Trip to Koh Lanta

What a magical little place...

Which ever way you go, you will travel by sea. We opted for the car ferry to go there and the passenger ferry to get back. Our taxi arrived quite late in Krabi which means we travelled to Koh Lanta in the dark. The whole taxi drove onto the ferry and then you wait for about 30 to 40 minutes or so to get onto the first island.

Then drive like hell (yes, see how fast you can go through narrow roads with jungle shrubbery and huge trees on all sides) to get to the next pic up point for ferry number two. If your nerves are still with you after this trip you can now relax again for another 30 or so minutes until you reach the car drop off point in Saladen and get whisked off onto another hell ride to where ever your resort or accommodation destination is...

The island is probably four times as big as Phi Phi, if not bigger, but so much more relaxed and much more like an island. There isn't people around every cornor, dive shops door to door etc. We stayed on the very south side of the island just next to the nature reserve in a place called the Lanta Marine Park View Resort. Quite a mouth full. The small little town has a 7/11, motorbike rental place, two small restaurants, a little anything but everything store, a dive shop and Liquid Lens...

To get to Saladen which is the main town, takes about 30 to 40 minutes by scooter, through a selection of potholes and jungle like tracks. Of course when we arrived our taxi driver made sure he dropped us off in a record breaking attempt of 10 minutes. We hired a scooter on our first day and went exploring. Found an amazing coffee and cake deli. Try the Mocca death by chocolate. What a combination.

(Filling up our scooter at the local gas station)

Then the rain came, we finally got to know what Monsoon means. By the time Eugene and I got back to the resort, we looked like sewer rats. Soaked to the bone with helmet hair and all. What a sight, thank goodness no one had cameras. I think the resort people felt too sorry for us to say anything so we escaped to our room for a nice hot shower and semi warm close, as we realised that neither of us bothered to pack anything remotely warm, or at least with long sleeves.

The next day the rain continued, but we spent the day indoors as we started with our underwater videography course.

To be continued...