Invisible to the eye but omnipresent, the goddess Bastet briefly visited the ferry to gift us with that encounter:

The ferry Pattaya - Ko Lan was swaying from side to side, and it was difficult to stay on foot at times. But I somehow managed to take a series of photographs of that cat.

Soon another cat appeared, also a male, of orange color. He was busy and paid zero attention to attempts to communicate with him.

He kept pretending to be not sweet at all until Wanut grabbed him for my cat photo collection: https://www.instagram.com/cats_in_streets

That's how we knew that he wasn't a businessman but a cat.

In half an hour after leaving the pier in Pattaya, we were approaching the Ko Lan shores, brightly lit by the morning sun...

Ko Lan (Ko Larn) on Google maps

That's how our trip to Ko Lan island started on April 14, 2024.

Renting a Motorbike on Ko Lan

They have songthaews on Ko Lan, plying between the main pier and beaches, and that's awesome for visitors.

That's what Thais call songthaews if you don't know:

However, we had an intention to rent a motorbike.

At the vicinity of the pier, they asked 300 baht (8$) for a motorbike starting from around 7:30 am and until 2 pm. That restriction "until 2 pm" was weird to me but, then, I recollected the size of the island (5 km long and 2 km wide) and decided "okay". The full gas tank was included so we considered the price fine.

Driving a Motorbike on Ko Lan

Wanut has a good experience of driving, much longer and, most importantly, fresher than my own, so he was the driver. And I was happy with that since the roads of Ko Lan are winding, steep, and abundant with first-time drivers.

If you want to visit all the viewpoints, you should prepare to travel such slopes all the time.

Thanks to the authorities, the roads are covered with rough cobblestones which makes the driving experience better.

Viewpoints

That's where we went first.

The place is called the Windmill Viewpoint.

Another beautiful view from Tawaen Beach Lookout:

Then, we went even higher:

Giant Buddha viewpoint. Wanut wanted another viewpoint but I asked to stop this endless pursuit of viewpoints and we set out to have a walk along a beach.

Tien Beach. The Bantigue Tree

Let's zoom in to see how good beaches of Ko Lan.

Aaamazing! 😀

Adorable water and sand. In April, it wasn't that much busy on the beaches (at 10 am though).

I especially loved one detail on the beaches of Ko Lan. The bantigue tree (in the image above and below).

When I saw it, I thought of two things: juniper tree and bonsai. These trees grow right from the sand or rocks and have gorgeous trunks.

I found the name: the bantigue (Pemphis acidula). The natural distribution area is the Indian and Pacific oceans, from Reunion to Tahiti. And, as it turned out, it's popular as a bonsai plant; I collected seeds to try growing it.

As I learned from the Web later, one of these trees on Tien Beach had become famous among Korean travelers and is known as the "Korean tree".

It looks that the bantigue trees have appeared on Ko Lan naturally - since there are plenty of clearly wild specimens on rocks at Nual Beach.

Nature Walk at Nual Beach

Jumping from one rock to another, revealing the area, sniffing every corner of the sea shore, is what I prefer to viewpoints.

I think I have a developed instinct of the gatherer; I like to explore the territory; inspect the vegetation, minerals, flora and fauna of the sea.

We ended up at a place called Laem Thong Bay:

That's a wild beach surrounded by cliffs. Alas, "wild" on Ko Lan means dirty - a lot of garbage. That's not only litter brought from the ocean. Many beer bottles and stuff there. Mass tourism, that's why.

Conclusion

Koh Lan is an amazing beach destination if you live or having a long stay in Bangkok or Pattaya. Just half an hour by ferry from Pattaya, 30 baht (0.8$) for a ticket. But it's not a place to search for the authentic Thai lifestyle or virgin nature. There are also islands in Thailand with even more striking scenery. For example, Ko Lipe or Railay peninsula in Krabi.

More images and stories from Southeast Asia are ahead! Check out the previous ones on my personal Pinmapple map.

I took these images with a Nikkor 50mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on April 14, 2024, in Ko Lan, Thailand.