Lanta Bee Garden is the last small and family resort left on Klong Dao Beach.
This is the second time I am here,
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I start to check around for dive centers.
Peter recommended Lanta Diving Center, german speaking CMAS Dive school, seems pretty expensive, and I am not convinced. Guts, you know.
I decide to dive with Kon Tiki Lanta instead, which I had researched myself before.
First day is tomorrow, going to Koh Haa for a 3 tank trip.
I always wanted to go there again after last year's trip.
The dives next day will show, its worth every single Baht.
Finally skipped my plans to go to Koh Lipe from here, the ferry takes about 5-6 hours, speedboat around 3 hours, one way. I book three more nights at Lanta Bee Garden instead, until monday.
Might go to Ao Nang after that, closer to the airport Krabi, where I have to be on April 27, 6am. We will see, tam sabai, nice and easy, I am on vacation, not on the run...
In the evening I meet a Swedish couple who were here last season as well. They are retired and long time guests, spending the winters here, in a nice beach bungalow.
They are good friends with the family of Bee Garden and tell me some stories like the old man not knowing a single word in English, who greeted me so friendly every time last year, died during a local soccer match last year. Collapsed, heart stroke, passed. The daughter who was pregnant during my stay last year lost her baby, but started anew with her husband and now we have a 6 week old baby here.
Every evening around 6pm we will sit on the small wall at the beach together, drinking a glass of wine together, chatting and watching the sun go down.
Sometimes I experiment with long time exposure on my camera
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| 4 seconds exposure |
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| 4 seconds exposure |
Day 38, April 19
Pickup bat Lanta Bee Garden at 7:30, takes us to a a pier behind the new bridge. Mangroves, simple stilted houses, a boat gasoline station, abandoned ships decaying in the sun and a mix of river and saltwater. Here we board our beautiful dive boat, the "Kon Tiki Queen", very spacious, well organized, friendly and professional staff and crew. Cruising time to Koh Haa is about two hours, that gives us plenty of time for breakfast and setting up our equipment.
First dive is Koh Haa Yai, fantastic topography underwater, we explore the Cathedral caves
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| Exploring the Cathedral Caves |
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| Exploring the Cathedral Caves |
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| Surfacing inside the airpocket on top of Cathedral, Koh Haa Yai |
An outerworldly experience, pitch black dark, the ceiling around two meters above your head, the only light is the water shining in an unreal blue from the entrance below and the surge sounds like a groaning dinosaur in a not so far distance...
We are at 50 bar already, but I purge my regulator a couple of times, leaving some fresh air for the next visitors.
We descend through the pathway towards the open sea again and get back on the boat.
Waaahoooo, finally got to see the top of Cathedral!
After an hour of surface time at Koh Haa Lagoon
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| Koh Haa Lagoon. If you want to snorkel, start here... |
my camera goes crazy on the second dive and finally quits after some shots of batfish,
showing the "No SD card" message every time I want to use it. And there are plenty of occasions to do so, let me just mention the three ornate ghost pipefish, trumpet fish, more shoals of batfish, and finally two mating cuttlefish! Mating cuttlefish! Could have done a 5 minutes clip, they were very concentrated, flashing their blue lights all the time...
Juan, our guide, says this was likely the best of his dives this season. I take my camera apart, removing battery and card and reinstall them, the camera works all fine.
Third dive we take at Koh Haa Neung, Number One. Another site with breathtaking topography and, of course, Juan takes us up the Chimney...
Good buoyancy is paramount here, you don't have too much room to move...
I shot a video all the way up, maybe I can extract some stills.
Descending again I signal Juan that my NDL dropped to 5 min after 29 minutes,
and we slowly ascend. This third dive on air is not limited by consumption but by bottom time.
We have a long and beautiful "safety stop" in the shallows around 4-5 meters, drifting through hard coral looking for critters for about 10 minutes and then surface.
Wow, Cathedral air pocket and Chimney in one trip!
Day 39, April 20
Refill supplies, repair, cruising.
Soda water, beer, Manao soda, coffee are all out, cigarettes too. Cash as well. Time for refill.
Also want to have my broken glasses fixed, so I drive to Sala Dan, the town with the ferry Pier up north.
The first "optician" shop I enter is a sunglasses seller, looks a bit "overtasked" when I ask him if he can replace the broken glass. Better get out of here...
Optic Charoen is not open yet, I withdraw some cash at a trustworthy looking ATM and smoke a cigarette in the shade, watching a young girl trying to get her scooter started without success. I offer to help her and bring her to where she rented it, she agrees. Obviously she doesn't even know where her hostel is or even the correct name, we stop to ask for a map and then she finally finds it. I wonder how these people get around...
Chatting on the ride I find out she is from Argentina and stays for three weeks, I drop her off at her place, Hey Bungalows, tell her I will have a coke on the beach in case she needs my help to get back or something else.
She never shows up again.
Take a picture of a deeply relaxed sleeping dog, finish my Coke and cigarette and leave.
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| Relax |
Back to Sala Dan, Charoen Optics is now open, that's a true professional place, he measures my lenses, then my eyes, and I will get two new lightweight lenses for 78 Euros by Sunday evening.
Refill supplies at 7 eleven, short nap, then drive south as far as Ao Nui Beach, taking some pictures along the road.
I stop for a foto of four monkeys by the roadside, while I take a picture of two of them, the other two try to steal my camera bag from the scooter! I chase them away, one drops my camera bag and they get pretty aggressive.
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| Muggers by the roadside |
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| Muggers by the roadside. Don't leave anything unattended! |
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| Chief Mugger |
Low season, Ao Nui is deserted,
I go back north trying to get a beer in a beach bar. Difficult here, south of Klong Nin is mostly Islamic.
In Khlong Kong I finally find a very chilled bar on Bali Beach, "The Lighthouse" with happy hour from 12am til 12pm ;-) , and have a Chang watching the sunset.
Yes, tomorrow is Dive day again, I am booked for the Bida islands south of Koh Phi Phi, good chances to spot some blacktop reefsharks in the shallows...
I am itching to get back in the water again!
Here is the video of Kon Tiki Lanta, I want to recommend this dive center, if you ever want to dive or snorkel from Koh Lanta:
See you under water
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