On the boat to Koh Lanta from Phi Phi Islands we sorted out a place to stay with a girl who worked at Lanta Sunny House bungalows (600 Baht, cold water, fan, soap, toilet paper, towels, sheets), 7km from Saladan town on Koh Lanta. It was a really nice place, family owned, and with everyone being really friendly (not to mention having great food in the restaurant), but after a couple of nights we decided we wanted to be nearer to town and all the beach restaurants and things, so today we moved to Seapearl Bungalows (3km from town, 600 Baht, 50m to beach, fan, toilet paper, no soap, no towels, no top sheets). It's also family run, with (unsuprisingly) really friendly staff.

Koh Lanta is a bit of a mixture - near town it's like Koh Tao is now, plenty of life, activity, little over developed; further from town it's like Koh Tao was 5 years ago, enough restaurants and things to get by, but much quieter . The whole place is really relaxed and easy going though, which is nice.

Yesterday we wandered in to town and then back along the beach and around the headland which turned out to be almost a small island (i.e. we climbed for about 2km over stony ground only to come out 50m from where we had started - oh well :)). Visited the small bungalow place where Kristina had stayed 10 years ago to find it turned into a large resort complex with pool and everything. Stopped for a fine BBQ tuna dinner on the way home at Moonwalk Restaurant (right on the beach, literally), where the BBQ guy is fully excellent - warmly recommended (he's opening a new place further down the beach at the end of the year with bungalows and massage and everything, as well as the restaurant, so we may look him up next time we're here).

Tomorrow we're going diving - first time with a different company & on this side of Thailand. We've heard good things, so it will be exciting to see...