We spent time in two of Thailand's many beach destinations - Koh Lanta and Koh Samui. While we had a great time in Koh Samui (which we'll cover in a future post) we fell in love with the island of Koh Lanta. To us, it offered the perfect combination of beautiful unspoiled beaches, loads of fun excursions to keep you active and just the right amount of laid-back night life (most of which is beach-front) to have a great night out without the crazy party scene of Phuket or Koh Phi Phi.
Koh Lanta also makes a great home base for exploring the broader region. We'll talk more about the ins and outs of Koh Lanta itself soon, but first, we thought we'd highlight a few of the excursions upon which we embarked while there.
Four Islands Long-Tail Boat Tour
One of the more popular trips from Koh Lanta involves heading out on a boat to visit four small neighboring islands to the southeast. Two of these are beautiful snorkeling destinations, the third is home to the famous Emerald Cave, and the fourth, Ko Ngai, boasts a beautiful stretch of perfectly white sand kissed by crystal clear waters. This trip is offered on either a speed boat or on one of Thailand's famous long-tail boats. The speed boat is faster, but is also more expensive and carries more people. We opted for the long-tail boat since we had spent the previous day on a speedboat to Phi Phi. As far as we were concerned, the long-tail ended up being the right move for this trip. We were joined by eight other people, all about our age. We were out for about eight hours in total and had a really great time.
Koh Lanta also makes a great home base for exploring the broader region. We'll talk more about the ins and outs of Koh Lanta itself soon, but first, we thought we'd highlight a few of the excursions upon which we embarked while there.
Four Islands Long-Tail Boat Tour
One of the more popular trips from Koh Lanta involves heading out on a boat to visit four small neighboring islands to the southeast. Two of these are beautiful snorkeling destinations, the third is home to the famous Emerald Cave, and the fourth, Ko Ngai, boasts a beautiful stretch of perfectly white sand kissed by crystal clear waters. This trip is offered on either a speed boat or on one of Thailand's famous long-tail boats. The speed boat is faster, but is also more expensive and carries more people. We opted for the long-tail boat since we had spent the previous day on a speedboat to Phi Phi. As far as we were concerned, the long-tail ended up being the right move for this trip. We were joined by eight other people, all about our age. We were out for about eight hours in total and had a really great time.
A typical Thai long-tail boat, so named because the propeller is attached to a long axle astern.
On our long-tail boat after our first "snorking" stop
This is the entrance to the Emerald Cave. The Emerald Cave is a cavern heading into an uninhabited island that can only be traversed by swimming through it. You must jump off your boat and swim through this pitch-black cavern in the side of a rock face for about ten minutes. Even if you are a strong swimmer, a life vest is highly recommended.
You emerge in the center of the island on this beautiful beach, surrounded by rock cliffs on all sides!
Chris meant to direct your eyes to the cave, but this guy had other ideas.
As it happened, we had to swim through the cave amidst a group of about 50 Thai tourists all chained together like pre-schoolers walking to the park. The Thai people thought it was hilarious, and kept grabbing us as we swam past them. At one point 3 people were holding one of my arms and another few were clinging to Chris. I thought they'd drown us! Thankfully we were wearing life vests. We were laughing but terrified at the same time.
Approaching the white sand beach of Ko Ngai
Hanging out in the warm water after lunch near our long-tail with another member of our group
Little shop on Ko Ngai
Koh Phi Phi Speedboat Trip
Another day, we took a boat over to the Phi Phi Islands. We decided not to stay on Koh Phi Phi, so we thought we should at least check it out. Taking a long-tail boat to Phi Phi is not an option from Koh Lanta because it's too far, so we had to take a speed-boat there. It takes about 45 minutes there and back.
Another day, we took a boat over to the Phi Phi Islands. We decided not to stay on Koh Phi Phi, so we thought we should at least check it out. Taking a long-tail boat to Phi Phi is not an option from Koh Lanta because it's too far, so we had to take a speed-boat there. It takes about 45 minutes there and back.
Our first stop was the beautiful Maya Bay.
It's a stunning beach - clear water, white sand and dramatic cliffs. You may recognize Maya Bay from the movie 'The Beach', which was filmed here.
Maya Bay
Long-tail boats at Maya Bay when we first arrived
Completely packed by the time we left
Our speed boat was pretty packed too!
Fortunately, we were at Maya Bay first thing in the morning. The word is that by 10am, you can't even see the sand because there are so many people! After Maya, we headed to a spot just off Koh Phi Phi for some snorking (what the locals call snorkling). The snorking was good, but unfortunately this particular spot was infested with Sea Bees, microscopic organisms that sting your skin when you swim into a school of them. The stinging lasts for 4-5 minutes and then you pretty much go back to normal. They are more of a nuisance than a serious threat!
We stopped off at this beautiful beach for lunch (and a bit more 'snorking', as they say)
After lunch, we stopped off to check out Koh Phi Phi Don (the main island) for a bit. It was extremely crowded and a bit chaotic for our liking. Apparently this place is a backpacker's party heaven. Chris' face sums up how we felt about it. We didn't get to the other side of the island, which supposedly boasts more upscale, laid back resorts.
After strolling through 'downtown' Koh Phi Phi, we decided to plant ourselves at the beautiful beach. Despite its chaos and hullabaloo, Phi Phi is full of amazing natural beauty - one of the prettiest island's we've ever seen!
Long-tail vs. Speedboat
The two boat trips were very different, both in terms of their itineraries and the whole dynamic of the trip. The long-tail boat moved more slowly, but had a smaller group, lots of room to move around on the boat, and we got to know the other people on the trip with us. The speed boat was able to cover more ground, but held about 30 people, was fairly tight on-board, and was twice the price. While we enjoyed both, if we could have only done one, it would have been the Four Islands trip with the long-tail boat. Strolling through the crazy downtown Phi Phi also made us grateful to return to our laid back island of Koh Lanta!
The two boat trips were very different, both in terms of their itineraries and the whole dynamic of the trip. The long-tail boat moved more slowly, but had a smaller group, lots of room to move around on the boat, and we got to know the other people on the trip with us. The speed boat was able to cover more ground, but held about 30 people, was fairly tight on-board, and was twice the price. While we enjoyed both, if we could have only done one, it would have been the Four Islands trip with the long-tail boat. Strolling through the crazy downtown Phi Phi also made us grateful to return to our laid back island of Koh Lanta!
Diving at Koh Haa
Another day, we booked a couple of dives with Dive and Relax, whom we would highly recommend. They were a really professional company with incredibly friendly people. The great thing about this dive company is that the groups are very small, and we ended up with just three people in our dive group - me, Chris and our dive master, Beth. A bit expensive for Thailand, but we thought it was worth it.
We ended up heading out to Koh Haa - which actually means six islands - for our dives. Koh Haa, is the name indicates, is a collection of six small islands located southwest of Koh Lanta, surrounded by a beautiful collection of reefs and caves.
The dives were amazing, with by far the greatest visibility of any water we've been diving in so far. The reefs and fish life were beautiful. We saw many varieties of tropical fish, a huge school of barracuda, and several massive moray eels up close. We also dove through a dark cave under one of the islands, which was really fun. We had a great time and will definitely remember this day fondly.
We still haven't shelled out for a GoPro, so these pictures from the dive boat will have to do:
Another day, we booked a couple of dives with Dive and Relax, whom we would highly recommend. They were a really professional company with incredibly friendly people. The great thing about this dive company is that the groups are very small, and we ended up with just three people in our dive group - me, Chris and our dive master, Beth. A bit expensive for Thailand, but we thought it was worth it.
We ended up heading out to Koh Haa - which actually means six islands - for our dives. Koh Haa, is the name indicates, is a collection of six small islands located southwest of Koh Lanta, surrounded by a beautiful collection of reefs and caves.
The dives were amazing, with by far the greatest visibility of any water we've been diving in so far. The reefs and fish life were beautiful. We saw many varieties of tropical fish, a huge school of barracuda, and several massive moray eels up close. We also dove through a dark cave under one of the islands, which was really fun. We had a great time and will definitely remember this day fondly.
We still haven't shelled out for a GoPro, so these pictures from the dive boat will have to do:
Between dives
Apres dive
Stay tuned for our next post, where I'll talk more about Koh Lanta itself - one of our new favorite places!
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