Brett: We were dreading the 4 hour transfer form our hotel in Patong out to Layana Resort and Spa on Koh Lanta. During the peak season, you can get a scenic speed boat transfer across from the harbour in Phuket right up to the front of the resort - a 2 hour scenic boat trip! Ah well... As we only had 2 nights over there we thought it would be good to get an early 08.00 transfer, so we can get there by lunch time and have the rest of the afternoon. May as well get the transfer over and done with! We turned up to get the transfer from the lobby expecting an old minivan, the kind you get from the airport to the hotel, but no! This was Layana’s own van, spacious, luxurious, high tech with it’s own supplies and DVD’s. Niiice...The drive was long, but the scenery was also amazing. The limestone cliffs that jut out of the ground straight up out of nothing, the same you see when you are out at Phi Phi island.
I started doing the maths...4 hour drive...picked up at 08.00... driver had to leave at 04.00, driving for 8 hours once we get there - woah. “Is he blinking a little slower than normal?” i thought. lol.
The ideal place to fly into if you were going to Layana during the low season would be flying into Krabi airport, which is only a 1 1/2 hour transfer, or in high season - speed boat or water plane transfer.
We had to get onto 2 car barges to get across to Koh Lanta. This could add up to an extra hour to the transfer if you just happen to miss the barges, but they come pretty regularly it seemed. I was told by a local that it is extremely busy during high season, you can be waiting 2 - 3 barges to get on, hence the ideal transfers by speedboat.
Koh Lanta is a sleepy little island with a main town and a few villages around the place. Coming from Patong where you get hassled as soon as you get out of the hotel, i was amazed to see Jaz walk up to a massage place, look through the list and not get “maasssssarrgee for youuuuu...” WTF!
Ok... Layana. wow... WOW! Driving down from the barge through town and past all the old dilapidated houses, stores, cars and boats you must be thinking “Where the hell are we?” But as soon as you turn down the driveway to the hotel, there is a long driveway lined with palm trees and you immediately you think “phheww...this already looks nice”
The Layana is a kid-free hotel (wooohoo!) and is simply a place to go relax, sit by the pool, drink, swim, get massages, drink, swim, drink, eat and drink....perfect!
We got a Garden View Pavilion which was just steps from the pool. The occupancy was only about 25% this time of year, so you pretty much have the place to yourself. It’s excellent! There are 44 Garden View on the property, 3 Ocean Suites and 3 Beach Suites. I had a look at the other categories, and the Ocean Suite would be my next choice - 2 story property with day bed and office on the top floor over looking the pool and ocean - heaven. The property is huge but small at the same time - make sense? It is spread out over such a large piece of land there is so much room to wander around and you don’t feel like you are on top of other people. All they have there is a pool, restaurant, the Linger Longer Spa, dive centre, library, pool side bar, tour desk and a lounge area - as I said not a lot, but on a huge block.
Not to write the Diamond Cliff’s service off...but the staff here were bloody mind readers! You have a confused look on your face like “Where is my fork”? and just like that one of the staff is standing there with a fork! Even at breakfast, i was waiting for my toast to pop up, and one of the girls was there and said she can bring my toast to me. “aaahhh...ok... i can do it myself but...ok”
“Sawadee ka (female greeting) or Sawadee krub (male greeting)” was the reply when you walked past the staff, even the garden staff. So bloody happy all the time! Why wouldn’t you though, working in paradise.
The afternoon we got there, we just plonked ourselves around the pool area. It just happened to finally fine up with some great weather for us. Sunny, hot and not a breath of air. Jaz’s nightmare!!! Bloody sunscreen application time! So by sunset Jaz had finally got ready for the pool (joking) and we just swam, lounged and drank.
Had a swim on the ocean at sunset which was amazing - the sky and water was perfect. The company wasn’t too bad either ;)
At a resort like this, there are a few restaurants in town that you could go to, but in low season about half of them are shut - so you eat in the restaurant on site. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it was pretty cheap! I alway gauge the ‘value for money‘ of a restaurant in Thailand by the price of their Spring Rolls. Any more than 200THB - it's way too pricey. lol. We had some wicked green curry and duck dishes, and a few cocktails and some...as Jaz says "Horse Dervves".
*** More to come...just need to get off our butts and finish it :P **
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