We had our last days on Koh Lanta and we took the opportunity to spend time at our closest beach, Long beach, and hang out with our nomad friend Jonas. We have known Jonas since the Corax conference on Malta in 2017 and we usually meet up when we are close to each other. Now Thailand was our latest close encounter. We also enjoyed our last sunsets on the beach, soon we would go back to much colder weather and darker days so we wanted to enjoy the sun before leaving.
Vi hade våra sista dagar på Koh Lanta och vi tog chansen att spendera denna tid på vår närmaste strand, Long beach, och umgås med vår nomadvän Jonas. Vi har känt Jonas sedan Corax-konferensen på Malta 2017 och vi brukar ses när vi befinner oss nära varandra. Nu var Thailand vår senaste sammanstrålning. Vi har också njutit av våra sista solnedgångar på stranden, snart skulle vi tillbaka till mycket kallare väder och mörkare dagar så vi ville njuta av solen innan vi åkte.
We had already traveled from the West to the East coast on Koh Lanta, but we also wanted to see the North and South part of the island. In the South we found Koh Lanta National park and in the North we found a lovely beach.
Vi hade redan åkt från väst- till östkusten på Koh Lanta, men vi ville också se den norra och södra delen av ön. I söder hittade vi Koh Lantas nationalpark och i norra delen hittade vi en härlig strand.
Soon our days here on Koh Lanta would end for this time.
We like to explore wherever we go so naturally we wanted to see the other side of Koh Lanta and visit Old town which is located there. We took the scooter and traveled over the mountain and came to a different part of Koh Lanta. Old town looks quite different from the towns located on the west side, and has much less tourists.
Vi tycker om att utforska platser vi är på så naturligtvis ville vi se den andra sidan av Koh Lanta och besöka Old town som ligger där. Vi tog mopeden och körde över berget och kom till en annan del av Koh Lanta. Old town ser ganska annorlunda ut än byarna på västsidan och har mycket mindre turister.
Our closest beach is Long beach and this is where we hang out the most of our time here on Koh Lanta. Here, we often meet up with our friends and it was also on this beach that we also wanted to meet up with the Swedish Worldschooling community that is located here this winter. There are a few Swedish families on Koh Lanta that has taken their children’s well-being and education into their own hands and we managed to meet up with them on Long beach so that the children could play and us adults could talk.
Vår närmaste strand är Long beach och det är här vi tillbringar den mesta av vår tid här på Koh Lanta. Här träffar vi oftast våra vänner och det var på denna strand som vi också ville träffa det svenska “Worldschooling“-gänget som bor här i vinter. Det finns några svenska familjer på Koh Lanta som har tagit sina barns välbefinnande och utbildning i sina egna händer och vi lyckades träffa dem på Long Beach så att barnen kunde leka och oss vuxna kunde prata.
After our successful attempt with taking Othilia on a scooter, we now felt confident to explore more parts of Koh Lanta with a toddler. Together with our friends Caroline, David, Oliver and Elvira we explored different ways to cool ourselves in the heat. We followed them to a “secret beach” in the South and to an interesting visit to a water park on the second island, Koh Lanta Noi.
Efter vårt lyckade försök med att ta Othilia på en moped, så kände vi oss redo att utforska fler delar av Koh Lanta med ett småbarn. Tillsammans med våra vänner Caroline, David, Oliver och Elvira utforskade vi olika sätt att svalka oss i värmen. Vi följde med dem till en “hemlig” strand i södra delen av Koh Lanta och till ett intressant besök i en vattenpark på den andra ön, Koh Lanta Noi.
We are on Koh Lanta and have a much needed family time. We decided to check out from the online world during most of January, so we are now a bit behind in our diary. The first ten days on Koh Lanta was about dealing with jet lag for Othilia, but after those days we managed to establish some routines here. We mostly hung out with our friends and got into the island vacation rhythm. There wasn’t so much to do here on Koh Lanta with a toddler so before we arranged our own means of transport we hung out on the beach both day and night.
Vi är på Koh Lanta och har välbehövlig familjetid. Vi beslutade att vara ifrån online-världen under större delen av januari, så vi är nu lite efter i vår dagbok. De första tio dagarna på Koh Lanta handlade om att hantera jetlag för Othilia, men efter dessa dagar lyckades vi fastställa en del rutiner här. Vi umgicks mestadels med våra vänner och kom in i öns semesterrytm. Det var inte så mycket att göra här på Koh Lanta med ett litet barn och innan vi ordnade med vårt eget transportmedel så hängde vi på stranden både dag och natt.
We were finally ready to leave Europe and the cold and darkness. We had tried flying with Othilia once, so now it was time for a longer flight and see how it would go for her. So where would we go?
Thailand! We have been here before, we have a whole category with previous visits to Thailand, and now we wanted to take Othilia here.
Vi var äntligen redo att lämna Europa och kyla och mörker. Vi hade försökt flyga med Othilia en gång, så nu var det dags för en längre flygning och se hur det skulle gå för henne på en sådan. Så vart skulle vi åka?
Thailand! Vi har varit här tidigare, vi har en hel kategori med tidigare besök i Thailand, och nu ville vi ta med Othilia hit.
Part II of our liveaboard adventure begins when we entered the waters of the Similan National Park, a very famous dive area with a lot of dive sites and beautiful Islands. Part I was all about the Surin Islands and Richelieu rock, a more remote location where most boats that come there are dive boats. Now in the Similan islands we would encounter a lot more tourists and people snorkeling near the beaches. We were here in the beginning of March, so the high season for tourists were over so there weren’t to many people here. However, we can imagine crowded beaches here during the peak of the season.
Del II av vårt liveaboard-äventyr börjar när vi kom in i Similan Nationalpark, ett välkänt dykområde med många dykplatser och med vackra öar. Del I handlade om Surinöarna och Richelieu rock, ett mer avlägset område där de flesta båtar som kom dit är dykbåtar. Nu på Similanöarna skulle vi möta många fler turister och människor som snorklar nära stränderna. Vi var här i början av mars, så högsäsongen för turister var över och då var det inte alltför många människor där, men vi kunde föreställa oss hur trångt det skulle kunna vara på stränderna här under toppen av högsäsongen.
Day 2 of diving we entered the Similan National Park, which consists of 11 islands. Similan means nine (in Yawi) and from the beginning the park consisted of nine islands making up an archipelago, but in 1998 two more islands were included in the National park, Koh Tachai and Koh Bon.
We reached Koh Tachai, the most northern island and latest added to the Similan National park list of islands, around lunch on dive day 2. Some information about Koh Tachai: Original name Koh Bua after the unique Lotus flower that used to grow on the island. The 2004 tsunami wiped away all flowers so the island was renamed after one of the first fishermen who came to the island after the tsunami: Uncle Chai (TaChai).
Our dive number 8 on this trip was scheduled during the sunset so we didn’t bring our gopro for this dive. More information about Koh Tachai: The island is located between the Surin Islands and the main Similan Archipelago, quite close to the Richelieu rock where we dived previously that day (dive day 2). Whale sharks and Manta rays can be seen here, but luck wasn’t on our side on this trip.
Next day, dive day 3, we had traveled to Koh Bon for dives number 9 and 10. Koh Bon has two main dive areas, the ridge/bay and the Pinnacle, which is deep and prone to currents. The first dive for us here was next to the ridge.
Our tenth dive on this trip was north of the ridge and it was here that we got to see our first Guitarfish, which we first thought was a shark, but it belongs to the family of rays.
Then it was time to travel down to the main Similan archipelago, the original nine islands which have given this part of the world its name. We did our last dive of the day here, before it was barbecue time with our dive companions and the dive crew.
We did only three dives this day, so our barbecue party could start early.
Erica, Vita and Shing while waiting for dinner. We had good times together on the boat.
The sunset on dive day 3. The morning after would be our last dive day with the Sea dragon’s liveaboard.
Dive day 4 and we would have our last two dives on the West side of the archipelago. We also had time to visit Koh Similan, the largest island out of the nine islands in the archipelago.
We headed up on the “mountain” on Koh Similan to get a better view over the island.
It is an easy and short hike up a human-made trail, so shoes are not needed. The white powder on our feet are sand from the beach.
The view over the bay, Ao Kuerk, on Koh Similan. We don’t have a lot of pictures with us together so we took the opportunity to be in the same picture together.
The water is crystal clear so to jump from the rocks was amazing.
We found a strange looking dead creature near the beach. More pictures from Koh Similan can be found in the slide show below. Then it was time for our two last dives on the trip.
We had all three dives in the archipelago on the West side, which is known for its huge boulders and swim-throughs. Diving on the East side is said to be different with gently sloping coral reefs and sandy patches.
Then it was time to get back to the mainland and for us that meant to get back to Khao Lak and waiting for our friends to arrive.
Finally, Ulrika has taken the time to go through all our movies and photos from our Liveaboard adventure in Thailand so this will be a throwback to the end of February when we went out with Sea dragon, a Khao Lak based dive center that has its own boats traveling up and down the west coast of Thailand taking divers out for adventures in the Andaman Sea. We choose to do a 4 days/4 nights liveaboard going from the Surin Islands down to the Similan Islands with a total of 13 dives during the days (and nights) out on the sea. The crew and dive masters where awesome and the food served was really good, so we had a great time with the Sea dragons that we will remember forever.
Äntligen har Ulrika tagit sig tid att gå igenom alla våra filmer och bilder från vårt Liveaboard-äventyr i Thailand så detta blir en tillbakablick till slutet av februari när vi åkte ut med Sea Dragon, ett Khao Lak-baserat dykcenter som har sina egna båtar som färdas upp och ner vid Thailands västkust och tar dykare ut på äventyr i Andamansjön. Vi valde att göra en 4 dagars/4 nätters liveaboard som gick från Surinöarna ner till Similanöarna med totalt 13 dyk under dessa dagar (och nätter) ute på havet. Besättningen och dykinstruktörerna var fantastiska och maten som serverades ombord var riktigt bra. Vi hade en underbar upplevelse med Sea Dragons som vi kommer att minnas för alltid.
Our first stop was the Surin Islands where we would do our first four dives. We had traveled to these Islands during the night, so we could do our first dive early in the morning on day 1.
Mu Ko Surin National Park is an archipelago of five islands 60 km from the mainland and only a few kilometers from the Thai-Burmese oceanic border. The ethnic Moken minority, known as “chao lay” or “sea gypsies”, are the only humans living on the Surin islands.
We got a chance to walk on the main Surin Island and explore a small part of the national park. The park is closed during rainy season, 1 May-31 October, so during that time no dive boats go to this part of Thailand.
We brought our masks so we could do some snorkeling, but there wasn’t much to see under the water here. It was more things to see looking out from the beach. We then went out on our second dive before lunch.
We went out with the M/V Andaman boat and it was our Liveaboard-home for a few days. So we could relax on the sun deck reading a book or lay down under the roof listening to a podcast between dives. We have put together a slide show with pictures of the boat if you want to see how a Liveaboard boat could look like.
We could also talk with the other Liveaboard people on the boat. Siim and Kajsa were our dive companions, sharing the same dive master, so we did all of our dives together. Siim and Kajsa are working in the Finnish/Estonian film industry and Siim had become a bit famous after his last movie ( Mother, 2016) so some Estonian people on vacation in Thailand had recognized him.
Emil was our Swedish dive master who took us out on the under water adventures! Thanks Emil for our days with the Sea Dragon Liveaboard, you made it an awesome time for us.
It was encouraging to see the number of dives the people on our boat had done. We were one of the least experienced with only 48 dives during this trip, some of the divers had done several thousands of dives up to this point.
Our fourth dive was a night dive around the Surin Islands, so we waited for the sun to set before we jumped into the water. We didn’t film during this dive, but it was a really nice dive.
On dive day 2, the M/V Andaman took us to Richelieu Rock, a famous dive site 18 km east of the Surin Islands. Richelieu Rock is known for its purple corals and the diverse marine life found there. You even have a chance of seeing whale sharks around this underwater rock mountain if you’re lucky (we weren’t that lucky).
The dive master, there were five of them taking care of different dive groups, held a dive briefing before each dive and told us what we could expect to see on different dive sites. We did our dives no 5 and 6 around this dive site. The coral is pink and purple, so Scorpion fishes here have amazing color pattern trying to disguise themselves among the corals.
Richelieu Rock became a dive site when diving pioneer, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, with the help of local fishermen, discovered it. It is a horse-shoe shaped pinnacle that rises 50 meter from the sea bottom and touches the surface during low tide. After our two dives at Richelieu rock, we had lunch on the boat while it took us south to the island Koh Tachai. More about that in part II.
Our visit to Phuket town was short and it was just before we had to leave Thailand, because of visa rules. We had managed to book accommodation in the Old Town of Phuket town without us knowing about it. We’re in the process to prepare for major changes for us and such information just passed us without notice when we booked our accommodation. However, it was lovely to suddenly find ourselves in a street market in the old town of Phuket when we stepped out of our hostel in search of a place to eat.
Visa, which we are not a big fan of, was just one of the reasons that we said good bye to Thailand. Another reason was also that we’ve long been looking forward to returning to Bali. Bali is one of the few places in the world where we feel at home and, like our last time in Bali, we are here to meet interesting people, check out the Bitcoin-stage in Ubud and welcome part of our family to the island to show them one of our favorite places on the planet .
Det blev en kort visit i Phuket town innan vi var tvungen att lämna Thailand pga av visumregler och utan att vi visste om det så hade vi lyckats boka boende mitt i gamla stan i Phuket town. Vi håller ju på att förbereda oss för stora förändringar och sådan information hade lyckats gå förbi oss när vi bokade boendet i Phuket. Desto trevligare var det att plötsligt befinna sig på en marknad i gamla stan när vi klev utanför dörren i jakt på att hitta något ställe att äta på. Visum, vilket vi inte är ett stort fan av, var dock bara en av anledningarna till att vi lämnade Thailand. En annan anledning var också för att vi länge sett framemot att återvända till Bali. Bali är en av få platser i världen där vi känner oss hemma och liksom vår senaste gång på Bali är vi här för att träffa intressanta människor, kolla in Bitcoin-scenen i Ubud och välkomna familjemedlemmar till ön för att visa dem ett av våra favoritställen på denna planet.
The walking street market in Phuket town
You’ll find both artists and…
…musicians here to entertain the crowd
However, we were outside looking for food and we found our dinner that night on a stick.
Pontus with our favorite beer in Thailand – Leo is a bit darker and has more flavour compared to Singha and Chang, which is two other Thai beer brands available here.