Lanta! (Part 3)

Been so busy at work, had to delay this post till now. But I had uploaded many pictures to my Facebook account. Will post some of them here with commentaries :)

Beachfront bungalow at Ancient Realm's. One of the few resorts that operates all year round, even during green season

The bed in our room with some fine decorations to welcome our arrival

Why can't everyday be as relaxing as this? Lying and swinging lazily with a good book on a hammock in a peaceful garden with the sound of gentle ocean waves in the background

The Spa! I loved the Thai and aroma oil massages there. One of the best ways to unwind and to release stored up tensions in the body and mind

The two pics above were taken at I-Yarade Residence. It's amazing how we ended up there. We were riding on the motorbike when it started raining. We stopped at this place because it was the nearest shelter. Soaking wet and looking pitiful, I requested to the reception girl for permission to stand outside the place until the rain stopped and for us to dry off a little bit. They gave us the warmest smile of the day and invited us in. One of them even took us on a tour of their 4 or 5 stars suite. Wow, such kind hospitality even to strangers like us!

My darling hasn't cease to surprise me. Discovered that she's quite good on the bike!

One of the few restaurants in Lanta that many were raving about. Since it was green season, we didn't see any customer beside us. We enjoyed the ambience of the rainforest-concept restaurant and the lovely beach, all to ourselves!

Really yummy fried fish


After having so much fun with wife at the strong waves, it was so relaxing to just lie down on the bed of soft sands and let the waves washed me over and over


We rode to the top of a hill to the Viewpoint Restaurant. Had a nice pancake with thirst-quenching fruit juices while enjoying the view of the distant islands. After quite a while, we realised there was a telescope beside our table!

View from the Viewpoint

Lanta Old Town. Where the gypsies reside. They were the original people that inhabited the island. The old buildings made the place looked like Malacca to me!

At a pier just after Old Town

Overlooking the fishing village of the sea gypsies

We actually went diving again! Diving wasn't essential to our holiday plan this round but it was good to have that option. First time diving without Ps John, I told Sherene that we had to be independent, decide on our own where to dive and which dive company to engage. We initially wanted to dive at Hin Muang and Hin Daeng (famous for whale sharks and manta rays especially) but the weather conditions during the low season meant they were not easily accessible, at least beyond our affordability level. So we went to Koh Haa instead which was very near Lanta. Visibility down there was great. Made good use of the dive "stick" given by Ps John.

The lady on the right Bianca, was our operator and personal dive guide from Holland. She's really good in what she does. Gave us wonderful personal service and attention since there weren't many divers that week. Normally there'll be many boats around the island but for that day (and thank God the weather was great), our boat was the only one. We had the deep blue sea all for ourselves!

This was our first time diving in this sorta small speedboat. New experience. There were other new divers in the same boat doing their open water. Sherene and I were considered the experienced ones. Haha. But we barely had time to assemble our gears (had to do it ourselves this trip) because we had to jump first before the new divers. Surprisingly I remembered how to do it easily even though our last dive was a year ago in Manado, and we didn't have to assemble our stuffs then!

My next (final?) post on Lanta will be on the sunset pictures (loads of them!) which I haven't upload to Facebook. I think the process of choosing which ones to omit is longer than the time to upload the pictures!