booking we said yes, that we’d called two days ago and this is what we’d been quoted blah blah..the conversation then proceeded as follows
”I have no rooms” came his response
“ah” said Ed and I in unison.
“... so where can we stay?”,
“we have a room tomorrow night”,
“Lovely but that’s no help to us now, where else can we try?”
And he grunted and pointed to his left and behind him, try “Kalume and Paradise Lost”.
We are so bloody English Ed and I, what we should have done is said OK, your cock up, please can you call them and see if they have availability. Instead I left Ed with the bags as I ran off to check the rooms. Just as I started towards the first bungalows the heavens opened and I was completely drenched, quite funny in hindsight but at the time, it just kind of added to my annoyance! Anyhow long story short, fourty minutes later I found us a really nice bungalow, far superior to the one we had booked and less expensive. A wooden bungalow but sturdy and solid with the best bathrooms we’ve seen “since Jenny and Matt’s the morning we flew” Ed claimed!
We checked in and had a yummy dinner at the bungalows, chilled out and read up on where we could go after the next stop (Railey).

The following morning the weather was awesome and we were up and about at eight (earliest non travelling day!) We grabbed some snorkelling bits and headed to the South Beach, amazing. We were the first people on the beach and had a great time swimming out to see the fishes. Very scary looking sea urchins and amazing Angel fish.

South Beach

Back to the beach for some sunbathing and then off to the other beach on the other side of the island (ten minute walk) for lunch. Now we are talking idyllic, after lunch we walked along towards the end of the beach, away from the couple of hotels and we had 200 metres one side and 800 metres the other before we reached a person. The sea here is Aqua, the island is surrounded by other islands and Karts in the distance jutting out into the sea. It was the most perfect afternoon, out of some kind of dream. I even got a little annoyed with myself for falling asleep on the beach as I felt i’d wasted my time not soaking it all in!
Pure bliss. We desperately wanted to stay another night but with no ATM and hotels not taking credit card we had to get off the island ; (
Luckily for us, the weather turned the next morning so it would have been a wasted day anyhow as the wind krept up and the sky turned grey.
We headed on to Railey 5 hours away on another longer than quoted boat trip!

Amazing water

Amazing beard