The following day, after filling ourselves up at the breakfast buffet, we made the most of the luxurious hotel, with hours spent soaking in the sun and splashing in the pool. Before lunch, Charlie and Laura decided to go snorkelling to try and find the single anemone, home to three REAL nemos, in the sheltered swimming area that James and Amy (also known as "Jamy") had found the day before. Using Amy's wonderful directions of "they're in the swimming area past the ropes and the anemone is in the middle but slightly to the left" we eventually found the small, solitary anemone swaying in the waves with three little faces poking out. After taking it in turns to try and get a good snap of them, which proved quite difficult with the waves pulling us around and a nasty territorial fish that was attacking us every few minutes, we left them in peace and began to swim further away from shore. Our snorkelling was cut short when we realised we were surrounded by an army of these territorial biting fish, who were annoyingly charging at us from all sides and managed to nip Charlies leg, so we called it a day and headed back to the pool. That evening we had dinner at the sea gypsies restaurant that had been recommended by Trip Advisor, where we all enjoyed Paneng curry and a couple of drinks on the beach.
After our last breakfast on Phi Phi, we were packed and ready for our early long tail boat trip round to Tonsai, the main pier on the party side of the island where we were due to catch the ferry to Koh Lanta. The trip was peaceful and we felt like tiny ants as we passed the towering limestone cliffs, stacks and arches formed over thousands of years by the aggressive waves and winds of the Andaman Sea. With hour an hour to kill, Amy and James put their haggling skills to test and bought a few thai beaters, and we found two of the tiniest cutest (and probably flea-ridden) kittens we had seen in Thailand! Whilst booking our ferry tickets, we were persuaded to stay at one of the hotels on the "beautiful beach of Khong Klong", with a pool, restaurant and a special price on the "deluxe" rooms. At the time, it seemed like a great idea to get somewhere booked rather than have to lug our heavy bags around in search of accommodation once we got there. We were also promised "if the rooms don't look like the pictures, you get double your money back". After a ferry journey on the most rustic, DIY-style bodge-job of a boat we were put in a taxi to our hotel, where we checked into our rooms which, as promised, did actually look like the photos. The afternoon was spent relaxing in the slightly scum-covered pool and the rocky sea, before booking a snorkelling and fishing trip for the following day. Dinner at Neng, another restaurant recommended by Trip Advisor, was delicious with the added bonus of the best mojitos so far on our travels at only 80 baht!
The following morning we were up early and excited for our fishing trip, something both the boys had been wanting to do for days! After a short taxi to the pier, we were met by a thai couple who were looking after us for the day and we began to cover ourselves in suncream as the sun was already burning in the sky. After ten minutes of cruising out to sea, the engine spluttered and eventually cut out leaving us all slightly concerned. As the couple spoke little English all we could understand was that a part had broken and that they needed to go to Krabi to buy a new one. As we waited for a long tail boat to come and tow us back to shore the thai lady, who seemed to find Amy hilarious, cooked us up a breakfast of thai green chicken curry, vegetable stir fry and rice. Eventually we arrived back at the hotel having purchased a couple of sets of bat and ball, and spent the whole day in the pool having tournaments before two little thai girls, who took a fancy to the boys, demanded to be constantly spun round and thrown around despite (worryingly) being unable to swim. Eventually they were shouted at by their mother, presumably to leave us alone, and the boys were free once again! The evening was spent watching the stunning sun set across the ocean, with an electric storm lighting up the islands off the coast, before strolling along the beach to find a unique restaurant with each table being completely different, in little covered huts, some on stilts and some on the floor.
After our unsuccessful/short fishing trip the day before we were up early again ready to go fishing on the same boat that broke down the day before. We were picked up at the same time and taken to the pier. We boarded the boat and set off for the second time hoping to actually get out to the fishing grounds around the small islands of Koh Haa. We slowly made our way out of the harbour and in to the open ocean where the captain of the boat set out five lines, two deep lines with large squid lures, two shallower lines with smaller squid lures and a line none of us had come across, a wooden carved fish with large fins trawling a line of smaller lures. The captain set a course for the islands, around 19km off the shore, and the waiting game began. It took us around an hour to reach the islands without as much as a bite on any of the lines so the captain changed one of the mid depth lines for another of the top skimmer lines with a number of lures off the large wooden fish. Within minutes we were in with two small tuna in quick succession. Then again within ten minutes the line went zipping away, this time a larger tuna which put up a bit of a fight for Charlie. As with the first fish this was followed by another decent sized tuna for James to bring in successfully. As we trawled round the islands there was little action so James and Charlie sat up on the sun deck ready for the girls to give it a go. Charlie said to James "I bet you anything that deep line on the left is gonna zip away and Laura will get the biggest fish of the day" and as if it was rehearsed the line on the left screeched away as the fish below had taken the bait and run off with the line. Laura grabbed the rod and began her fight with the big barracuda at the end of the line. With the fish fighting and thrashing below the surface Laura began pulling the rod up to haul in the fish and, quickly reeling in the slack as she let the rod back down, she looked like a pro, maybe after catching the biggest fish in New Zealand! After a good fight the barracuda was finally in reach of the captain to bring in the fish. We carried on trawling for a while before we changed tack and tried fishing from the stationary boat in to the deep with squid as our bait. As with fishing in New Zealand, we were being had by the fish below as they just took the bait off the line, time after time. As Charlie let his line down a strange looking fish took the bait and was an easy haul in. The fish, that resembled a scribbled file fish that we had admired diving, looked inedible and too strange if not pretty to eat but as Charlie was about to throw it back in the captain stopped him saying it was amazing to eat on a BBQ, so baring in mind there were a number of them hanging below the boat we kept it.
With no more bites we brought in our lines and cruised in to the sheltered and stunning bay on the main Koh Haa island, the beautiful deep blue softened to a lighter blue before being broken up by the healthy coral and sprawling white sands that were met by high limestone cliff walls. This was a perfect location for some tasty thai lunch cooked by the captains wife followed by a nice long snorkel in the perfect and refreshing sea. We encountered several of the adorable seal-faced pufferfish, dory and memo, beautifully coloured starfish, a yellow-eyed moray eel and James nearly stepped on a huge scorpionfish! We enjoyed exploring the cracks in the limestone, floating above the stunning reef and towards the end of our snorkel we went swimming around the pinnacle that jutted out of the sea's surface. As we came round the corner the drop off was a shock! We all wish we could be diving as a few divers were cruising along below us. After a great snorkel we set off for another trawl making a few loops around the islands before heading for the mainland. It seemed like an age as we were all anxiously waiting for another fish when close to the harbour suddenly the line, top left again, zipped away at an astonishing rate, this was a big fish! We shouted for the captain and he grabbed the line trying to turn the fish, whilst shouting at his wife to slow the boat down, but instead of slowing down she sped up and as the captain was about to hand the rod to Charlie (we were going to let Amy take it as she hadn't caught a fish yet but the captain insisted either Charlie or James took it as it was so big) the line went ping as the fish, a large king mackerel, disappeared. We were all gutted, especially Charlie as he's always wanted to take in a big fish from a boat, but apparently not as much as the captain who was livid at his wife, after a minor argument in Thai and a huge apology from the captain we headed in to the harbour after a long days fishing. We thanked the captain and his wife for a lovely days fishing and took our catch back to the hotel restaurant and asked if they could cook it for us. They cooked up an amazing dish with the barracuda with a delicious thai style sauce over it, however after asking them to BBQ the tuna and the weird fish we waited for an age to finally realise they had just cooked the fish, failing to tell us it was ready and tucked in themselves. Obviously something lost in translation, we tasted the overcooked fish, which was still actually very tasty! Despite this, the meal topped off a great day and we were all proud of catching and eating our own fish!
After a night of little sleep with Charlie shivering in bed with a temperature, we managed to delay our ferry ticket by a day so that he could recover from the horrible sunstroke, as result of two full days in the scorching sun. After finally managing to get his temperature down using cooling gel pads, gatorade, cold showers and air-con, he spent the day trying to sleep off the terrible headache he was left with. Laura, James and Amy had an early lunch served by an incredibly rude waitress before James and Amy headed off into the jungle for their elephant trek to see a beautiful waterfall. Laura spent the day looking after a poorly Charlie and catching up with blog-writing! James and Amy enjoyed their trek, spotting a wild king cobra in the jungle, and had some typical Thailand traveller pictures under the slightly pathetic waterfall! We managed to get Charlie out of bed for a quick dinner next to the hotel, before having an early night.
Another morning full of travelling with Charlie feeling much better and we eventually arrived on the beautifully unspoilt island of Koh Lipe, one of Thailands most southerly islands close to the Malaysian border. This time James managed to keep hold of both his flip flops and we all hopped off the long tail boat that had transferred us from the ferry to the beach. With an idea of where we wanted to stay, we headed to a hotel we found online that advertised lovely-looking rooms for unbelievably low prices in the low season, which had started that week. After a brief discussion from the very rude reception staff, we were shunned away and left on the beach in the blistering heat dragging our bags from hotel to hotel, trying to find somewhere to stay. We eventually found a perfect hotel with a swimming pool, breath-taking views out to sea and lovely new CLEAN sea-side themed rooms with air-con for an extremely reasonable price. That afternoon a typical tropical rainstorm blanketed the island and Charlie and Laura spent the afternoon in their room watching a film, whilst Jamy wandered along Walking Street where they had their second thai massage of the holiday. That evening, the rain was still falling and we all had a quick evening meal before heading back to the rooms as Charlie still wasn't 100% better.
The next morning we were up early to make the most of the all-inclusive breakfast in the beautiful sunshine and the morning was spent relaxing at the hotel whilst Jamy moved to a fancier hotel up the beach (they decided they would spend their holiday money on a nicer hotel room rather then doing their open water course…crazy!). After a quick and yummy lunch made by the hotel chef who was amazing, Charlie and I wandered along the beach in search of a dive school that had been recommended to us and discussed the possibility of doing a couple of fun dives with them whilst Jamy do a "discover scuba diving" day. Charlie headed back to the room as his headache was still pestering him whilst Laura and Jamy decided to go snorkelling off the beach. After about twenty minutes of trying to snorkel in water that came half way up our shins, with visibility no better than half a metre, whilst surrounded by rocks coated in sea urchins that Amy cut her leg on we decided to give up. We had obviously chosen to snorkel at the wrong time of day as the tide was out and apparently the snorkelling off the beach is infact very good. That evening we all wandered along Walking Street, the main cement road running across the island with numerous restaurants, gift shops and travel agencies. Charlie and Laura bought tickets to Ao Nang, their next destination, whilst Jamy bought tickets back to Phuket where they were to catch their flight home. After all of us had made our purchases, which included typical thai beaters, jewellery and a sarong, we looked for somewhere to eat. Before our travels, we had been advised to chose thai restaurants if there were a lot of people eating their and especially if the locals ate there. After choosing the busiest restaurant full of thais, we regretted listening to this advice as it took well over an hour for our food to finally arrive. On the plus side, everyone apart from Laura made great choices and enjoyed delicious meals.
The following day we had all booked to go scuba diving with Davy Jones Locker, a dive school recommended to us by Roctopus on Koh Tao. Amy and James had an early start with a crash course of how to dive in the shallow waters off the beach. With the basics covered, we had a quick catch up before Charlie and Laura were off for their wreck dive. Excited to be diving again, we geared up and stumbled down the beach with our kit to climb into the long tail boat. On our way to the wreck, our dive master Yuri gave us a quick safety briefing and informed us on what we should expect to see. With the loud racket of the long tail engine roaring behind us, we found it difficult to hear exactly what he was saying. Luckily, Laura just nodded along when she failed to hear him tell the history of the wreck. The site, known as "The Haunted Wreck", had sunken unexpectedly and divers were sent down to try and salvage the engine. They never returned…. Had she known this before she definitely wouldn't have been comfortable doing it! After falling off the long tail boat backwards, a new entry for us, we swam against the particularly strong current to the buoy line where we looked beneath us to see nothing but murky water (slightly different to the blue and crystal clear waters of Koh Tao). As we descended nervously down the buoy line with the surface out of sight and the light rapidly fading, eventually the black silouhette of the wreck came into view. With only 5m visibility, we had to keep close to Yuri in order to avoid getting lost, as well as keep our eyes out for the abnormally large lion fish that lived on the wreck. After a short twenty minute dive at 30 metres, we swam around the surface of the wreck spotting a few reef fish as well as a huge tuna, several huge lion fish which we had never seen before and several trevally. For our first wreck dive it was incredibly eerie, all adding to the experience and although we were nervous at the start we really really enjoyed it! An added bonus was that Yuri pressure tested our new housing at 35 metres and it was successful! Yay for Bangkok specials!
Following the wreck dive we returned to the dive school to refill our tanks, where we bumped into Amy and James. Excited to all be diving together, we all climbed aboard the long tail after an appropriate surface interval and were off to the dive site. With slightly better visibility of about 10m we enjoyed a long and peaceful dive, letting the current pull us along. It was great to see Amy and James enjoying being underwater and we waved at them as we kicked past them, descending down to a deeper level. On our dive we were lucky to spot several more lion fish (two species), more nemos, some cute seal-faced pufferfish, porcupine pufferfish and various crustaceans. Suddenly, we spotted the tragic sight of a reef fish trap which was full of the beautiful banner fish, a couple of filefish and several other ornate reef fish. Charlie, the hero of the day, yanked the door of the trap off and the fish were free! With our air running low, we returned to the boat and spent the whole journey home chatting about our dives. With Amy and James now under the spell of diving, we felt satisfied and we all had a delicious meal of fresh fish at a table on the beach under the stars. Charlie, Laura and James had mouth-watering squid with chips whilst Amy splashed out on the huge tiger prawns, the biggest any of us had ever seen! It was a good job we only discovered this restaurant on our second to last night, otherwise we would have eaten here every night and spent a lot more money!
On our final full day on Koh Lipe a storm lingered above the island for a grey and miserable morning, leaving Charlie and Laura to watch another film in the room. After a final scrummy lunch, cooked by the hotels incredible chef, we spent the afternoon playing bat and ball in the sea whilst the sun transformed Koh Lipe back into the beautiful island that it is. We chilled in the pool until the sun was setting, before showering and returning to the fish restaurant on the beach for dinner. This time Charlie and James had squid and king prawns, Laura had crab and squid and Amy had tiger prawns and king prawns. Full to bursting, we headed back to our hotels to pack our bags in preparation for our long journeys back up to Phuket and Krabi.
After a farewell to Amy and James, who were returning to England to revise for their university exams (poor things), we caught the ferry and later the bus back up the coast to Ao Nang, Krabi where we had three nights booked in a lovely hotel before heading back to the wonderful Koh Tao. In Ao Nang, a tourist-ridden town located on a not-so-beautiful beach, we found a great deal on a room in a lovely hotel with a pool. We were upgraded to a deluxe room on arrival, and spent the mornings relaxing by the pool before the sun was blocked from the pool area mid-afternoon due to the surrounding high-rise hotels. On our first night we discovered the hotel restaurant which, being empty for a reason, was revolting. Yet, we still ate our lunch there on our second day! Our second evening was spent wandering around the main street of Ao Nang, after a short ride in a tuk-tuk kitted out with disco lights and a booming sound system. We had dinner in a delicious italian restaurant, booked our transport back to Koh Tao, organised an elephant trek for the following day and bumped into Lulu the spider monkey whose owner charged us an extortionate amount of money for a blurry polaroid photograph with her (definitely worth it though!). After a final morning of relaxing by the pool, we were picked up and driven to the elephant park where we had an hour-long elephant ride through the jungle and along a river until returning to the beginning where we fed the elephants with some rotting bananas! After refreshments, we walked back to a deeper part of the river with one of the elephants where he was told to lie in the water whilst we took it in turns to brush, rinse and stroke the elephant. After some great photos, our favourites of the elephant squirting water like in the disney films, we headed back to our hotel where we ate pad thai and pancakes at a street side stall with tables outside.
