Fab Fish @ Koh Lanta, Thailand

Getting out of Malaysia was a bit tricky. At first our plan was to take the train to the airport but for some odd reason it was more expensive than a Grab. The cheapest option is actually to take a bus, but Adam harbors a bias against busses. (Upon reflection this resentment may stem from cold winters attempting to wait for an unreliable campus bus at Case Western). In the end we booked a Grab from our hotel for about $17, still much cheaper than an Uber to SFO.

We arrived at terminal 1 ready to board our flight only to learn that we needed to go to terminal 2, which required a train. So we went down to take the train to terminal 2, only to learn that the train was not free. So we tapped our transit cards, only to learn that despite the 2 ringgit fare we needed a 20 ringgit (5 USD) minimum balance to board the train. So we went to the terminal to load our transit cards, only to learn that we didn’t have enough cash. Now Adam’s frustration was rising. So he paid the ATM fees to withdraw more ringgits, only for Helen to figure out that you can buy a ticket to terminal 2 from the counter without the need for transit cards. After withdrawing more money than we needed we finally bought two tickets to go to terminal 2. Kuala Lumpur International Airport could learn a thing or two from SFO’s free tram.

We were a little annoyed with the start of the day, but everything else went smoothly. After landing in Krabi, Thailand we booked a Grab to our hotel on Koh Lanta. Adam had to negotiate with our driver over google translate to convince them to cross the ferry to the island of Koh Lanta, what’s a couple hundred thai baht anyway? When we finally walked up to Lanta MP Place Hotel, we were greeted by a Thai couple sitting outside, sipping tea and waiting to check us in. Our room was spacious and clean, with a small balcony just steps away from the ocean. At only 35 USD a night, it was perfect.

At this point it was 5:30pm and we hadn’t eaten lunch, so we were pretty hungry but we needed to stop by our dive shop, Phoenix Divers, before it closed at 6pm. That way we could test fit the dive gear so the shop could pack it up for our early morning boat departure. Once the gear was sorted we walked to the nearby food market and made our first of many pad thai orders.

That night we fell asleep to the Ocean’s gentle lullaby, inviting us to explore its depths in the morning. Over the next 2 days we’d go on 5 total dives around Koh Bida and Koh Ha. One of the highlights was a 2 meter long Leopard shark gliding gracefully through the waters. We also saw:

• spiny lobsters
• moray eels
• huge barrel sponges
• numerous schools of fish
• giant clams
• a yellow tiger seahorse
• many sea cucumbers (Helen’s particular favorite. They moved surprisingly fast, lumbering around munching on reef stuffs)
• nudibranchs
• a squad of squid
• pufferfish
• a sea snake (we watched it hunting, then it slithered through the water past us to the surface for air—They’re real snakes not fish)
• cuttlefish
• mantis shrimp
• many more things that we could not name

SCUBA diving in Thailand was as beautiful as it gets. The water a balmy 86F, keeping us cozy as we effortlessly floated beneath the waves, hissing through our darth vadar masks for life support.

After two full days of diving we decided it might be good to start planning the next leg of the trip. We looked up flights to Chiang Mai and realized it was $300 cheaper to push it five days out instead of two. So we walked down to the hotel lobby and asked for three more nights. We were happy to get more time to explore the beautiful beaches of Koh Lanta. Oh the joys of not having jobs or pressing responsibilities to get back to.