.png)
Let me start by saying that I am obsessed with the island of Ko Lanta. It sits on the beautiful coast of the Andaman Sea in southern Thailand and is full of coral-fringed beaches, mangroves, limestone cliffs, and rainforests - so basically any nature-lovers dream. It's one of the quieter and less traveled of the islands in Thailand, which makes trying the most thrilling Thai transportation, motorbikes, a perfect island to test your skills on. Which leads me to my story...
I like to call our stay in Ko Lanta as "the time when two idiots rent a motorbike". I think that phrase accurately sums up our time on the island. We were on Ko Lanta for less than 24 hours which meant we didn't have much time to explore the island. By the time we got to our hotel, it was already past dinner time. We grabbed dinner from a restaurant a few blocks down from our house and spent the rest of the night relaxing in the hammocks on the deck of our bungalow over the sea in Old Town. Since we were leaving the island in the afternoon the next day, we decided that we would rent a motorbike and explore what we could of the island in the morning.
The motorbike rental shop next to our house doubled as a restaurant. Totally normal. Two guys approached us and gave us the hourly price for the rental and to get our information. They told us they would need one of our passports as collateral. Which leads me to one of my rules of international travel: NEVER leave you passport as collateral. Your passport is your identity in a foreign country and how you get home.
After about 10 minutes of me trying to get them to make a copy of my passport or take my US driver’s license, I finally succumbed to the pressure. I reluctantly left my passport with them. Insert gasps, 'oh-no's', and you idiot. For the record, I did break the rules but everything ended up okay.
We were given a 2-minute, less than thorough run through of how the bike worked. After spending about a minute arguing about who was going to drive because I had never driven one before and didn't want to make a fool out of myself in front of people, I hopped on back of the motorbike and Jacey took off down the street. We were cruising down one of the main roads on the island when our motorbike started to slow down until it made a complete stop. We weren't sure what was wrong. The gas tank said it was about a quarter full, so we didn't think we were out of gas. Jacey and I each tried to start the bike up a few times but the gas wouldn't kick. We decided to walk the bike back down the road about 1/4 of a mile to a gas pump that we had passed on the side of the road.
Once we got to the gas pump, we just stood there and stared at it because it's all in Thai. I think we stared at the gas pump and fumbled with trying to figure out where the gas tank access was on the bike for a solid 5 minutes before a man, in nothing but his underwear and his welcoming smile, came down from his house to help us out. Although he didn’t speak English, he was able to show us where the gas tank was and how to work the gas pump. We thanked the man and tried to start the bike back up, but it wouldn't start. After numerous failed attempts to start the bike, the man decided to try. A few attempted later, he was able to get the bike started up. He was trying to tell us that the bike was broken, but we couldn't make out what he was trying to tell us. Again, we thanked him and went on our way.
We drove a few miles down the road and towards the west coast before Jacey pulled over to let me drive. To get a feel for the bike, I told Jacey that I was going to drive down the road for a little bit without her, then turn around and come back. I hopped on the front of the bike and tried to start the bike up. But again, the bike wouldn't start. Another man saw us struggling, so he came down from his house to help us out. The man spoke some English and we were able to figure out that he was telling us that the bike was “shitty” and broken - exactly what the first man was trying to tell us.
He used his broken English to tell us and his hands show us that there was a specific way you had to hold the clutch and pump the gas to get the bike to start. After about 10 tries, I was able to get the bike started. I took off down the road. When I reached the bottom of the hill, I tried to turn around. I slowed bike down to make the turn, but I ended up coming to a screeching halt just before I plowed into a line of trees. I sat on the bike laughing about how embarrassingly unsuccessful my turn around was. I got off the bike, turned it around, and tried to start it back up to go back and pick Jacey up. After sitting on the bike trying to get it started for what felt like 5 minutes, I got the bike started and drove back up the hill.
Once I got back to them and stopped the bike, the bike shut off completely. That's when we realized the bike was going to shut off every time we came to a complete stop. After more unsuccessful attempts to start the bike, the man was able to get the bike started back up for us. We thanked him and took off down the road towards the coast.
As we’re cruising towards the west coast, I was starting to get more comfortable with the bike. The only thing I was feeling a little nervous about was turning the bike. After my prior failed turn around, I was cautious about every turn. Even the slightest curve seemed to required a lot of force to get the wheels to turn. About a 1/4 mile down the road, I could see a big right curve coming up. Getting closer and closer, I started to become more nervous because of the inconsistency with the bike and my lack of experience. As I started to turn the bike to meet the curve, the bike stopped turning. Quickly realizing that I wasn't going to get the bike to turn, I grabbed both breaks to aggressively to stop us from going off the edge of the cliff. The bike came to a screeching halt just a few feet before the ledge of a cliff that went straight down onto a rocky beach.
We sat there for a few seconds in shock, then starting laughing uncontrollably out of relief. Somehow, we managed to avoid seriously injuring or even killing ourselves. After a few minutes of recollecting ourselves and our thoughts, I started the bike back up and cautiously drove down the road. For some reason, Jacey still trusted me to drive the bike. If the roles were reversed I would have banned her from driving.
As we were driving down the coast, we weren't seeing any beach access so we decided to pull over where we saw a few tents and other motorbikes. We parked the bike and walked towards the beach but were stopped by a ledge. In the distance on the beach we could see a large object, so our curious selves decided to walk towards it to find out what it was. The closer we got, the more apparent it became that it was a HUGE dead snake. The snake has been slit and tied off at the neck. That was enough for us to decide that we wanted nothing to do with this beach. We went back to the bike and headed north to find better beach access.
Driving further up the coast, we started to see signs for public beach access. We finally saw the dirt drive to the left that would lead us to the beach access. As we drove down the dirt path, we saw the crystal clear water peacefully hitting the beach that we had been searching for. For a day without a plan and a map, we ended up finding one of the most beautiful beaches on Ko Lanta, Khlong Khong Beach.
We spent a little time walking the beach and climbing the rocks, but had to start our journey back to the bike rental shop. The only way I could turn the around bike was wait for a break in traffic and run across the street to put the bike facing the direction we needed to go. So, that's exactly what I did. Once we got across the street, Jacey jumped on the back and we took off down the coast.
As we’re driving down the road, we got passed by another woman on a motorbike. Not too long after she passed us, she went to turn right into the parking lot of a convenience store. As she was turning, a car in the other lane was slowing down to turn into the parking lot as well. She turned right in front of the car and hit it head on. She bounced off the front of the car and onto the pavement, taking the cars front bumper with her. The woman laid stunned on the pavement for less than two seconds before she jumped up, grabbed her bike, and sped off. We sat on our bike stopped on the road with about five other cars, all in disbelief about what just happened. The driver of the car that the woman hit parked his car at the convenience store, walked out onto the road, and picked up his bumper. Once the driver safely got back to the parking lot, we restarted our trip back to the motorbike shop.
Somehow, we made it safely back to the bike shop and managed to return the bike back in one piece. The guys gave me my passport back and made sure to point out that all my pages were still in the book. We thanked them then got a cab to make the trip to the pier to catch a shared van to the Krabi Airport to spend the next couple of days at Khao Sok National Park.
Until the next adventure...