7th November – Snorkelling in Koh Ma, Koh Chuak, Koh Mook and Koh Ngai

What a disruptive sleep we had last night. We were woken up at around midnight to the sound of loud thunders. I have never heard such racket in my life, even when I lived in Ghana the noises were not this bad.

The thunder lasted for almost two hours and it poured and poured with rain. It was scary i have to admit, it felt like the lighting was just above our hut and Julie informed me our roof is made of tin/metal so that even made it more scarier.

All sorts of thoughts went through my head, such as what if the lightening causes a fire to our hut or what if there was a Tsunami, where would we go to? As our bungalow is on the ocean front, you can hear the waves crushing onto the beach and could tell it was very windy. After it stopped I was lucky enough to get back to sleep.

Woke up in the morning and we had a whole day of tours to do, visiting 4 islands and a day of snorkelling. Cost of tour was 800 Baht (£16) each but when we spike to other people they got it for 700 Baht, so you can get it cheaper.

The bus picked us up from our bungalow and along the way we picked up a few people from different hotels who will be joining us and were taken to the south of Koh Lanta for our tour to begin.

The boat we had was a long tail boat. Basically it’s wooden and fits around 12 people.

The journey to the islands was very rough, the sea was temperamental and was very choppy. The first two islands were only for snorkelling, you didn’t get to the beach just jumping into the crystal clear blue water. In these waters you could see various types of fish, and the second island Julie was shown where to find Nemos where she took photos with her under water camera.

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The third stop, you required a life jacket as the water was choppy and the idea is to swim under a tunnel in a cave in pitch black for 80meters and then you come to an enclosure which was a lagoon.

According to Julie it was amazing. The caves used to be used by pirates as a resting place and from the photos Julie showed me it was like a scene from the Pirates of the Carribean.

The last island we visited was Koh Ngai where we had lunch. This was one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever had the pleasure if visiting. The stretch of white sand, transparent waters and you had maybe 100 meters of shallow clear blue water from the sands into the ocean. The water came to ankle or sometimes knee height.

The back drop was not too bad either, where you had the limestone mountains dotted around in the sea to create this dramatic and romantic surroundings.

We left the island around 2:30 and made our way back to Koh Lanta. The journey was worse than this morning. This was very bumpy. It felt like you were on a roller coaster ride, engine of the wooden boat pelting at full speed, cutting through the waves and the salt water slashing against the transparent covers that had been provide to protect those at the front from being drenched. It was crazy but made is safely back on land and were taken back to our hotel by the bus driver.

We then tried to book a plane ticket back to Bangkok as I was informed on the boat by a Dutch guy whose been travelling around Thailand that the south of Thailand has now been cut off from Bangkok so the only way to get to the airport is to fly.

We asked a few tour operators and they mentioned it hasn't been cut off yet and we can get a sleeper bus from Krabi to Bangkok, which should take a little more than 12hrs. It's been a while since we've done the sleeper bus but we have no choice as it's cheaper than flights.

Another dilemma that has been thrown into the mix is, we want to see the full moon festival on 10th Nov and the only way we can see it is on the mainland so Krabi as Koh Lanta or Koh Phi Phi don't celebrate it as it's inhabitants are majority Muslim. Seeing the festivals on 10th Nov means leaving on 11th Nov at 4:30pm on sleeper bus to Bangkok and arriving at 6am on 12th Nov with a plane to take to Kathmandu at 8am. This will be cutting it fine so we might have to miss the festival and try to get to Bangkok a day early. As Bangkok is flooded the festivals has been cancelled there. Oh well we shall see I guess.

Tomorrow is a day of relaxation, I spotted a gym down the road, so might go for a work out in the morning.

En français:

Réveil a 7h pour avoir le temps de se préparer avant que quelqu'un vienne nous chercher pour 8h.

On roule jusqu'à la baie de Kantiang en collectant d'autres personnes au passage. Une fois arrives, on monte a bord d'un bateau Longtail, un bateau typique en bois qui peut accueillera une quinzaine de personnes, on est 12, sans compter le capitaine et son fils.

On longe Koh Lanta jusqu'à la pointe sud puis on va jusqu'à l'ile de Koh Ma. C'est un gigantesque rocher calcaire qui flotte dans le mer Adaman. On s'y arrête pour faire du snorkelling. Je prnds un masque et un tuba et je saute dans l'eau turquoise. Juste sous notre bateau, il y a des centaines de poissons multicolores. Je nage quand même un peu plus loin pour aller juste au bord de la roche et la il y a un bébé requin.

On remonte sur le bateau pour aller cette fois a l'ile Koh Chuak, c'est un peu le même genre d'ile, de la roche sauf que celle ci a une grotte. Le capitaine nous dit de ne pas aller dans la grotte car quelqu'un y habite et n'aime quand des gens nagent jusque chez lui. Apparemment il a déjà tire sur des gens! Au bord de Koh Chuak, on voit d'autre genres de poissons comme les poissons clowns (Nemo).

On reprend le bateau pour aller a Koh Mook, cette ile est aussi un gros rocher avec un grotte sous marine. Ctte fois on a le droit d’y aller et c’est la tout l’interet de la visite. La mer est agitée et nager jusqu’à la grotte est assez difficile donc on doit tous porter des gilets de sauvetage. On lutte tous un peu pour arriver jusqu’à la grotte. Avec la lumière, l’eau est comme l’émeraude, d’ailleurs ça s’appelle ‘Emerald’s Cave’. On nage pendant 80 metres dans le noir total jusqu’à qu’on aperçoive la sortie qui débouche sur un plage de sable blanc au milieu du rocher, magique! Apparemment c’est la que des pirates cachaient leur butin. On reste 15 minutes pour admirer l’endroit et on repart par le tunnel pour arriver jusqu’au bateau. On arrive tous crèves a cause de la houle.

Enfin, on va jusqu’à Koh Ngai et on débarque sur une plage paradisiaque. La on nous sert le déjeuner: curry vert de poulet avec du riz, on ne va pas se plaindre! On a une heure pour déjeuner et ‘visiter’. A 14h30, on repart pour Koh Lanta. Sur la route, il y a tellement de houle qu’on se croirait dans un grand huit.

On débarque de l’autre cote de l’ile a la vielle ville. On reprend notre camion pick-up pour aller jusqu’à notre bungalow.

On se repose au Funky Fish et on prépare le reste de notre séjour en Thaïlande. On se rend compte que ce n’est pas donne, on va surement dépasser notre budget pour ce pays!

On dine sur le bord de la plage au Palm Beach et on rentre a notre bungalow juste après.