Got Net?

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:

New Year Fireworks
Me and Anne watching the sun come up on the 1st January 2009

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 :)

Various dive photos - click the images to view larger

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!

Sunsets with Ko Ha on the horizon, taken from Top View
Various pics from the bar in Kantiang

Finally moved out of Anne's house in Krabi town and hit the beaches properly. We stayed at the 'Oonlea' bungalows on Ko Jum, run by a lovely French woman called Valerie. Within hours she knew all our first names and was more of hostess than a bungalow outfit owner. Highly, highly recommended. The food was excellent, presumably the French influence. A bit on the expensive side, but when the resort is easier to get to by boat than on the winding single track trail that runs along the side of the island its nothing to complain about given the effort it must take to move things around. The bar by the beach is ran by a friendly English bloke called Jim, great place to watch the spectacular sunsets over Phi-Phi.

Awesome Sunsets from Ko Jum - the big cloud in the one the right looked like Stay Puft - marshmallow man out of Ghostbusters

In the evening we got a crazy taxi to Joy Bar. By 'taxi' I mean battered Honda bike driven by a slightly manic Thai guy wearing a head torch with a welded on side car that can fit 3 people, maybe 4 if you had been going easy on the burgers. Joy bar has excellent pizzas (Domino's could learn a thing or two) and a quick walk along the beach to Freedom bar led us to a really chilled bar and friendly staff. Another taxi back along narrow paths through coconut groves and a hazy night cap on Anne & Fees balcony ended an awesome night. Fell asleep under my mosquito net listening to the sounds of beasties in the surrounding jungle.

Anne & Fiona in a Ko Jum taxi

Tropical Gardens at Oonlee

Woke up in the morning hearing load bangs and thumps on my roof. It turns out there was a troup of monkeys having breakfast up there. Watching them, watching, me through my slated glass windows it felt strangely like I was in an inverted zoo, with me being the exhibit and the monkeys coming to visit me.

In fact I liked it so much at Oonlea that I might go back for a few days on my way back to Krabi and do some diving with one of Jim's mates that does some diving instructing, sort of depends how turbo things get in Kantiang.

Rather than spend time travelling to the Plain of Jars in the limited time I had left in Laos I decided to stay put in Vang Vieng. I've been here for a few days now and I'm starting to realise Vang Vieng is a great base, but its a busy resort town, with loads of guesthouses, bars, restaurants a few souvenier shops, and smattering of hotels and not much else. All the cool stuff takes a bit of effort to get to - the surrounding countryside is stunning, and there's a lot to see.

At a bit of a loss I figured I'd do more moutain biking and try and fit in a few more caves. This time armed with a decent map (you can buy them in Vang-Vieng at any place that rents bikes) I struck out west to the village of Na Thong looking for the Tham Phau Kham cave. I was taken up the mountain by a 10-year old guide called "Lu-lai". 10 years old. Seriously. I was going to do it myself but he sort of attached himself to me and wouldn't leave, suppose its always better with a bit of local knowledge. After a few 100s of meters climb/scrabble up a fairly well-worm path we got to the cave. On the way in we met an Isreali guy trying to do it with a 1-LED keyring torch. This really, really wasn't the place for it. Most of the cave seemed to be a sub-terreanean cliff face, one false move on the slippy muddy rocks and you'd be off into the black abyss below. My torch wouldn't actually get to the bottom.

Near the path on the way up to Tham Phau Kham there's a tiny restaurant/bar/somebody's house where you can grab a beer and sit by a bend in the river thats pretty decent for a swim, and ideal if you've been scrambling around the dark dirty cave in the mountain above.

Swimming near Tham Phau Kham

The cave was nothing special but what got me was our "guide". I've got an 8 year old nephew (Ronan, hope you are reading this!) I could never imagine him in a year or two doing what this wee boy was doing. The cave was the sort of thing a pot-holer would love, but it wasn't the place for a young kid to be taking tourists into. And he was fearless, No ropes, proper lights or even a hard-hat and he's jumping around this underground cliff. Nuts.

Later at the river he reappeared and starting messing with my guidebook, so we ended up playing Lao-English word games using back-of-the-guidebook phrases. That's how I got to know how old he is, what his name is, that today is Saturday, and that he has a younger sister. Oh, and I now know the words for 8000 and 12000. These are important because that usually how much beer costs in Kip. hehe.

After a view beers and a swim in the river I hopped back on my bike and made my way to the village of Naxom and found the most perfect natural spring with rope swings and trees to jump off into the really deep pool - I tried to touch the bottom and couldn't. The place is called Pou Kham (I think sometimes it also goes by the Blue Lagoon, for obvious reason); it had a few bungalows near the river and looked like an excellent place to stay for a few days - very chilled out and loads nicer than busy Vang Vieng. Awesome. I think there's a cave somewhere too but I was enjoying the water that much I couldn't really be bothered going anywhere else.

The natural spring at Pou Kham

My camera is waterproof so I've got some movies of me freefalling into the water from trees. I liked Pau Kham so much I planned to go back the next day and catch some rays but got distracted at the bar that night and missed it.