Another beach-day in Koh Lanta. We’re definitely getting the hang of “island-time”. Breakfast (brunch?) wasn’t even until 11 AM.

View from our usual breakfast table.

After breakfast, I worked on the blog while Eron looked for a place to stay in Phuket. By the time we were computered-out, a couple of hours had already gone by. So, as it was now the strongest-sun part of the day, we headed back to our bungalow. It was officially, “hammock-time”! At around 3:30PM, we grabbed our plastic chairs and made that long, arduous 200 metre trek under the blazing sun, across a stretch of toe-curlingly hot sand, and finally reached the mercifully cooling waters of the Andaman Sea – which was actually at about body temperature or higher. Then we planted our chairs at the water’s edge, plopped ourselves into said chairs and proceeded to just watch the world go on around us;  with the heat of the sun caressing our bodies, the surge of the surf in our ears, the sight of the Celadon-green waters in front of us, those same waters lapping at our legs and feet, and the crisp smell of the salt air filling every breath… there are few better ways to spend an afternoon.

For dinner, we decided to try our luck again at the Thai Cat Pub and Restaurant. As we were walking north on the beach, we could see that quite a lightning storm was happening further north of us. It must’ve been a fair distance because we never did hear an thunder over the ever-present sound of surf. When we reached the restaurant, Eron got a table for us while I walked about 10 minutes further to get out from under the restaurant lights to try and record some images of the storm.

Lightning over Ban Saladan.

Lightning north of Long Beach.

Lots of lightning but no thunder.

Tonight, we threw caution (and our wallet) to the wind and had a “seafood feast” at the Thai Cat. On Chef’s recommendation, we had a whole Monkfish filleted and broiled in butter and garlic, two Tiger Prawns cooked in chillies and butter, and a pair of monster-sized Jumbo Prawns done in (you guessed it) more butter and garlic. The seafood came with rice and a baked potato (also liberally slathered in butter) and we added mixed vegetables stir-fried with oyster sauce. It was a LOT of food but we absolutely destroyed it! The Monkfish was so simply prepared, fresh, and delicious. The Jumbo Prawns were perfectly cooked, juicy, and buttery-garlicy-good. The veggies were uniformly crisp, fresh, and very tasty in the oyster sauce. Even the baked potato was done to perfection. The only things that made this meal a 4 out of 5 versus a “full-pull” 5 out of 5 were The Tiger Prawns and a slight hitch in the service.

Admittedly, when it comes to food, we are both very particular and can be picky – we both love to cook and can appreciate when the effort is put in and the details are cared about. Unfortunately, while the Tiger Prawns were indeed tasty, we both agreed that they were slightly over-cooked and thus had a bit of a rubbery texture to them – BBQ’ing seafood is THE specialty of the house so, it’s pretty hard to let them slide on that one. The other glitch that cost them points was the fact that our waiter needed to be asked multiple (5+) times to bring ice for our beers. Each time he would bring one glass full of ice even though we asked for a bucket of ice repeatedly. Yes, a very minor irritation. But as we give out very few “5’s”, this alone would have cost them; especially after witnessing their exemplary level of service from the previous evening. In any case, the vast majority of the food was excellent, most of the service more than acceptable, and it was a fine evening of dining on the beach. At 4 out of 5, I would (without hesitation) recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Koh Lanta.

To top it all off, while I was enjoying my after-dinner cigar; they added a “floor-show” – some of the waiters started running along the surf-line and into the edge of the water trying catch a number of skittering crabs. After a few minutes everyone, staff and patrons, was laughing at the antics.

Waiters trying to catch crabs by hand.