Travelman in Thailand Chapter 7: - My Hostel on Ko Lanta and a different kind of Buffet on the Island

Ko Lanta is my Favorite Island so far in Thailand. It's laid back and an easy place to lounge around in a bean bag at the beach hostel.

Somebody lose a shoe? ...No? ...Anybody?

I spent my first night in a bungalow, my previous post was a vlog detailing that experience. My second and third night has been at Hey Beach Hostel. It's been great. It's at the beach, they have an acoustic guitar, free white bread with butter and jam for toast, and free tea, drinking water, and instant coffee (I don't know what Thailand has against drip coffeemakers! It's instant coffee or espresso at a restaurant or nothing. Is Mr. Coffee outlawed here? What gives?), This morning I awoke to find an extra bonus in the kitchen area, free bananas! It's also the first hostel I've found with a refrigerator, a toaster, and a toaster oven. I haven't used them, but they're available so I'll be sitting pretty if I find a tub of ice cream and supplies to make pizza bagels

Here's a pic outside my dorm room at sunset. At the end of this driveway the young woman walks on is the reception/lounge/kitchen area.

There's a bar beyond it on the beach. When I say a bar, I mean only a bar. I thought it was the back storage area between the reception area and beach, but there's a wooden bar there and they put out lawn chairs.

Travelman's Travel Tip number seven: If you sit in one of the plastic chairs on the beach in front of the bar at the Hey Beach Hostel, they make you buy a drink. Travelman suggests bringing your own chair and sittting beyond the bar closer to the water if you don't want a drink. Travelman does not know where you'll obtain your own chair while backpacking though.

Last night I was bored so I walked 2km to what was described online as "the backpacker area." It was as quiet and void of nightlife as the non-back packer area. The walk worked up an appetite so I sat down at a buffet on the side of the road. Other than one Caucasian couple, everyone there was local. At this particular buffet, you cooked your own food at your table.

Here's two pics I took surreptitiously of other families, like a paparazzi...

This couple looked unhappy, like they were fighting. They didn't speak to one another as far as I could see. I've seen an equal amount of couples enjoying themselves and looking like they want to murder their significant other on this trip...

The restaurant brings a round aluminum steamer cooker out to your table. I think they put hot coals under the cooking part of it. After ordering my water I got up to select from the buffet. I quickly realized that I didn't know what anything was. The choices were all labeled, in Thai. I chose what I believe was beef as my meat, some vegetables, a noodle medley (which I later realized was a finished salad that didn't require further cooking after all), and a couple other things that looked safe to include in my concoction.

All the photos at the restaurant were taken with the crappy camera on my cheap phone, so they're a bit out of focus...

The pot had a raised and vented area in the middle surrounded by a ring of steaming water. The server provided you with a tea kettle of extra hot water as well.

I didn't know how to cook it. I didn't want my meat to be boiled, but I saw no other way to prepare it. I looked at the other tables to cheat off of their methods. They had the meat laying on the center vents. I figured that would only steam the meat... I ended up making a slop like gruel that I forced myself to eat. It smelled like fish, even though as far as I knew, I didn't put any fish in it. I'd also added too much spice, plus I chose to put the spiciest Thai salad I've ever tasted on my plate, so I sat there sweating and wiping my nose as I ate. A gentleman from a family at another table looked over at me with amusement.

As I ate, my cooker began to turn dark brown/black inside. The remnants of my stew were beginnning to burn and smoke, I poured more water in the ring, but the center part continued to burn. I looked around, no one else's ring was turning black and smoking like a tire fire. I didn't know how I was going to cook a second round in my smelly burnt ring and didn't want to meet the Ko Lanta Fire Department that night, so I didn't touch it anymore. Consequently, I ended up eating three helpings of the pre-prepared luke-warm fried rice, and three bowls of ice-cream (chocolate chip and chocolate.)

It was a great experience all in all, and cleared my sinuses.

Next Post- I get on my bad motor scooter and ride!