Koh Lanta

As our year of travel wound down, we decided that some serious (but reasonably-priced) R&R was in order before returning to hustle-bustle North America.  So we headed off to Koh Lanta, an island on the west coast of the Thai peninsula facing the Andaman Sea.  Koh Lanta is full of relatively quiet beachside resorts and bungalows (fortunately the development is low-rise and not too intensive) and is mostly visited by Swedish families (there are Swedish schools and business signs).  This was more our speed than the smaller but more iconic sea-cliff-laden islands of Koh Phi Phi that we could see just offshore, which are renown beach party destinations.

The plan: do next to nothing.

The movie The Beach was filmed on one of the uninhabited Koh Phi Phi islands.  Other nearby islands were used as the paradisaical island lair of the villain Scaramanga in the James Bond movie The Man With The Golden Gun.  So we really were in a genuine tropical paradise.

It's a bit tough to blog about a week of idyllic beach bumming when you take it slow and one day runs into the next.  Here are a few photos of the scene.

Before departure at Don Mueang airport, Bangkok.  Those trees are part of a golf course.  With my slice, I'm pretty sure I'd be putting balls on the runway.

Taking the short ferries to Koh Lanta.

 

Sharing the ferry with pineapples - it was peak pineapple season.

Our little restaurant and bar at the Banana Garden Home.

Bee-line to the ocean.

Typical daily activity.

Among the bungalows and tropical fruits.

Our air conditioned wooden bungalow.

Fresh fish selection.  Bottom left is (young) barracuda!

Beach dinners.  After dark, there was nightly fire juggling/dancing, and (fire-powered) airborne lantern releases on the beach.

Island exploration by scooter.

Born to be wild.  On a scooter.

After solo scootering, it was time to take passengers.

Tip of the point north of our resort.

The pier at Old Town, on the far side of the island.

Don't let the dark skies fool you, the radiation and humidity were oppressive in Old Town.  Even by Yassar Chad's standards.

Time to cool off, sort of, in the bathtub-warm water.  There was no mistaking we were 7 degrees above the equator in hot season.

Local dog always came swimming with us, and loved to dig in the surf.

I went diving one day, to Hin Muang and Hin Daeng (purportedly a "world top 10" diving destination) and Koh Haa #1 (a much better dive than the supposed "top 10" locations).  To have three dives at 40+ km distance required a small, fast boat - with 450 horsepower.

Leaving the pier at Saladan with the bigger, slower dive boats.

Passing by Koh Haa, which we would dive later in the day (Ko Haa #1 is the rightmost island).

After the first dive.  Wetsuits not strictly necessary, but after getting a small sting on my knee I was glad to at least be wearing a shorty.  There was a nice thermocline (sudden drop in water temperature) at about 70 feet which was very refreshing.

I got shut out from seeing any big/rare sea life again - no sharks or turtles or manta rays, etc.  Lots of soft coral, moral eels, lionfish and clownfish in their anemone homes, with the usual schools of pelagic fish circling about.

Hin Daeng as seen from Hin Muang

Hin Muang is an underwater hill peaking at several metres under the surface.  Hin Daeng (500m away) peaks about 2m above the surface.

My underwater camera can't survive at scuba depths, so this shot of Hin Daeng is from the boat, in about 2 inches of water.  Doesn't really capture it.

Onto the third site.

Largest of the 5 (or 6) islands of Koh Haa.  Classic Thai sea cliffs.

Koh Haa #1, our dive site.  There is a shelf about 20 feet down.  In the shelf is a chimney that you swim down head first, that opens into a room, which then opens onto a lovely garden of white and blue soft coral (not unlike some of Vancouver's plumose anemone gardens).  There were other fun swim-throughs and great collections of hard and soft coral on the rock - simply a great dive.  Even saw a very cool crown-of-thorns starfish.

Snorkelers.

Feeling good after three nice dives.

Given more time, I would have done more diving at Koh Haa - the other islands apparently have good underwater caves and other features.  But apparently there are endless worthwhile dive sites all over the Thai Andaman coast.

And all in all, it was a pretty nice spot to do some blogging.