The island of Koh Lanta is kind of a strange place. It’s the sort of place where Swedish families build sandcastles next to beach bars that serve up psychedelic milkshakes for customers who party all night and won’t fall asleep until after the neighborhood mosque has announced the dawn call to prayer.Coming from the north of Thailand, it really is quite a change up to see the majority of the local women wearing Islamic headscarves. A few older women would even wear long, black drooping robes and a veil that covered up their whole face below their eyes. Buddhism is such an integral part of the Thai identity in my mind, that it almost felt as if you were in a different country.It’s a little surreal to be woken up at five in the morning by the village mosque’s loudspeakers when you’re on a beach holiday. But other than that minor inconvenience, the local Thai Muslims, who make up the majority of the island’s population, don’t make much of an outward show of their religion. And they’re certainly not opposed to selling the tourists alcohol or any other mind-altering substances.
