Diving at Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Noi, more relaxing on the beach - and celebrating Cecilies birthday

Malene and Katrine went diving this morning. Early. Pick up at the resort at 7:15 AM to go for a couple of dives at Koh Bida Nok and Koh Bida Noi. Jeppe, Karl and Mikkel spent the morning together enjoying a slow and late breakfast - and then it was beer time, nap time, lunch time and before we knew it the girls were back at the bungalows. They had two dives and saw turtle, great barracuda, trumpet fish, lion fish and puffer fish among other things. The feedback wasn't too impressive since the visibility had been somewhat limited under water due to lots of plankton in the water.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening hanging out on the beach and just taking it very slowly. Mikkel brought out the bottle of Nicaraguan Flor de Cana rum for the sunset drinks. We celebrated Cecilie's birthday and went down the beach to a place that did bbq'd sea food and had mixed seafood to share. Cecilie lit one of the paper lamps and we watched it going up and slowly drifting away from the shore.

Malene had signed up for more diving action tomorrow starting her PADI Open Water Advanced course so another early morning for her meant early to bed also.

Hello Denmark - it's my birthday

Heading out for some underwater action

Back on the beach with drinks

It's going to be a good sunset

Katrine, Karl and Jeppe

Sharing is caring

Malene and Cecilie

Light the candle and make a wish

Dinner on the beach

Old enough for a Nicaraguan Cigar

....almost

A day on the beach at Kantiang Bay - and another friend signing in

We had breakfast early and left to met up with Katrine, Jeppe and Karl to go a bit down the island to another beach - Kantiang Bay. It was quiet in the street outside the bungalows and not too many vehicles passing by. We waited for a while until we managed to stop one of the local pick-up-truck-buses. The driver asked for way too much money so the haggling started and we ended up with a price that was a bit too much but given the driver selling the trip as passing over high mountains for hours and hours.

It turned out to be 20 minute drive over a couple of hills. We enjoyed the ride, seeing the coastline of the island or rather the endless row of buildings be it hotels, bungalows or apartments stretching all the way from our place to our beach. We were dropped off by the driver in front of a couple of tuk-tuks and couldn't help to laugh a bit since our driver insisted that the road was too steep for tuk-tuks to go there. Of course not but all tricks apply when it comes to selling.

A 5 minute walk on the beach and we were at the other end. The place looking significantly more upmarket than our own place with beach chairs and umbrellas placed nicely and ready for "rich" people to occupy them. The whole place was nicely quiet in the morning and we relaxed next to the rocks where there still was a bit of shade to be found. Karl was in a really good mood so we played with him a bit until finally we couldn't resist a swim in the ocean.

Later we ran out of shade - or felt the hunger for lunch so we headed back to the other end of the beach, found a nice restaurant and had lunch including the mysterious "No-name"-dish. It turned out to be some kind of spicy deep-fried rice and vegetable balls - but delicious.

Going back to Green Chili bungalows it was Malenes turn to haggle the price with the taxi drivers. Or this time the tuk-tuk drivers. It turned out to be easy to get a slightly cheaper price but they were a bit reluctant to take all of us in one tuk-tuk. So we walked away and we immediately offered a good price in a car of "some friend". Two minutes later our car arrived and we were back at "home" in no time.

Arriving at our place we were happy to see the Cecilie had checked in. For the next couple of days it's going to be "all of us" hanging out here. Sunset drinks and some good food for dinner. What more can we want??

Breakfast on the beach

Kantiang beach

Young and determined

Yet another fabulous sunset

Koh Lanta here we come

We woke up a bit early which was fine. A short shower and then head out for our 7 AM pick up going to Koh Lanta. The guy arrived at our hotel at 7:20 and the only other passenger turned out to be another Danish guy. We chatted a bit with him as the mini-bus drove around Krabi and picked up another girl who also turned out to be Danish. As the bus made a u-turn we spotted a cafe called "Coffee @ Nyhavn" and a big picture of Nyhavn. Thailand feels a lot closer to home than any of the other places we have been for almost a year.

Then we spent the next couple of hours going to Koh Lanta, stopping a couple of times on the way when our driver had to say hello to some of his friends. We made it to the first ferry, left almost instantly and repeated this on ferry number two as well. Our driver knew "Green Chili Bungalows" so he dropped us off in front of the reception at 10 AM. We were here - as planned - and signed in for our room and went straight for breakfast on the beach. This place is wonderful.

Just as Malene was about to head over and say hello to Katrine and Jeppe, Katrine came walking down the beach. Big hugs, she went back to get Jeppe and Karl and we more or less hung out for the rest of the morning and afternoon. We had a swim in the ocean once we got the keys to our bungalow and met with Katrine and Jeppe for sunset drinks and dinner later. Thai food is such a great thing after many months of less spicy food in South- and Central America. Still slightly jetlagged we headed to bed super happy to finally be here.

All packed and ready to go - again

Fan, Air, HotShower - what more do you need?

On the ferry to Koh Lanta

With Katrine, Jeppe and Karl

Yum, Thai breakfast

And the beer is good too

Buddha is tired

Buddha is back in action

Thai sunsets are approved