Have fun, be active. Ride a bike instead of driving
The journey from Klong Dao Beach, at the northern end of Koh Lanta, down to Bamboo Beach at the southern most tip of the island is 13 miles. After a couple of days of just lazing around, we craved both exercise and adventure, so we decided the heed the advice of explorer Dan Buettner — “Have fun, be active. Ride a bike instead of driving a car, for example.” Beach hopping the island by bike sounded like the perfect escapade for the day. Bamboo Beach is touted as having the most crystal clear waters on Koh Lanta.
Our friendly hotel staff at Lanta Mermaid got us two bikes for 40 baht ($2) each, for the day. They did however warn us, “Madam, it’s a very long way away. You have to have a good heart to ride up those hills!” I refused to be deterred. Wendy and I agree that if we don’t make it all the way down to Bamboo Bay, we’d still have fun checking out beaches and island life, away from the resort area.
Share the road
Sharing the road with scooters, tuk-tuks, cars and minivans along the island’s main thoroughfare, route 4245, was quite unnerving at times. Especially on tight curves! And yeah there’s a couple of inclines that will certainly get your heart and legs pumping! But overall, seeing the island by bike is pretty fun. Needless to say, you need to be in good shape, have plenty of water, snacks, and have your wits about you. Oh, and the air on the road is really bad so wear a face mask of some sort. We used bandanas when fumes got a bit much. It is not uncommon to see people in their front yards burning garbage.
We stopped at several beaches along the way and enjoyed the scenery and vibe at each. However, we actually did not end up making it all the way down to Bamboo Bay, on account that Wendy’s brakes totally and inexplicably locked up in between Klong Khong and Nin Beach— about 7 miles into our trek. Total bummer. But, things happen and we have to roll with it. Being that we were far from the village, it took some time to flag down a tuk-tuk. Finally, one stopped for us. As hard as we tried, we could only fit one bike and passenger. Wendy rode the tuk-tuk back to the hotel for 300 baht ($10). I followed on my bike.
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
Beach hopping & dunking
It was around 1pm by the time I got back to the hotel and apparently not too far behind the tuk-tuk. Wendy was super happy to see I made it back ok. I was super sweaty and dusty, so took a quick shower while waiting for Wendy’s new bike to arrive. At around 2pm we set back out determined to make it to Bamboo Bay. It was already late in the day by the time we got back down to Klong Nin Beach. It’s a beautiful beach, so we decided to simply chill out and take a nice long swim.
Klong Nin Beach has a handful of beach bars, so is fairly popular spot, but certainly not crowded. Very mellow vibe with great swimming conditions. This was probably one of our favorites stops on our beach hopping tour. For a brief descriptions on all of the other beaches on Koh Lanta click here.
“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
Refreshed, we got back on our bikes and made it down as far as Kantiang Bay before facing the fact that it was almost sunset and we’d still have 13-miles to slog back in semi-darkness, on a curvy road with no helmets! Had we started out at say 8am, and had no bike problems, we could have quite possibly made it down to Bamboo Bay and back before sunset. It was a good decision to head back when we did, as the traffic was now quite insane as everyone was heading back into town for dinner. Here and there we got a wave, a thumbs-up and smile from folks in tuk-tuks who had seen us (the crazy farang ladies) pedal-powering up and down the hills.
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