Yay! Back in Kantiang for the 4th (or 5th?) time. Because were we going to be here over new year Lanta Marine was full so we had to stay down on the beach at Kantiang Bay Resort. Being 10 meters from the beach was good, but the place has went downhill recently. The bungalows were grubby and pretty disappointing, nobody in the restaurant seemed to have a clue what they were doing, the food was mediocre and the staff definately didn't serve with a smile. Lanta Marine resort is still ace though. Left there at 5:30am this morning, and the party went on until 7am apparently. The staff are as friendly as ever, and one of the guys appeared when we had just arrived and said it was good to see me again. Can't believe they actually remember me, they must get 1000's of people going through that place in a year.
The luxuary resort Pimalai is supposed to be putting on a big firework display at New Year, should be fun - looking forward to drinking some mushroom tea and watching the sky exploding for new year.
Kantiang beach from the South end. The
image on Flickr has notes showing all the bars and restaurants.
New Year 2008/2009
The Shroom Bar up by Lanta Marine was the obvious choice for New Year, needless to say, it rocked. nothing much to say about it other that look at the photos:
Fireworks! Love 'em!
More Firework Fun:
Diving at Ko Haa
Something I've wanted to do for years is go scuba diving. Before I went on this trip I took some lessons at home, it was all going well until the instructors sprung a swim test on me. I've never been a particularly good swimmer and I couldn't swim the required 200m or complete some of the other tests. I thought that would be the end of it but I found out on Ko Jum I could do a DSD or Discover Scuba Diving, which is pretty much day diving without having to learn too much of the theory or complete a swim test like you have to do for your PADI.
I'd got to know of the instructors Vikki pretty well (her boyfriend worked at the bar) and ended up arranging it through her. It was split over two days. One morning in a pool learning the basics, which was easy for me as I'd already learnt them in the pool back home. Then the next day it was an early start leaving on a dedicated dive boat out to Ko Ha. There was about 15 or so people on the boat, most doing some sort of diving course or just along for a bit of snorkelling.
Scuba diving in the sea for the first time sort of blew my mind a little - possibly one of the bestest things I've ever done in my entire life. Ever. I even met Nemo. I've really never experienced anything like it, I totally understand why people get hooked on it. It was incredible, like being an astronaut in an alien world, utterly bonkers. I was simultaneously shitting it and having the time of my life. On the second dive I went down a little too fast and nearly landed on a clump of sea urchins. I had a fight with these critters on a snorkelling trip a few years ago and lost. It was a painfull lesson - the spines took about a month to finally completely grow out my foot. So it sort of freaked me out a bit and I nearly bailed back to the dive boat. SO glad I didn't. Thanks Vikki for calming me down enough to go on :)
And finally...
Kantiang was as awesome as ever. I only planned on staying for 5 nights, I ended up moving from the not-so-nice bungalows on the beach and moved up to Lanta Marine and staying for a total of 10 days
Every night pretty much turned into a late one at the bar, I met a bunch of folk, and saw some familiar faces, and lots of sunsets (and a few sunrises). It doesn't surprise me that so many people come to Thailand, find Kangtiang, then stay way longer than they were planning on. It seems to have that effect. Can't wait to go back!