Freediving courses and training

Arriving on Ko Lanta and getting wet

Geschrieben von: Richard Wonka Mittwoch, 28. Oktober 2009 um 18:26 Uhr

The last leg of our journey from Krung Thep (as they call Bangkok here) is over and led us straight into a bit of an odyssey, finding long-term accommodation. It's not an issue to find a nice and cheap place to stay here at any time, but when you want to stay longer and your resources are limited, then finding something decent might turn out to be a bit more difficult.

But more of that later. How did we get there in the first place?

From Surat Thani, we headed inland on a road that has been hacked in a straight line through the jungle towards Phra Sang. A narrow and hilly strip of tarmack that doesn't make life easy with an estimated 110kg of gear that we were carrying eventually led us to the just as plain town of Phra Sang that wasn't very inviting for a longer stay so after a stay at the one hotel we could find, a curtain-type-thing where rooms are available in 3hr intervals, we headed straight on towards Krabi, leading us onto bigger roads and some nicer scenery again.

After Sarah's little drop off the bike I feel it is about time to mention our good friends Giro and Met, who have kept our heads safe from harm all this time. My friend Giro even made a nice pattern on my head! Sarah's knee sure would have wished for some protection, but at least we get to see the nice colours now.

About 10km from Krabi we met Sarin, a cyclist who was just on his way to meet his friends at a local Bike shop - a very fortunate encounter as it turned out in the end. Sarin took us to Andaman Cycles, run by our friend Lang. And so many good things happened there. For a start, Lang and Sarin found us a very nice guest house right by the shop. So after a good bit of bike-tech-talk with lang and a coffee in the shop with the guys, we had a chance to park our bikes and gear and get a shower, which was desperately needed after the longest leg of our journey so far.

The next day saw us heading out past Andaman cycles in the morning and just exploring Krabi. A well-deserved Thai massage, some shopping for sarongs - that we wished we'd had all the way there - for stuff to be sent out to friends, you know the deal.

We then headed back for some bike shopping at Lang's, who by some chance had a pocket-/travel-size suspension pump right there and at last a new set of tyres for Sarah's bike which is now wearing its stilettos as Sarah calls them and makes life so much easier for her. The way from Bangkok she covered with her knobbly desert-tyres. Some excellent workout. So we looked after the bikes a bit and just chatted away on bike-geek-stuff and life in general for a couple of hours until we were invited to go out for dinner with Lang, his wife, Sarin and the other guys. And what a fun evening it was. We had a big giggle or two, learned the odd thing about eating in Thailand and had some wonderful food, of course. It turned out that the guys go on a semi-regular bike tour to Ko Lanta every two weeks or so and they are due to arrive here one of these days. We are looking forward to seeing them again.

The original plan was to pack bikes and gear onto a ferry and take a boat trip to Ko Lanta for a relaxed arrival on the island. But then we found out that the Ferry doesn't even service Ko Lanta during the off-season so we had another day's cycling ahead of us that would be the longest of the trip, too. It turns out that the trip feels longer if You're thinking of arriving, rather than travelling. But the ride was still a very nice one - and a much easier one for Sarah who was just sliding along on her new tyres.

In the end after about 90 kilometres, two ferry rides and some brilliant food on the way (again ;)) we arrived sweaty - and probably smelly - as ever on Ko Lanta, ready to meet the people at Blue Planet Divers.

And now, that's a cool thing. Blue Planet Divers are a well organised bunch and we got sent on the boat right the next couple of days and also the first AIDA ** course starting two days later - so we got wet and diving quickly, both freediving and scuba. 

What can I say? Our first time recreational freediving we dived with a leopard shark!!!!!

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