Living and Loving Lanta

Right after our son was born in 2012, we took a  1-month holiday to Belize to spend some time together as a family before Juliann went back to work.  We chose Caye Caulker as our base, primarily because we wanted to try out a location where development was nonexistent and the pace was slow.

Caulker was tiny, the streets were unpaved, and the only vehicles there were golf carts and bicycles, save for a town truck that handled trash pickup and beer deliveries.

We spent our days swimming, eating long, slow meals, and relaxing together.  It was a wonderful time for us, though a bit rougher around the edges than we would have preferred, and it stuck with us.

Vietnam – A New Challenge

Fast forward a few years to 2016.  We had just finished locking down accommodations for our 5 weeks in Phuket and we were casting about for a Caye Caulker-like island to spend our final couple of weeks in Thailand.

Koh Lanta and the tiny Koh Lipe were finalists.  They both seemed perfect for our needs, and Koh Lanta won out because it was much closer than the remote Koh Lipe.

We’ll get to Koh Lipe someday, but Lanta turned out to be a great way to spend a couple of weeks.  Our apartment was part of a small “luxury” complex on a quiet cove between the beaches of Klong Kong and Klong Nin, and while it didn’t have the expansive ocean views of our place in Phuket, we could see the Andaman from our living room.  The apartment was small but comfortable, and it had a pool so we could burn off some of Braeden’s energy.

Koh Lanta had only one main road so it was very simple to navigate.  Food shopping wasn’t as easy as it had been on Phuket, but we found the essentials for breakfast and lunch and we went out for dinner most nights.  Juliann and I were acutely aware that our time in Thailand was running out and we were eager to get in as much Thai food as we could before leaving.

I realized while writing this post that we took embarrassingly few pictures of Lanta.  Those that we did take, however, are representative of our time there.  Our days were quiet and simple, and we tried – like in Phuket – to hit as many beaches and see as much of the island as possible.

[We ended up posting many more pics on Instagram, so have a look there if you want to feed your brain with more image candy]

Everything that Glitters – A Week in Dubai

Our beach out front was small and rocky, so we spent time checking out Klong Nin, Klong Dao, Long Beach, Relax Bay, and others.  Each was more beautiful than the next, and as we were hitting Lanta just at the end of the busy season, they were wonderfully quiet as well.  The water was warm and clear, the sand powdery fine, and the weather perfect.  The days slid by and we slipped into a leisurely routine that suited us just fine.

I was again able to take CrossFit-style classes at an excellent gym, Fit on Lanta, run by Robert, a Swede with infectious energy and a quick smile.  The heat in Lanta felt much more intense than it had on Phuket, so my conditioning didn’t feel as much a limiter as the sweltering conditions.  It was great training, though, and I was happy to be back in a gym again.

Easter came while were were in Lanta, and Braeden’s excitement in the days beforehand was contagious.  He spent hours drawing and coloring bunnies, chicks, and Easter eggs.  Juliann found instructions for making an Easter basket from woven construction paper, which she and Braeden made together.

She also managed to find some toys and treats in various shops around the island, so when Easter morning came, Braeden was thrilled to find that the Easter bunny had indeed found us in Thailand and left some goodies in his basket, including beach toys and an inflatable turtle for the pool.

We also made sure while on Lanta to get in a snorkeling trip and, as a special treat for Mom and Dad, a couple of dives.

Hidden Depths Diving had been recommended to us by Robert at Fit on Lanta, so we spent a day with them snorkeling around the uninhabited island of Koh Haa.

Koh Haa had a reputation as one of the best snorkeling spots in Thailand, and we soon found out why.  The coral was absolutely stunning and the variety of fish was flabbergasting.

Braeden tried using a snorkel for the first time and had the hang of it after about five minutes.  We spent a good hour swimming around Koh Haa in about 15 feet of gin-clear water, and we were able to see dozens of things Braeden had only seen before in books or on the computer:  Brain and Staghorn Corals, Barrel Sponges so big I could swim into them, gorgeous sea fans, Parrot fish, Puffer fish, Giant Clams, hundreds of Blue Starfish, Drums, Lizardfish, Lionfish, Gobies, Trumpetfish, Wrasses, Grouper, a beautiful Scrawled Filefish, Trevally, more Butterfly and Angelfishes than we could count, and an enormous school of thousands of juvenile Barracuda that just hung in the water like a silvery cloud of scales and gleaming black eyes.

Braeden’s head spun and his eyes shone.  He had never seen anything like it before in his young life, and he was hooked.  It brought back memories of the first time I stuck my head in the water with a mask on, and my head swiveled back and forth between the wonders below us and my son’s astonished face.

For the first 10 minutes the boy nervously insisted that I hold his hand, and I assured him that I would not let him go.  Shortly after that, however, he raised his head, spit out his snorkel, said, “Daddy, I don’t need you to hold my hand any more,” and swam off, completely unafraid of the deep water or the creatures swimming around him.  J and I grinned and just followed him around.

The next day Juliann and I had arranged for a sitter, Jenny, who had come highly recommended by a few different people.  We kissed Braeden goodbye and headed back to Hidden Depths for a day of diving at two of the world’s top dive spots, Hin Daeng and Hin Muang.

As is my wont on this trip, I completely forgot to bring the GoPro so we have no pics or footage of our dives, but suffice it to say that both sites were amazing.

Both are pinnacles in the open ocean, several miles offshore, and once we got beneath the water we realized that these dives were going to be special.  The pinnacles rose like mountains from the bottom thousands of feet below, and all manner of marine life congregated around them.  On both dives we descended to our maximum depth, then wound our way up the pinnacles like a corkscrew.

The topography of Hin Daeng and Hin Muang was stunning.  Swimming around the pinnacles was like flying around a mountain.  We would look down and see only inky blackness.  We would look to our left, away from the pinnacle, and see only endless blue sea.

Even better than the topography was the marine life.  I’ve been diving for over 30 years now and I’ve never, ever seen as many fish as there were out there.  It was breathtaking.  Not just a single fish here and a single fish there, but every species we saw, it seemed, was in a school of hundreds or thousands.  Great Barracuda were everywhere 20 feet above us, their dark silhouettes hanging ominously against the shimmering blue backdrop of the surface.  Swarms of beautiful, slow-swimming butterfly fish glided over the coral.  Trevally drifted by us in huge schools.

It was a spiritual experience, and we were grateful that we had a chance to do it.

Back at the dock we picked up a fish ID card for Braeden and headed home.  Over dinner he scanned the card, looking for a new fish he didn’t recognize, and on finding one he would ask, “Mommy, did you and Daddy see this one?”

It was a priceless day.  Another in a long string of them, and every day we’re aware of how lucky we are to have them.

Koh Lanta was a wonderful two weeks, and I frequently find myself daydreaming about the place.  Juliann and I both agree that we’re not done with Thailand, and Lanta is on my list of places to which we’ll return.

Next:  Back to Europe!