Under the Sea in Koh Lanta

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On our second day on Koh Lanta, we wandered over to a dive shop called "Dive and Relax" at the resort next door to again take advantage of our new scuba certification. The trip scheduled for the next day was to Koh Haa, a group of 6 tiny islands only 45 minutes away, so we jumped onboard and signed up (pun intended). Then we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to keep up with our busy schedule of sunbathing, daquiris, and relaxing in the massage cabana on the beach. Nobody needs to remind us how tough our lives are right now!

We also found a cute little outdoor restaurant/barber shop? on the main street and over the next 3 days helped ourselves to cheap and delicious pad thai, pad see ew, masaman curry, pineapple milkshakes, and banana and chocolate thai pancakes. The adorable lady that worked there was amazed that we could eat so much and still have room for mango sticky rice for dessert! It's kinda how we roll.

The morning of our dive trip was overcast and threatening rain, but we didn't mind because we knew we'd be spending the whole day underwater! Apparently marine life is a lot more active on stormy days, so diving is really the best way to spend a rainy day on a tropical island. We waded onto our speed boat that left from the beach right in front of our resort, and sped across the Andaman Sea towards Koh Haa, passing all the other companies with slow boats that had left hours earlier. Suckers!

We had a really sweet German divemaster named Sandra who seemed to love shrimp as she pointed out different types to us in nearly every crevice we swam past on our first dive. The site was GORGEOUS (and dare I say rivalled the Great Barrier Reef), and we dove along a spectacular reef wall covered in giant blue sea stars with 20 meters of visibility (compared to only 3m at Pulau Payar in Malaysia). The schools of glass fish were so big and thick, sometimes we had to wave them out of the way just to see the coral! We saw some really interesting things like giant clams, lionfish, cleaner fish that kept trying to clean our legs, pufferfish, moon wrasses, a banded sea snake, christmas tree worms, nudibranchs, GIANT moray eels, squid, and a big ole barracuda. It was so amazing and overwhelming to roll over and watch the marine life gracefully swimming around you in every direction as far as the eye can see.

After our first dive, we were served a yummy rice and chicken lunch on the boat, as well as unlimited bottled water, sodas, and iced coffee. Three helpings later we were struggling to get back into our wetsuits but excited to see what our second dive held for us.

The second dive had equally stunning fish and coral, but the real highlight was the underwater cave. Real cave diving requires special training, certifications, and equipment, but this cave opened up inside and had a place where we could surface in an emergency, so it provided a really unique opportunity for beginner scuba divers. Words can not describe how beautiful it was swimming into the back of the coral cave and turning around to see the sunlight streaming in through the opening. There wasn't much going on inside the cave besides one sleeping moorish idol (you know him as Gill from Finding Nemo...), but the scenery was incredible and the adrenaline rush of swimming through a small tunnel to exit the cave has been unmatched in my diving so far.

It was a sad touch of reality when we surfaced at the end of the dive to the cloudy skies and rain. Everything is so peaceful and beautiful and dreamlike underwater that it's always sad when it comes to an end, but on the bright side, we set a new personal record of 59 minutes underwater!

The ride back to Koh Lanta was pretty rough with the waves and rain, but the staff served us heaps of freshly sliced pineapple and watermelon which definitely helped! When we got back to our resort, our divemaster sat with us and helped filled out our dive log books and flipped through fish books showing us what species we had seen that day. Overall a great day of diving and we would definitely recommend Dive and Relax to anyone staying on Koh Lanta.

The rain looks like it's sticking around, so we're leaving our peaceful retreat to head to what we hear is a great city in the far north of Thailand, Chiang Mai. Looking forward to it but first we have to make it through the overnight bus and all day train to get there. Here goes nothing!

Scuba, Langkawi Style

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Langkawi was so awesome that it deserves more than one post.

After our scooter adventure, we returned to Pantai Cenang in search of something to eat. All along the main road were restaurants boasting "ikan bakar" next to chilled displays of fresh fish. Basically you got to choose your freshly caught seafood, and then they would cook it up however you pleased. I had to try it. Caz and I found a humble little place offering it; the simple, folding table type places were not only cheapest, but tastiest as well. Caz opted for fried noodles with chicken while I perused the fish selection, deciding finally on squid. It made for an extremely delicious dish, and it was nice to get a taste of the island's seafood.

The next day was a big one: our first diving excursion since getting our certification. Finally time to make use of those masks! We hopped on a bus back to the jetty, then piled on a boat to Pulau Payar, a marine sanctuary not far from Langkawi. Most of the people were going just to snorkel, but there were 6 of us certified divers and a few people trying out an introductory dive. The dive staff was made up of a group of easygoing and quite silly Malaysian guys. Caz and I got our own dive guide. His name was Sari, and he was a bit quieter than some of the goofier guys onboard.

Our first dive of the day was in an area called Coral Gardens. The first thing we noticed was that we couldn't really see a whole lot. Unlike the pristinely clear waters of the outer Great Barrier Reef, the waters of Pulau Payar were downright murky. The cause of this, I've read, is that heaps of plankton fill the area, limiting visibility, but feeding all forms of sea life. It was a good thing we had Sari, or else Caz and I would have had a very disappointing dive. Thanks to his expertise, we saw eerie ghost fish, dangerously beautiful lionfish, and even a large yellow seahorse! The coral itself was very pretty, waving branches in bunches of white and purple.

We joined the snorkelers on the beach for lunch, provided by the dive team. It was a funny combination of fried rice, some sad looking hot dog pieces, three french fries, a handful of peanuts, sponge cake, and an apple. We ignored the hot dogs, and everything else went down just fine. We caught a few rays and checked out the shallows on our break. Among the fish playing near the shore, there were quite a few reef sharks. There were a couple that were big enough to startle you, but don't worry, folks; they were totally harmless. One of the dive staff began following Caz and I around humming something akin to the Jaws theme while making the underwater signal for shark. Mr. Shark was surely after Caz's cool red and black scuba mask, as he tried to take it from her throughout the day. He was also a very able photographer!

Dive number two of the day was called House Reef, and it tookplace right around the docks where we first arrived. Admittedly, I wasn't blown away by this one. We did see a few cool things: a baby yellow boxfish the size of a die and just as spotted; weird, skinny pipefish; banded shrimps and their babies; and lots of Nemos! The atmosphere wasn't quite as enchanting as the first dive. We swam around the supports of the docks and through the beginnings of an artificial reef, complete with an underwater fact sign telling us all about it. Eventually we ended up back in the snorkeling shallows. We reached a new record for time underwater, however: 53 minutes! It always takes me by surprise; it never feels that long when you're under.

Caz and I sat on the deck in the sun for the ride back, joking with Sari and Mr. Shark and enjoying the ocean wind. When we got back to Pantai Cenang, we got cleaned up and went in search of dinner. We decided to head to the restaurant on the beach that we first ate at. We had a nice meal as we listened to waves (despite the lack of chicken satay and bananas), but thunder and lightning were making their threats known. We headed back to our guesthouse just as the rain began to fall. We repacked and went to bed.

It was up early again to make the trek to Thailand, but not without some breakfast! Before diving the day before, we discovered a little unassuming restaurant very close by that seemed to be the only one open. We headed there before our trip again for omlettes, banana roti (a naan like flatbread fried up with bananas inside), and nasi lamak (rice folded up in a banana leaf with egg, onions, sardines, and a spicy sauce. Caz and I split one both mornings, although I got all the onions and sardines). We finished just in time to catch our ride to the ferry, and then it was "Goodbye, Malaysia!" and "Hello, Thailand!"

We Found Paradise and It's Called Langkawi

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Selemat datang (welcome) to paradise! We spent our last 3 days in Malaysia on the island of Langkawi, and it didn't take us long to fall in love with this special place.

Langkawi has it all - beaches, delicious food, scooters, frozen drinks with tropical fruit garnishes, monkeys, waterfalls, friendly people, beautiful scenery, and scuba diving.

Langkawi is about 2.5 hours north of Penang by ferry and is the first place we've gone without booking any accommodation beforehand (look at us being spontaneous in SE Asia!). All we had was one recommendation from the hostel staff in Penang and another recommendation from Lauren's trusty Kindle edition of Lonely Planet - SE Asia on a Shoestring Budget (guide books on a Kindle...best idea ever). Both hostel potentials were at the same beach, so we grabbed 2 other backpackers at the pier and split a taxi to Pantai Cenang, a beach on the west coast of the island. We got really lucky and the first place we stopped, Gecko, had 2 rooms left. We were told to stay as long as we like and pay at the end, and at 35 ringgits per night for a private room (less than $6 each), we would've loved to stay longer.

Ecstatic about the sunshine and starving from our day of travel, we threw down our packs and headed to the first restaurant on the beach we could find. Freshly squeezed pineapple and lime juices hit the spot, but even better was the Pattaya Fried Rice, a delicious omelette filled with chicken fried rice and covered in hot sauce. Malaysian food really makes me grateful for all those buffalo wings I ate at the Kodiak Club in Melbourne...I'd never have been able to enjoy all this spicy food in SE Asia if I hadn't already burnt off all my tastebuds on the best hot wings ever!

After a stroll, a swim, and a sunbathe on the beach, we found another beach restaurant where conveniently enough we were right on time for happy hour! (it was 3 pm...i love islands) By the time we finished our daquiris, margaritas, and Langkawi Breezes, an afternoon rainstorm had moved in so naturally we left the safety of our beach tent and sprinted through the monsoon rains to go for a swim. If I were a doctor, I would prescribe swimming in a tropical rainstorm to anyone who wants to feel young forever. It's awesome.

The only casualty was Lauren's first ever jellyfish sting, but the restaurant was equipped with vinegar in a spray bottle and saved the day.

Our hostel's breakfast doesn't start until 9 am, so the next morning we slept in and went to order around 10 am, only to find out that the chef hadn't arrived yet. Island time! Luckily Pantai Cenang has a great strip of restaurants and shops along the coastline, so were able to grab some brekkie and head down to the scooter shop to pick up our wheels for the day. Each bike cost 25 ringgits ($8) for 24 hours...I love this country!

We puttered up the west coast to the Langkawi Cable Car, dodging cattle, water buffalo, monkeys, and giant lizards in the road. For real. The cable car took us up to the top of a mountain for some stunning views of the harbor and a walk across the Sky Bridge, a bridge suspended between two ridges by just one pole. The hike up to the observation tower was tough, but nothing compared to our lighthouse hike on Penang, so we handled it like champions and even stopped to be in a few photos with middle eastern tourists along the way (not sure if we should feel like celebrities or circus freaks here).

Once back down in the Oriental Village at the base of the cable car, we had a delicious lunch of Pineapple Fried Rice, glass noodles, and a banana milkshake. The best part was that my fried rice was actually served in a hollowed out pineapple! Bonus points for Langkawi!

We jumped back on our trusty scooters and headed next to the Seven Wells Waterfall, where after some more uphill hiking, we were rewarded with a refreshing swim at the base of the waterfall. Some locals showed us where to sit under the falling water to get the best back massage, and then we finished off the afternoon with some fresh coconut juice, straight from the coconut.

On the way home, I spotted another monkey on the side of the road and pulled over to take a photo. Seems harmless enough, right? But the monkey immediately jumped onto my bike and at least 30 other monkeys came out of the trees and started coming towards us. It was pretty intimidating, and even worse when we discovered we had unintentionally pulled over at a monkey feeding site and had no food to offer. Two monkeys were now on my bike and when they realized I hadn't brought them any snacks, one tried to eat my dashboard and the other just peed all over it. That was a pretty clear sign that it was time to leave, and I drove the rest of the way back to our beach glaring angrily at the monkey pee on my bike and thinking that monkeys are totally overrated.