16th - 23rd Jan. Koh Lanta

Temperature: 34 degrees
Sea temperature: 29 degrees - even warmer than Koh Tao
Huge meals: 2 (BBQ ribs and bangers 'n' mash)
Limestone islands: Several dozen
Dangerous fish spotted: At least 2

It took one night boat, one pick-up, 2 minibuses, and 2 ferries, to get to Koh Lanta, which is on the other side of Thailand in the Andaman Sea. We were quite lucky that our departure from Krabi was at 11am (as we arrived at 10am), but for those who were travelling Phi - Phi had to wait until 3pm. There were a few Spanish (we think) who were quite stressed with the whole thing and decided to pay extra and come with us to Koh Lanta and then get a ferry from there across to Phi - Phi. The Spanish weren't particularly impressed with the Thai's driving and repeatedly told him to slow down. Obviously never been on a bus in Nepal! Don't think they realised that you had to race from one ferry to get to the other, or else you'd have to wait for the next one. Funnily enough, we didn't actually get to Koh Lanta until around 2pm. This stressed them out even more, which made them shout at the driver as to where we were going. We were actually going to our resort to drop us off. Mmm…they should learn to chill, but it was quite entertaining.

Our resort was a little disappointing, as it wasn't joined to the beach, and therefore had to walk a whole 2 minutes to the beach. Think we've been a little spoilt here. We were also a little disappointed that the beach wasn't as idyllic as Tao and didn't have any coral. However, the place grew on us as it's not as polished as Tao, but it had a really "get-away-from-it-all" ruggedness to the island. You could also see some reminiscence of the Tsunami destruction.

You can't help but think about the Tsunami when you're here. It's a strange thing because you know it'll probably never happen again in our life time, but you do think "what-if". There are also lots of reminders, with escape routes mapped out and road signs everywhere (look at pic.) giving you directions to the closest "safe zone".

As usual, we got a ped for a couple of days to explore the island. Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and our first day was really overcast and didn't show the island in its best light. One thing was for sure, there wasn't much on this big island. The east cost was mainly populated by fishing folk and sea gypsies, they seemed quite poor and their lifestyles looked quite traditional. Their wooden houses were charming as they were perched over the water on stilts.

We did most of the island including an unsealed road on the Western side which led us to Waterfall Beach. It had a feeling of remoteness and was extremely quiet. We spent the next day here having lunch and watching the sun go down.
The highlights of our week here was our 4 islands snorkelling trip and our diving trip to Koh Haa.

The speed boat snorkelling trip took us to; Koh Ngan, Koh Mook (Emerald Cove), Koh Kraden and Koh Chuek. The speed boat picked us up in the morning right from the beach and took us to the first snorkeling area where we jumped off the boat into the shallow sea. We saw lots of fish including a dangerous Lion Fish (which was smaller than expected).

Next we came to Emerald Cove, where we had to don lifejackets and follow our guide into the dark cave (80m long) that lead us to a hidden cove which was surrounded by 120m shear limestone cliffs. It felt like we were in the middle of a volcano, but there was a lovely white sandy beach and tropical plants all around.

At lunch time we were taken to Koh Kraden where we had a tasty buffet lunch, surrounded by hungry island dogs. This island had a picture postcard beach with breathtaking views of the surrounding limestone islands against the clear sea.

The last stop was to a Koh Chuek, where there was some fantastic coral. We were constantly surrounded by fish as they were expecting to be fed. We also saw a Moray Eel.

As we didn't really have time to do anymore diving on Koh Tao before we left, we decided that we should do a "fun dive" in Koh Lanta. The island has a big dive scene with many dive shops and the visibility and marine life is supposed to be better than in Koh Tao. We booked a two fun dive package with Lanta Divers (about 45 pound) to Koh Haa, a group of 5 small limestone islands, 25km off Koh Lanta.

As usual, we were up early to meet the taxi at 7am which took us to the dive boat at the North of the island and from there it was a slow 2-hour chug to the islands. Luckily for us we had 'Champ' the dive master all to ourselves, so we could go where we wanted and take our time looking at things.

Our first dive was at Haa one, a huge limestone pillar surrounded by coral down to about 25 meters. The visibility was really good and the place was teeming with all kinds of fish and soft coral - many of which we hadn't seen in Koh Tao. Best of all though was the Sea Turtle! It was just there eating the coral and seemed totally oblivious to us.

We had a lunch on the boat while it was maneuvered over to the lagoon, just a few hundred meters away. This was again picture-postcard stuff with crystal-clear water and a small, white sand beach. For the second dive we swam around Haa 4, across the lagoon and then around Haa 2. A dive lasting just over an hour, which was by far the longest we had lasted underwater! (As you do more dives you become more relaxed and use less air). There was plenty to see again, including a huge school of young Barracuda, Squid, some big Trigger Fish and a really colourful shrimp that was hiding in the coral. On the way back we helped ourselves to the free (soft) drinks and food and chilled in the sun.

Our last full day on Koh Lanta was spent on the beach and in the sea to cool off (every 5 mins or so!). As we're going to be leaving Thailand shortly, and Carl hadn't had a massage, it was decided that we should finish the day with a massage on the beach. There are hundreds of these places up and down all the beaches on every Island we have visited and they charge about four pounds for an hour's massage. Carl had back, neck and head and Vik had a foot massage. Very relaxing!

That night we went back to The Tavern, a British ex-pat run restaurant just up from our resort on Long Beach. We'd been there the night before and had spotted that most diners were eating a huge rack of BBQ ribs that looked really tasty. Obviously that's what Carl ordered this time and struggled through, eventually finishing about an hour and half later and few kilos heavier. Vik's bangers and mash was also really tasty, but equally huge and finally beat her after a good effort.

We had booked a joint minibus/ferry/V.I.P bus ticket back to Bangkok the next afternoon, so we spent the morning having a long breakfast and packing. A packed minibus picked us up from our resort just after midday and we arrived in Bangkok at 6am the next morning, thankfully this time with all our credit cards!