Ko Lanta

Back in Thailand.


I love this country - especially the south.

After being in the big city - Kuala Lumpur - for a week, it is nice to be back in a beach bungalow scuba diving with the fishes twice everyday. The traffic in Kuala Lumpur is bad enough to drive Mr. Rogers angry.

Ko Lanta is a small island off the west coast of Thailand near Krabi. It is not yet developed as some of the other popular tourist islands (i.e. Ko Tao, Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Samui, etc...). Life is slow on Ko Lanta. The locals run most of the hostels, restaurants and stores but the dive shops are run by the farangs.

Diving in Ko Lanta is supreme compared to Ko Tao. The visibility is quite good and the marine life are a plenty. Even the over all atmosphere of the Advanced diving course was much mellower when compared with the dive factory that is Ko Tao.

Our dive sessions included depth of 20 - 30 meters. While we were down at depth we saw schools of small red fish that makes a "wall of fishes". Other marine life that we saw include octopus, sea snake, ghost fish (family of sea horse), puffer fish, and heaps of other marine life that are a part of the ocean ecosystem.

Sidebar - note to self, buy a camera casing for under water for next dive.

I am afraid that I am slowly getting addicted to scuba diving. When I am underwater, the rules of the above world do not apply. I feel as though I am just another creature of this planet visiting an unfamiliar territory. Then all the western influences just wash away with the under water currents.

From Ko Lanta we will travel to Bangkok and catch a train to north Thailand and hopefully into Siem Reap.