Day 7 - Dive & Relax

Happy Valentine’s Day from Koh Lanta. This is an amazing place to spend Valentine’s Day. There is no one I would rather spend it with than Alison. I love all of the adventures and experiences we get to share.

We woke up a little early this morning so that we could take an morning walk along the beach during sunrise. It was a beautiful time to be on the beach. After our walk we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel. It was mostly a standard western style buffet with a few Thai food options thrown in.

Our adventure of the day was diving. Can I be real a second? I woke up this morning with a knot in my stomach. I felt nervous about going diving. I even felt like I didn’t want to go. It isn’t a rational fear, but it is the way I feel. Don’t get me wrong, when I actually dive I love it. The anticipation is hard for me. I am a naturally risk averse individual and in my mind I keep thinking of all of the things that can go wrong. I used to have a similar feeling about roller coasters. I would feel really anxious and get worked up before the experience. I would feel great afterward, but during that moment of anticipation I was wracked with anxiety. I hope that eventually this nervousness will disappear, but for now I have to deal with it.

Our dive was actually a great experience and everything went so well. Once I got into the water my nervousness melted away.

We went diving with Dive & Relax. We chose the company because of their excellent reviews on trip advisor. Our guide was named Peter. He is from Iceland and has been leading dives in Koh Lanta for two seasons. Our group consisted of Alison and myself along with Peter. We were the only certified divers on our boat. The other divers were all working on their certifications. Before we got on the boat Peter gave us a briefing where he told us about the dive sites we would be visiting and about the boat. This was also our opportunity to ask him questions. When we were done the boat pulled up to the beach and we all waded out and climbed aboard. The boat was a speed boat and was fairly similar to Alison’s parent’s ski boat. It took ~40 minutes to get to the first dive site.

Both of our dives were in the Koh Haa area. Koh Haa is a group of 5 islands. The islands have an interesting look because they are basically giant rocks that appear to be floating on the ocean. They kind of snuck up on us and seemed to appear out of nowhere. In the middle of the islands is a lagoon that is a very popular diving and snorkeling location.

The first dive was at the Koh Haa caves. We started the dive at 9:45am and dove for 39 minutes. We hit a max depth of 16.1 meters. We saw lots of beautiful coral. We also saw interesting sea life including giant moray, groupers, triggerfish, and snappers. During this dive we swam through some underwater caves. It was really interesting to look out at the ocean from inside the caves.

The second dive was at Koh Haa Lagoon. We started the dive at 11:50am and dove for 46 minutes. We hit a max depth of 15.8 meters. We started by the second island swam around the island and then across the sea floor to swim partially around the fourth island before heading back to the boat. We had fairly clear visibility and we saw so much sea life. Here are a few examples of things we saw: clown fish, lobster, scorpion fish, wall slugs, banalt cleaner shrimp, dancing shrimp, cornet fish, garden eel, baby lion fish, banner fish, and bat fish. We also saw giant schools of glass fish that swarmed right up against the island wall. That was an incredible sight. Alison's favorite are sea life were the tiny clown fish swimming through the anemone.

We set personal bests for both depth and time underwater on these dives. Both Alison and I felt the most comfortable we have ever felt while diving. Alison had too many weights in her weight belt during the first dive and struggled a bit with buoyancy. Peter removed one of the weights and she felt great during the second dive. It really was a great diving experience.

We were always the first ones off the boat and the first ones back on. Everyone else took a while because they were learning and working on their certification. This gave us time to get to know the crew and to enjoy the beauty of the islands from the boat.

We got back to our hotel ~2pm. We were grateful we were on a small speed boat because most of the big boats leave at the same time we left but don’t get back until 5 or 6 pm. When we got back to our hotel we met up with Victoria and Hayden. They traveled out to Koh Lanta late the night before. We were excited to spend more time with them.

We wandered down to the beach and found a place to eat lunch. Lunch by the beach is great. We sat and chatted and watched the waves crash in.

After lunch we got massages on the beach. The beat is the best place to get a massage. I went with an oil massage and Alison went with a Thai massage again. She was a little disappointed she couldn’t talk any of us into trying a Thai massage. She loved her Thai massages.

After the massage we all went back to our rooms to shower and clean up. Then we met back up on the beach to watch the sunset. It was absolutely stunning. What a romantic way to spend Valentine’s.

When the sun finished setting we were getting hungry. We took a tuk tuk to one of Victoria’s favorite restaurants on the island - Shanti Shanti Beach House. Victoria has visited Koh Lanta before and found many of the best places to eat. This Shanti Shanti restaurant is a little bit fancier/nicer Thai place. The food was excellent. We had pineapple fried rice, a whole steamed fish prepared Thai style, Pad Thai, Massaman curry and delicious mango smoothies. This meal was a fantastic way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. The company was even better than the food. We stayed late into the evening having long deep conversations. It was the perfect ending to our day.