Koh Lanta - Days 151-155
We had no problem getting going this morning since we were real excited to be beach-bound. Also, we just had to hop on a train and ride smoothly to the airport, which was so, so much nicer than “driving” through the “streets” of Kathmandu. The flight to Krabi airport was uneventful, and we strolled into the reception area to find a fellow with a sign for "Ben" (it’s so fun to find a sign with your name on it). We piled into his van, which promptly stopped for gas (gas up before the ride! Such a no-brainer), we grabbed some ice cream treats, and we vanned it for 2.5 hours including a short ferry ride, and a stop at the SCUBA shop for tomorrows dives, then it was on to Horizon Beach Bungalows on Koh Lanta! Woo!
The little beachfront bungalow was just what we were hoping for, 20 feet to the water and hammocks all around. Our first night we were upgraded to their waterfront private rooms also - they were super nice and swanky! Unfortunately we noticed the A/C was not working in the Bruden room, so we had some beers on the beach while 3 different people tried to fix it. No dice. We were getting ready to relocate to the dorm (the room was pretty hot without AC), and I took a stab at fixing it - I smacked it a number of times and then it turned on! Sweet!
We were finally able to relax and grabbed 4 lounge chairs on the sand, ordered some beers, had some decent pad thai at a small local grill, then headed back to the hotel for a few more drinks and a great sunset! We closed the night out with a few games of sheepshead before heading to bed kind of early before a day of diving!
We got up bright and early and walked down to the morning market, which would become a familiar breakfast routine for us. It was a 10 minute walk but we were able to walk the whole way on the beach, then cut over to it. They had little plastic baggies full of all sorts of noodle and rice dishes, a bunch of pastries, fried chicken - it was great, and all super cheap. So we all grabbed a few bags of food and enjoyed it back at the hotel.
After our breakfast, we hopped on the SCUBA shuttle to the dive shop and met Klaaaaa. It was actually Kla. But he said Klaaaaaa. He had a long ponytail and was a pretty cool Thai dude. We did our dive site debrief then boarded the boat to set off for the Koh Haaaaaaa, as said by Kla.
Our first dive was in Koh Haa lagoon - it was a nice sandy bottom dive with excellent visibility. There was a bunch of pink and purple soft coral that was very beautiful as well. Animal life was so-so, although towards the end of the dive, Klaaaa pointed out a small rock on the sandy bottom that was actually a fish. Actually a stonefish - the worlds most venomous fish. Jeez.
During the surface interval we had some delicious massaman curry for lunch, cooked by one of the dive guides’ family! Back in the water we were diving Koh Haa #1 (Koh Haa is a small chain of 5 islands), which was Klaa’s favorite site. It was really great, there was a cave that we swam through which was full of soft coral - it felt very much like an alien planet. We swam through some small coral canyons and saw a lot of excellent color - combined with the clear and warm water made this a really enjoyable dive.
After the transport back to the hotel we were, like always, exhausted after diving. We decided to get some thai massages, and found a place right on the water with 4 beds. We then learned that thai massages were pretty aggressive but we all came away from the hour feeling glorious.
Dinner at Horizons was pretty good, we had pad Thai and some red curry and went to sleep in the four bed dorm.
Early on the third day Tyler went out to do two more dives - we had them scheduled for tomorrow but we determined he wouldn’t make it to Krabi in time, so he decided to go today instead. While Ty was diving we went looking for some scooters to rent. Scooter prices at most places were 5 USD per day, but after talking to a bunch of places we were able to rent 3 scooters for 3 days for 30 bucks total - pretty good negotiating by Taylor and me!
Since today was the one year anniversary of the Thai King’s death, all stores were shut down for his cremation (which was happening today). We cruised around the island on our new wheels and got some lunch at the south end of the island. When we got back to Horizons we had a splendid surprise - Aaron! Tyler was also back from diving so we traded some stories and caught up with Aaron, then grabbed some beers at a market that was open and played some 500 and some sheepshead, then headed to a little night market for some food, then went back to the beach to spend the night relaxing on the sand.
Another dive day today! We grabbed some breakfast at the market, said adios to Ty for a couple days, then went to our dive debrief with Kla! We were diving two different sites at Koh Haa again today - the boat ride there was quick and pleasant, Aaron did a quick diving refresher since he hadn’t done any diving since Zanzibar a few years ago, but it came back to him like riding a bike. The two sites we dove were excellent again - schools of fish, plenty of soft coral, cuttlefish and boxfish!
After some relaxation back at Horizons we went to Pad Thai rock and roll for dinner - it was very good although we asked for very spicy/local style and it probably wouldn’t even register as a 4/10 on the EE Sane spice scale. Back at Horizons we were having a normal evening drinking some beer and playing cards when the owner, Pad, came by and asked to join. We changed games to “Never Have I Ever” and the drinks kept flowing. At some point, at least an hour into the game, someone said “never have I even gotten a tattoo.” Well, there was a tattoo artist that had his office at Horizons, so we called him over, drew up a sketch, (thought about it a little bit), then sometime after midnight one of us was on the tattoo bed getting a bamboo tattoo! It turned out awesome. We continued the beer drinking, walked all the way up the beach, and just hung out (the 3 boys - Meg went to bed earlier) and then it was 4 A.M. And we went to bed.
As per above, we felt like sleeping in this morning. Once we finally got going, we cruised around town a bit and grabbed some breakfast at a French bakery and some much needed coffee. The coffee helped us
enough to get back to Horizons and lounge on the beach, get a massage, and nap most of the day. Once we were feeling up for it we grabbed the frisbee and played some catch on the beach. The waves and tide were both perfect for it, and we ended up with some great diving catches over the breaking waves. Got leveled a few times by some bigger waves that were misjudged too! The daily rain happened right around when we were going to drive south for a different sunset view, so we had to scrap those plans and spend another evening on the beach. Not such a bad outcome though. We certainly didn’t have any drinks this night as we are nearing 30 and not fully recovering from hangovers as quickly, and we one by one retreated to the dorm by 9pm I think.
Today we are heading up to Ao Nang to meet our big group of friends and it’s very exciting! We dropped off the scooters, and hopped on a minivan to take us to Ao Nang. The van took forever as we picked up about a dozen more people, and didn’t even take us to Ao Nang - they said they only take people to Krabi, about 30 minutes away. But we thought we paid to go to Ao Nang, and knowing that Thais do like to be a bit scammy, we didn’t leave the van until they organized and paid for our transport from Krabi to Ao Nang, which they eventually did!