Passing the Time in Ko Lanta

I know it's mid-January and I'm still posting about our vacation. It's just that it was so great and nothing really new is happening in Japan. You really aren't missing much regarding my daily life. I think that after this post there's only enough material to post one final time on Thailand. So bear with me.

We initially wanted to spend our time getting scuba certified while we were in Thailand. Rich has scuba dived before, but I'm a complete beginner. I needed to learn everything and that required 3-4 full days of work, including watching videos, studying, taking tests, and making a few dives. We only had four days, so an executive decision was made to go snorkeling instead. That way we had free time and I didn't have to waste the beautiful scenery and keep my nose in a book. We went to a place called Ko Haa, pictured. Ko Haa means five islands, however there are really six little islands not five. The water was the perfect temperature, blue, clear, and amazing. There was loads of coral and an unbelievable amount of fish. I've truly never seen anything like it before. The colors were so vibrant and unimaginable. Rich (who use to live in Hawaii) said that this was really the best snorkeling he had ever done and that it was even better than Hawaii (coral was intact and not destroyed and large variety of fish). He even got to see a sea turtle. If you ever travel to Thailand you must go scuba dive or go snorkel. It's truly a completely different world below the ocean.

Another excursion that we took involved trekking through the jungle, however we got to ride on the back of an elephant. Elephants use to be used for work purposes; hauling, lifting, carrying, etc. Well once roads and trucks became a common convenience, the poor elephants got left behind and were sort of unwanted. Many starved or wandered into traffic. So the people decided to use them for tourism. At first I felt really bad about riding the elephant, like I was causing it abuse. However I figured it probably had a better life than it use to when it worked. It's actually pretty clever b/c tourists who ride the elephants help feed them and pay for their upkeep. Pictured to the right is our elephant, "Chan" putting her nose on the platform. I actually just bought her a pineapple and had just fed it to her. She knows that at the edge of the platform is a bunch of fruit and who doesn't want to feed an adorable elephant. It was quite an adventure and the bumpiest ride of my life.

Another cool thing that we did was go sea kayaking. We traveled about an hour and a half by boat to a place called Emerald Island (I think). It's a really amazing island with lots of caves and just deformed cliffs. Once there we kayaked around the place for quite a while and had lunch on one of the deserted beaches. There were other people out there, but by no means was it over crowded. There were 7 of us on our boat and then we had little 2 men kayaks. The caves all had stalactites and stalagmites (those of you that know me know that I love that kind of sciency stuff). After kayaking we stopped off at Buu Buu (pronounced like "Ouch, I have a boo boo on my knee) Island. Basically this is a little island with one pseudo low key resort and bungalows (not fancy at all). They have hammocks everywhere, a nice beach, and a library of books. Basically boats stop there for a few hours and people lounge. Rich and I picked a hammock; he read and I slept. It's my kind of place.

Our last evening on Ko Lanta, we traveled to Lanta Old Town. Lanta Old Town is a quiet village that has avoided the busy hustle and bustle night life. It has a few nice restaurants and just feels more remote than the main city in Ko Lanta, Saladan. In fact part of Lanta Old Town was destroyed by the giant 2004 tsunami. The photo on the right is of some recently built boats. Supposedly in addition to many homes, all of the fishing boats were destroyed in the tsunami. Many ended up in trees. A really cool guy that runs a beautiful boutique like inn called Mango House (www.bestokolanta.com) raised money to build all new fishing boats for the community.

Ko Lanta was a great destination and a perfect place to stay. It wasn't overcrowded and it hasn't yet been absorbed by huge commercial conglomerates that seem to take over everywhere. The island is the perfect size and easy to travel by moped. Two thumbs up! Here's the Ko Lanta album.