On Christmas Eve I made my way out to Koh Lanta in Thailand to visit Sarah & Richard and also to get some freediving in.
I flew with Thai airlines and it was probably one of my better flights, well... once I had left Heathrow that was were in security I was mistaken for a terrorist and had my hand luggage (camera gear etc) thoroughly inspected, cameras taken away to be scanned and even going as far to remove lens caps - obviously I looked like I had a hidden stash of cocaine inside my lens. Half an hour later and security let me go looking rather disappointed they hadn't found a bomb and therefore missed out on their possible claim to fame on uncovering a suicide bomber. Heathrow was utter chaos so it was nice to leave it all behind when arriving in Bangkok, defo a far more civilized airport! Then it was on to Krabi, again with Thai airlines, the Thai people are generally very friendly and polite, this applied to the cabin staff which was a refreshing change.
Arriving in Krabi I got a taxi across to Koh Lanta, couple of small ferry crossings and I arrived mid day. Food in Thailand was delicious, but on Christmas Day Sarah & Richard had booked us in for a "traditional UK Christmas dinner", now it may not be what the Thai serve up as a rule but it was the nicest roast dinner I have ever had, they have a knack of doing their veg spot on, still nice and crispy not a soggy mess. After this meal though it was Thai food for the rest of the holiday, all totally yummy :)
For the first few nights I stayed at Kaw Kwang resort which was very nice, (and had the nicest
beach, see pic above) however there was a great deal of confusion caused as to how many nights I was actually supposed to be there, the staff whilst very friendly and helpful did not speak the best of english which probably didn't help the situation, although in saying that it was I that was the visitor in their country and you cannot expect everyone to have fluent english as a second language. I then moved to stay next door to Sarah which made sense, plus it was such a lovely place that apart from one day (new years) we had entirely to ourselves, apart from the local wildlife of course! Some very pretty frogs which kept us entertained, plus monkeys seemed to make their own entertainment on the roof of my hut, from the sounds of which they were having quite a party!
However no one, including the local tuk tuk (taxi) drivers seemed to know the existence of this place, which makes it a great base for Sarah & Richard and for friends visiting but a place I would recommend staying at for anyone finding themselves heading to Koh Lanta is Banana Garden Home, run by Annie who is an excellent cook who will go out of her way to make your stay special, plus you can watch Pas the barman doing his fire dancing down on the beach.
First time in Thailand, the greenery is striking as are the dramatic cliffs, its certainly a very pretty area of the world. Most of my time was spent over on Koh Lanta, however I did hop across to Koh Phi Phi for a day - nice enough for a day out but way too touristy for my liking. I also found myself being deposited on "The Beach" which lives up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, however due to the movie its fame has spread and it has now turned into a longtail boat and speedboat car park. My challenge was to try and take a half decent shot without hordes of tourists in it...
I also spent a couple of days back in Krabi, once on a visa run with Sarah, and then on my
final day both Richard and Sarah headed back to the mainland with me for the day where we went off to climb up the 1237 steps to Wat Tum Sua which is a golden temple about 600m up a limestone tower which spectacular views of Krabi and the surrounds. Steps vary in steepness and there were some that were quite challenging to those of us with short legs!
Krabi itself is a lively bustling town full of old buildings, market places and food stalls, a great place to spend a day or evening sampling the different foods and picking up some bargains in the shops, clothes as well as the food are very cheap in comparison to uk prices.
I think one of the nicest days out we had was visiting Lanta Noi where we did a tour through 
the mangroves via longtail boat. Here I saw the most colourful crabs I've ever seen, beautiful blue colours, hard to photograph though from the moving boat. Monkeys also kept us entertained, I'm always happy with a camera in my hand when there is wildlife about. We had stopped off for a swim on our own little island and then headed back to Lanta Noi where we had lunch with some local villagers - the most delicious noodles and omelete ever!
Oh and another good day was renting our own Tuk Tuk, Richard was "taxi" driver and we headed off to explore Koh Lanta and take a look at Old Town.
Diving was done through Blue Planet Divers which is were Sarah and Richard are based as freedive instructors. I would say its a great place to do a 2** or 3*** course, but Blue Planet are mainly scuba based and meant even as a freediver sharing a boat with 30 odd scuba divers, plus its a popular tourist dive area and that means sharing the dive spots with heaps of other dive boats. Even when I was doing scubadiving, after my initial PADI courses I tended to dive in places way off the beaten tourist track and would generally be in a small group and the only dive boat in the vicinity. So different to what I was used to but certainly a stunning place to dive, the dive sites tended to be near to the little island, pics here are of Koh Haa. Although I didn't do any scuba diving out there from what the scubies were saying after their dives they all seemed to get some good dives in.
It was great to get the chance to dive with Sarah again who is an old dive buddy from the UK before she packed her bags and headed off. I was concentrating on some CNF training which is blogged about here.