For our second week on Koh Lanta, we moved over to the West side of the island, which is far more built up and touristy.  We thought we would be able to walk to more things, but we quickly learned that we don’t like walking in “real feel” weather of 105 degrees F in the middle of the day and decided to, once again, rent a scooter.  Our helmets this time were even better….mine already had a big crack in it…..Oh well, we lived to tell the tale so I can’t complain.

Our hotel was cute and overrun with adorable little lizards.  There were multiple varieties of lizards, including some that looked like little iguanas.

A lizard keeping us company near the scooter parking lot at our hotel.

We saw the most amazing sunsets.

Sunset from Pangea Bar.  The photo doesn’t do it justice.  It was one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen.

Sunset from Soul Kitchen.

We found monkeys playing on the side of the road.

Coconut — its whats for dinner!

The trash situation is out of control…..We have seen worse places for trash and the trash on Koh Lanta did at least seem to largely be in certain places instead of scattered everywhere, but it always makes me want to cry when I see wild animals playing with trash.

We also took a cooking class with Taste of Lime cooking school (ok, fine, Robert learned to cook while I drank cocktails and watched yet another spectacular sunset).  While it wasn’t the best class we ever took, it was the most fun cooking class we ever took.  The host was hilarious.  And, the profits support Lanta Animal Welfare.

The appetizer.  Taste of Lime called this “Thailand in One Bite” but we’ve heard it called other things as well.  Basically, you wrap peanuts, toasted coconut, shrimp, ginger, peppers, lime, and a sugar sauce in a little leaf and pop it all into your mouth.  If you are a masochist, you can add the onion too….

All the fixings for home made penang curry paste — star anise, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, nutmeg, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime (both fruit and leaf), coriander root, chilies, shallots (gross!), and shrimp paste.

We loved our time on Koh Lanta and can’t wait to return.  And, we WILL return ….