29/3/18 - Day 61 (Continued)

Arrived at our hotel which is two thirds of the way down the West coast of Koh Lanta, the port and most northern destination ‘Saladan’ looks like a sh*t-tip, straight out of some majorly cheesy, seaside resort (apologies to anyone who has been there and loves it but it’s just not me). Thankfully we are staying much further south on Khlong Nin beach. We’re here to relax a while, I’ll probably go diving, (although I’m now planning the big one in Malaysia to Sipidan) as there are several top dive sites ‘close’ by. Our hotel also has a yoga shala with classes most morning (although at London prices I might add). All seems very nice and chilled out even though it’s a big hotel with lots of people, our first one like this on our trip, we’re not used to this many people! J hired a moped and we dropped off some laundry with our friendly moped hirer. Then went out for dinner at Yang Garden which was delicious but pricey.

30/3/18 - Day 62

Happy Easter everyone! Can’t believe it’s Easter weekend, certainly not celebrated in any shape or form here as you’d expect being a combo of Muslim and Buddhists.

Got up and joined the 8am yoga class, got very hot and sweaty as it’s already boiling, lovely class by a lovely inspiring Thai teacher. Met J for a spot of brekkie and then relaxed in the shade on the beach as particularly hot. Agonising over my Sipidan diving trip in Malaysia, tough problem to have I know... in between agonising I managed to trade in a couple of books for the only English books I could find, all the others are in German! Popped out on the moped and found a cliff top shack and had a papaya salad, I reek of garlic so I’m hoping this will keep the mosquitoes away. Stopped off at a beach on the way back to admire the view. Popped out for veggie pad Thai at another hill top, sea view restaurant. I’m getting to quite like it here...

31/3/18 - Day 63

Woken up by our noisy Chinese neighbours, as I was going out for yoga I bumped into them so in my best Mandarin or Cantonese I asked them if they could shut the f... up in the mornings please, waking at 5.30 definitely wasn’t part of my holiday plans. I think they understood. Anyway, feeling decidedly un-neighbourly-like I went off to my class. Lovely session, looked decidedly glowing again when J met me for breakfast. We then decided to take our time and have a leisurely trip on the moped to visit Lanta Old Town on the West side of Lanta. It’s quite sweet and has great views of all the other Islands, a great spot to stop and sip a fresh coconut, we stopped at Rareview for said coconut which was lovely and the later sought refuge in Apsara. Decided to have an ice-cream Sundae as we’re technically missing out on Easter eggs this weekend. J was busy Skyping his folks so his melted in the heat but was lovely to see Dick and Judy and chat to them briefly. J quite keen to go the Jungle Party tonight, he spotted signs for it but I think I want to hold out for the Full Moon Mushroom Party tomorrow night... don’t think we can handle two raves in a row...we’ll see. Off to Salty Fish Shack for dinner first apparently. Dinner was simple and fab, right on the beach a couple of miles from where we’re staying. We headed back via Jungle Party but seemed very quiet so we thought we’d come back later, once we’d got our clubbing gear sorted and things had got going a bit. Started to hear rumbles of thunder so headed back towards our hotel, just in the nick of time as the heavens opened and it rained solidly for a good hour or more. Needless to say the Jungle Party must have turned into a mud and mosquito party so decided to swerve it after all,

1/4/18 - Day 64

Managed to sleep in thanks to ear plugs, late breakfast with the masses and trying to finalise plans for my various diving trips.

2/4/18 - Day 65

Overslept and didn’t make it to the yoga class. Followed by a frustrating morning sorting out flights, using very rubbish internet, which lead to disaster, one of my connecting flights ended up on the wrong day, grrrrr.... so after wasting an entire morning on this I gave up and read my book. We also walked the entire length and back of Long Beach (Klong Hin). Popped out on the moped and had some food at Shanti Shanti Beach House, run by a very aloof Frenchman... we won’t be going back!

3/4/18 - Day 66

Managed to get up in time for yoga, then we had a lovely relaxed (J says frenetic!) breakfast again with the masses and then I carried on reading until around lunchtime. We’d decided to go and volunteer our services at the Lanta Animal Sanctuary in the afternoon. Headed North and stopped at Salty Fish for a Chunky Monkey (that’s a smoothie by the way with mango, passion fruit, ginger) plus some fresh spring rolls, yum. We then found the Sanctuary and we were both really amazed and impressed with the set up. One of the guys, John, did a tour around for us and told us numerous stories about all the various cats and dogs they have there. Unfortunately I got really upset at one point and was crying about this poor little female dog who had been deliberately run over, not once, but twice, when she was expecting a litter of 8. None of which survived 😭. I was balling my eyes out at this point, thank god I had my sunglasses with me... anyway, after we’d completed the tour and I pulled myself together we walked a dog called ‘Chicken’ (no idea why he’s called that) but the poor chap had ripped his ear apart and has recently had 20+ stitches to patch it back together. Anyway, it was an amazing visit and I’ll find a way to sponsor or do something to help. We went back to our hotel, showered and then headed further South, found a small roadside restaurant and had a seafood salad, very spicy. Early night as being picked up at 6.20am tomorrow to go diving.

4/4/18 - Day 67

Dive, dive, dive... I’m up early and heading for two famous, apparently top dive sites in Thailand, Hin Muang and Hin Daeng, both are in the Marine Park. The journey time I’m told was 2-3 hours by boat from Ko Lanta. I’m picked up by Anti Gravity divers around 6.20 and taken to the boat. The boat’s nice and not crowded. An unexpected guest turns up in the form of a house cat, who happens to be a beautiful tortoiseshell. She promptly comes round and checks all us guests in and then slinks off to the bridge and spends the day sleeping. I pass on the diver-style breakfast of coffee and a Marlborough and instead opt for a yoghurt and banana, by this time I’m starting to look a bit square but no matter... the boat takes a whooping 4 hours to get to the first site, Hin Deang (Red Rock). We jump in the water around 11.15. It’s very beautiful, we head down to around 27m and stay for a while and before I know it the guide is telling everyone to shallow up for the safety stop, but I’ve got tonnes of air left (over 100 bar) despite a leaking tank so I feel a bit peeved. One dive has cost me over £50! Anyway, nice to be back in the water and saw some nice stuff, nothing big sadly but some nice, well behaved Trigger Fish, Moray Eels and Lion Fish. We had a surface interval of an hour and a half and got ready for the next dive which we could reach from the same mooring point. It turns out that we have a few inexperienced divers in the pack, hence the reduced bottom time grrrr...

The second dive is at Hin Muang (Purple Rock), similar experience but slightly longer bottom time (46 mins), I still come back with 120 bar this time, my buddy says that I don’t need air but he’s a lovely German guy with the Marlborough habit! I felt like telling him to quit and take up yoga but I think something would get lost in translation. The dive sites were nice but certainly not worth the eight hour round trip on the boat and the £100 price but we were treated to a Minky Whale surfacing on the way back so all in all it was a nice day. J was worried about me because he thought I’d be back around 3. He’s been pottering about around the Island today. He booked our fav restaurant for our last night in Ko Lanta so tells me when I eventually get back at 7.15 that I need to be ready in 10...after dinner I’m back to pack and collapse into bed.

5/4/18 - Day 68

Leaving Lanta, sadly we’re leaving today but we have had a nice relaxing week here. We checkout and catch the public bus to the car ferry port and then the most incredible thing happens. There’s a massive queue at the port, there must be a single line of cars, buses and trucks (J reckons a few hundred or so) backed up for several miles, our driver just overtakes the entire queue of vehicles and goes straight to the front of the queue. He gets out, opens the door and he and an official looking chap peer in and our driver says ‘what time do you all need to be at the Airport?’, we all mutter 1pm and then the official guy just waves us through, priceless...only in Thailand.

It’s funny but Ko Lanta does not feel very Thai, nor does it feel Westernised but I think if you were dropped in blindfolded you’d feel as if you’d been dropped into an Arabic country. The people have been great and very friendly, once you engage with them.

We’re flying to Kuala Lumpa at 14.30 (hopefully I’m clear of nitrogen by then!) and we’re staying with our lovely French friends, Ann and Dider, we’re spending a few days with them before we move on to the next adventure.