Was talking to a girl in a bar and the conversation came around to what other places in Thailand had I visited other than Pattaya. I rattled off a short list – Bangkok, Phitsanulok, Nakhon Si Thammaratt, Phuket, Koh Samui, Had Yai, Korat, and a few others. She asked me if I had ever been to Koh Larn. I told her “No” and she told me she had never been either.
Well that did it. I immediately invited her to go the next day. She was beside herself and, at first, did not believe me. I promised her that I was telling her the truth. She came home with me and spent the night and the next morning we grabbed some breakfast and booked our day trip.
We only had to wait about 15 minutes and were escorted to a meeting place near Beach Road. It was within walking distance and we were there in about as long as it takes to smoke a cigarette. A few more folks joined us and about 10 minutes later, we were heading for the beach to meet our boat.
We were taken down to the water and a long boat was waiting for us. It was very narrow – just enough room to sit 2 across. There were about 15 of us in the boat and it could have held twice as many.
We chugged out to a square pier about 15 minutes from shore. This was the para-sailing station was. I wanted no part of this and neither did the young lady with me. We just sat and watched the others on their 30-second trip that cost about 10 dollars.
From there we embarked on a two-story boat. This one had a covered area and a place to sit topside along with some room in the back of the boat. About 30 of us were on this leg of the trip. The ship chugged along at a nice, slow pace and after about 45 minutes we were nearing Koh Larn.
Another small boat came out to meet us and this one had a covered, glass bottom. After we got closer to the island, we removed the wooden covers on the glass and made an attempt to see the coral bottom. But, the water was a bit murky and we could barely make out the bottom of the water. So, we headed for shore.
Since this little trip was impromptu, my girl didn’t have any proper beach attire – so I got her a bathing suit, shower cap and a pair of flip-flops – all for about 10 dollars. We found a nice spot on the beach and picked out a couple of beach chairs (50 cents for the whole day’s use) and staked out our turf. There were a few vendors but they didn’t pester us much.
We were offered some of the paid activities – walking underwater, snorkeling, banana boat riding and a few others – not expensive – but really had nothing that I wanted other than to lounge on the beach. So, we just played in the water a bit and relaxed on the beach chairs for about an hour.
Then it was time for lunch. We were served soup, fried rice, fish and a few other Thai dishes and for some strange reason – french fries. The food was bland but edible. There was an Indian family in our group and they had a special meal because of their religion that looked a lot better than ours.
After lunch we walked around a bit, checked out the souvenir shops and went back to our beach chairs. Lounged a bit, played in the water and then it was time for a quick shower and back on the glass bottom boat for the return to Pattaya beach.
The glass bottom boat took us back out the bigger boat and we headed back to Pattaya. The girl I was with took out her cell phone and surprised me by dialing in some music on her FM radio. She had earphones and we each used one and listened to some soft rock while making our way back to the beach at Pattaya.
We slowly made our way back with a nice breeze and spectacular view. A few hundred yards from shore we were once again met by the long, skinny boat and made our way to shore.
All in all, a very pleasant day and the total cost for the two of us was 20 dollars. Amazing Thailand.