Singapore
Thailand: Khao Lak, Ao Nang, Ko Lanta
We are off again and on our way to Asia, the first stop will be Singapore as usual, we always like to go to Singapore first as it gives us a bit of time to relax after a long flight and also get used to the climate a little before we move on. This time we met up with Sharon and Mike from Canada (Sharon is an old friend from hotel school). We had to use a different hotel because our usual hotel, the New 7th story was fully booked. We filled our days with sightseeing, eating, drinking and talking of the old days and life at home, and also met up with, Svein, an old friend of Jorunn's and had a long walk along the seaside before we headed out for dinner. We also bought a new camera, a Canon G7 with an underwater box, and it took some time getting used to taking pictures with this one underwater. After all too few day of sightseeing and exploring Singapore we went our separate ways, but as it happened we would soon meet up in Kuala Lumpur (KL).
Taking the morning bus to the border, at the border you get off the bus with your luggage, go upstairs, go through customs and passport control for Singapore then get back on the bus, drive to the Malaysian side and do the same again then we were off for KL (things go quickly and are well organised on the border). We stayed at The Swiss Hotel on Petaling street, nice and easy to get around and there were plenty of restaurants to chose from. Sadly time was short as Sharon and Mike were getting ready to go home and we were heading to Thailand.
By plane from KL and then by bus and then we are once again in Khao Lak. It was mostly for relaxing and a little diving always helps, we found a nice room by the road close to Sea Dragon dive centre, close to restaurants and fairly close to the beach. Our first day we spent on the beach relaxing as they have long sandy beaches and there are no crowds, we also tried snorkelling in an area around the rock that turned out to be better than we thought it would be. The next day we off to dive the Thai Muang wreck, we were not disappointed, the wreck had been scattered a bit more by the tsunami but the fish and other creatures were still there. We did two really good dives and saw: lot's of barracuda, snappers, cuttlefish, crabs, shrimps, devil scorpionfish, trevallies, and lot's of nudibranch.
The next day we once again relaxed on the beach, strolled around town but it was not until after dinner we got a big surprise, we had gone to bed as we were going diving in the morning when the music started, a live band right next door!!!! The next day we found out that they had live music every Wednesday and Saturday and we were going to be there Saturday, now the question was shall we move or shall we stay and hope for the best. In the end we stayed, the next day we were a little tired but we were only doing an easy shallow day that day so things worked out in the end.
The next day we dived the house reef which is not really that close, you drive 15 minute to the harbour and then by boat for 20 minutes, then you dive at a nice shallow reef with lot's of different moray eels, lot's of nudibranch and other small creatures (we were mostly there for the nudibranch). After another day on the beach it was time to dive again, this time another favorite the Boonsung wreck, again the wreck had been affected by the tsunami and thing had been more scattered than before. We did two great dives here and there seemed to be even more fish now than last time, I will not go into detail of what we saw as it was about the same as the Thai Muang wreck.
After more time on the beach (this is a vacation after all) we decided to take a speed boat out to Koh Bon in the Similan island, with great diving and manta rays. We left early in the morning on a fast and bumpy ride to Koh Bon. Once there it was time to get wet, but for our first dive we only got a glimpse of a manta ray. On the second dive we were entertained by two manta rays that we took videos of until they departed but we saw more: giant moray eel, giant cuttlefish, dogtooth tuna, giant trevally, rainbow runners, spanish mackerel, octopus, banded shrimps, seasnake, titan triggerfish, groupers, snappers, and much more. After a bumpy ride home we spent the next day on the beach and that night we packed our bags.
Our next stop was in Krabi, and by bus to Ao Nang to meet up with my father and my stepmother who were also in Thailand at the time and it was a nice place to rest for a few days before heading off to Ko Lanta. We had not been to Ao Nang since our first trip in 2002 when we found a small town with a few bars, restaurants and hotels, but now after the tsunami things had exploded with lot's more restaurants, bar and lot's of fancy hotels. There were also lot more people so we were lucky when we sent a message to my folks to see if they could book a room at a hotel we knew of. Once we got settled we went for a walk to look at all the changes which were many and there were so many people there it was almost uncomfortable as we usually travel to places with less people.
Our time together was spent island hopping, the first island we visited was Poda island. With white pearly sand and blue waters it's a great place to enjoy the sun, swim, snorkel and view the huge limestone pinnacles rising out of the sea with green plants hanging desperately from small crevasses in the stone. This island had a restaurant so food and drinks were easy to find, but eventually things got hot and crowded so we hopped into a longtail (a very noisy boat) and headed back to Ao Nang for relaxation before venturing into the night.
After a fun evening out we decided to take a longtail boat to Railey beach, we did not go to the main beach with hotels but a small white sandy beach which eventually got very crowded and there was limited shade at this beach and everyone wanted some. After sunning, swimming and just laying around it was lunch time and this was a bit special as lunch came on a couple of longtails that had hot (gas stove) food, sandwiches, snacks and drinks, this was great and the food tasted pretty good. Another reason we love travelling in Asia, so much great food easily available. The sun started going down so we walked across to one of the hotels on Railey beach and had some drinks before we took a longtail boat back to Ao Nang to relax before dinner. That evening we had a really nice meal by the sea but as we were paying the restaurant next door (who served sizzling platters of food) served a sizzling platter that had lot's of chili, all of a sudden it was a bit hard to breathe and our eyes were beginning to water, at that point we rushed out of the restaurant followed by several other people desperately looking for fresh air. Later my father and I headed to the pub for some beers and to watch some soccer and just spend time together. Sadly it was time for us to head off again so we left my folks to enjoy the last days of their stay while we made our way to Ko Lanta.
We hopped an a ferry and after about an hour and a half we reached Ko Lanta (Ko Wasa to some as there are so many Swedes here and they have Swedish meatballs!). We stayed at a place further down the coast than we wanted but it was hard to find a good place to stay for a good price at the time (we met a few people still looking for rooms). The sad thing about Ko Lanta is that you can only go swimming when the tide is in, otherwise there are lot's of rocks. Our first day of diving was with Ko Lanta dive centre as we used them last time and they were very good. Sadly things had changed, not that they did a bad job, it was more that it was very German, the dive guides spoke only so-so English and they had the dive brief in German (we were the only non-Germans). We dived Bida Nida and Hin Bida on Phi Phi island, had two excellent dives and saw: 2x leopard sharks, turtle, banded sea snake, porcelain crab, trevallies, false stonefish, and a few nudibranch.
Back at the hotel we spent our time lying in the sun or shade reading, swimming and snorkelling when the tide was right, in the evening we walked the beach and ate at the restaurants along the beach. We switched dive centre so we went over to Lanta divers, they had a large boat and trips to different areas each day so we could pick and choose where we wanted to go and they also had good a good storage area for our gear. We dived the following sites: Hin Daeng, Hin Muang,and 2x Ko Ha 1. At Hin Daeng and Hin Muang with these pinnacles far out from land with beautiful purple and red soft corals we saw 3x leopard sharks, barracuda, banded shrimp, potato cod, cuttlefish, batfish, giant moray eels and nudibranch.
After a day on the beach we were off to Ko Ha, an island group with a number of islands that we passed on the way out to Hin Daeng and Hin Maung the other day. It is a very pretty place with very clear water and at some parts very shallow, this is also a place where you will find a very nice underwater cathedral. This time our first dive was on Ko Ha 1, we hit the jackpot, it was not long into the dive before the dive guide was pointing and to our amazement there was a WHALE SHARK. Yes, a diver's dream, (yes, I took a video) and then we saw it a second time and after that things went wild we saw: whale shark, large cowtail stingray, marble stingray, bait ball (lot's of small swimming together for protection), lot's of trevally, several species of moray eel, lobster, cobia, squid, barracuda, scribbled filefish and dogtooth tuna. What a dive, so much to see and only so much air, back on board things were electric with talk of whale shark and one pissed off dive guide who had to surface with another diver with ear problems and on the second dive the whale shark was on the other side of the island, so she missed it. This was the end of our stay in Thailand, always a great country to visit. Time to fly back to KL.
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