Low Season

A couple of weeks ago in Ko Lanta there was a big storm that tore apart the coast and many of the hotels, bungalows and bars along the coast as well. Ko Lanta is usually much quieter than places like Bangkok and Phuket but with the storm and being in the middle of low season, Ko Lanta is dead.(In Thailand, the low season is between May and October, when the monsoon is supposed to be here, it's not here yet). As a result of the storm and low season, there hasn't been much effort to clean up the trash on the beaches or to repair the broken places. We were hoping to spend some quiet days in Ko Lanta relaxing in beach chairs and drinking beers but with most things closed we settled for store bough beer sitting in the sand. (Arguably, still not a bad way to live.)

We booked our accommodation in Ko Lanta online and chose the place because of it's good reviews (7.7/10) and low price (400 BHT/$12.54 per night). Our room is a bungalow room with a fan. Here is a picture from the internet:

Unfortunately the room we were given, looked nothing like the picture online. Our room had a wooden floor with holes in it that were covered with tape. Two of the windows had screens on them that were half heartedly repaired with tape that didn't stick or cover the holes. We had a mosquito net that was made for a 7 year old girls room, again with holes partly covered with stickers. The bathroom had a giant ant hill mound on the floor and the bathroom was attached to the back of the room as an after thought meaning that it wasn't enclosed and mosquitoes swarmed in while on the toilet or taking a shower. The whole place smelled foully of mold and was significantly hotter than anywhere else. Janelle was a real trooper and put up with the room for two days without complaining. In the middle of the second night we awoke to something large crawling next to our heads and decided we should upgrade our room for our final night in Ko Lanta. We upgraded our room (300 BHT/$9.41) to an A/C room which looks like the one in the picture above we got one like in the picture, without holes in the floors where creepy crawlies could attack us in our sleep.