Avani + Khoa Lak and Koh Lanta Thailand hotel review

It’s been, gulp, nearly 23 years since I last visited Thailand as a 19-year-old gap year traveller, the very same year Leonardo Di Caprio was starring on the Big Screen as Richard, also visiting Thailand in the brilliant Y2K cult hit film, The Beach about young travellers seeking adventure in a secret paradise on the beaches of this magical country. When I was there in 2000 with my best friend, also intrepid backpackers, decked out in combat trousers, henna tattoos and bandanas with All Saints’ Pure Shores (the theme tune to The Beach) blaring out of all the bars, and Tuk Tuks transporting us everywhere, we too felt the same thrill at all that Thailand’s coast has to offer. The remote, unspoilt beaches with the occasional wooden hut, hammock and bamboo bar shack where you could sink a Chang beer at sunset and feel totally, utterly removed from the everyday madness of life…