We visited Ko Lanta with two aims - 1) to scuba dive at Hin Daeng and Hin Muang and 2) to walk some dogs at the Ko Lanta animal shelter.

We had booked our hostel through Agoda only to be told on arrival there were no rooms left, but we were put up in a different place free of charge (thankfully it was clean). The evening was spent shopping around for a diving package to cover Hin Daeng and Hin Muang. Eventually, we settled for Go Dive Lanta due to their reasonable prices.

The next day we were off to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang where there was a Manta Ray spotting 3 days previously and a Whale Shark spotting 2 days previously. Hin Daeng and Hin Muang are lone coral outcrops in the middle of the sea which act as (very) important feeding stations for pelagic fish. We were hoping to be one of the lucky ones!

After a 4 hour slow boat journey we arrived at Hin Muang, where the diving was absolutely spectacular with lots and lots of purple soft coral however, we saw several Crown of Thorns starfish so the coral won't be there for much longer! Our second dive was even better at Hin Daeng where we saw loads of different types of Moray eels (even a baby one - cute!) and Nick finally found his favourite fish - the white spotted boxfish. After a hard days(!) diving we hit the sack earlier than usual as we had another early start the next day.

The next day, we did even more diving at Ko Haa (yes, we are becoming underwater addicts!). Ko Haa had very good visibility, and the diving was enjoyable. We managed to see some Sea Moths (Helen has only ever seen these once before in Northern Egypt) and a peacock mantis shrimp sprinting across the seabed (which we managed to film) and a huge school of baby Barracuda. On our last dive we observed a huge titan triggerfish attacking our divemaster and we couldn't do anything but laugh! We also visited a underwater cave and surfaced (after a safety stop!) into a cave called the Cathedral which was awesome as it was a massive chamber with loads of staglamites (we learnt about these at Gunung Mulu national park in Borneo!). We descended again and continued with the dive.

On our last full day on Ko Lanta, we scootered around the island (with helmets!) as Ko Lanta is relatively flat and there is hardly any traffic on the roads. This was Helens first time scootering and after overcoming the initial nerves she absolutely loved it! Lunch was spent at Ban Lanta (old town) where we had some delicious Thai food at a restaurant on wooden stilts over the sea with amazing views of karst formations in the distance. We visited what was supposedly Thailand's largest selection of hammocks only to be disappointed as there were only about 5 or 6 different types of hammocks.

The afternoon was spent playing with the dogs at Ko Lanta's animal shelter - one dog called Doo Doo became attached to Helen...he was cute - like a clone of Sam but very short coated! (Mum and Dad - do you want another one?). We then walked a couple of the dogs and my god, this was hard work as obviously they all have their own issues (Rescue animals are hard work!) Nick was horrified to find that his dog eats her own poo and Helens dog kept planting his feet and refused to move! Once Helen got her dog moving, Nicks dog then decided to plant her feet! It was an enjoyable afternoon though and was nice to see some of the good work happening behind the scenes of an animal shelter.

We both decided to treat ourselves to a 1 hour traditional Thai massage, and while it was very enjoyable it was very painful as our masseuses were walking all over us, elbowing us, cracking our knuckles and putting us in positions we never thought possible! This resulted in a good nights sleep.

Overall, Ko Lanta was very enjoyable but there is a huge mosquito population and Helen ended up with approx 50 bites on each limb!

We got a very early morning boat/minibus journey to Penang, Malaysia with no issues.