Where the water glows in Thailand
31 December 2013 | By Martin Popplewell
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Leave the sex tourism and moon parties behind for night-dives and jungle raves in Koh Lanta, an untarnished beach paradise where the ocean teems with whale sharks, manta rays and bioluminescent algae
Swimming in the sea at night always has a certain magic about it.
Perhaps because you can see less, your sensation of touch is heightened and a warm tropical sea feels even more welcoming. The warm blanket of the sea is simultaneously matched with the possibility of danger of what might be lurking beneath the surface.
That opening scene from the film Jaws is always difficult to forget.
Tonight, my swim left me spellbound.
Stars swirled around me in the water as well as above me in the midnight blue sky. But these werenтАЩt stars in the water. It was bioluminescence.
The word comes from the Greek тАШbiosтАЩ for living and the Latin тАШlumenтАЩ for light.
I was swimming with my friend Fabio and every movement our bodies made in the water left a trail of temporary, twinkling, swirling, neon-blue water dust in its wake.
Fabio stood up in the water. тАШLook at thisтАЩ he said with a big grin as liquid stars trickled over his chest. IтАЩd read about the natural phenomena of bioluminescence, travelled all across the world for 20 years, lived on a pacific island for seven months but now finally was seeing it.
The island of Koh Lanta in Thailand proved to be a gem of a find.
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Thailand had never featured high up on my list of places to visit. Friends had returned appalled by the all-pervading tackiness that went hand-in-hand with the sex tourism and back packing moon party crowd.
But with a little research there are plenty of places you can find where will make you fall in love with Thailand and its warm, friendly people. Koh Lanta is one of them.
The journey from Bangkok to Koh Lanta might put off the lazier traveller. An hour and a half flight from Bangkok to Krabi leads to a two-hour ferry ride to Koh Lanta. The journey involves 2 ferries but you donтАЩt actually need to get out of the car. When you reach the island youтАЩll realize that you have discovered your own little piece of untarnished Thai paradise.
Koh Lanta has no high-rise tourist developments, only mile after mile of endless beaches. The further south you go the more likely you are to have a beach all to yourself.
We stayed at Costa Lanta. ItтАЩs a small boutique resort of just 20 cabanas made of polished concrete and reclaimed wood. You are just seconds away from a beach which stretches three km (1.9 miles) along the coast.
Costa LantaтАЩs beach is one of the more developed ones on the island where you can enjoy the delights of Thai food at a number of fantastic restaurants literally on the beach, with the soles of your feet touching the sand.
If a few days on the beach leaves you restless, jump on a dive boat and head to the internationally renowned dive sites of Hin Daeng and Hin Muang.
These dive sites have been ranked in the worldтАЩs top ten and it easy to see why. The journey to them takes 3 hours. Both dive sites are around pinnacles which rise from the bottom of the sea bed. As the only rock for miles of open sea they act like magnets attracting vast amounts of tropical sea life.
The dive experience is intense: we saw manta rays and a sea swarming with large pelagic fish on the three dives we did here. Sadly no whale sharks but there are regular sightings.
Koh Lanta is not the destination to head to for nightlife.
If you want moon parties and the rest you are in the wrong part of Thailand.
That said, there are one or two parties a week on the island. We headed to a Jungle Rave on one night. Two DJs from Phuket made it all the more enjoyable for me to stay far too late and drink far too much.
The following day I found myself retiring to what Koh Lanta is one of the best places in the world for тАУ the beach.
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Travel Tips for Koh Lanta:
Exchange rate: тВм1 = 45 Thai Baht, $1 = 33 Thai Baht
Best times to go: between November to April, when itтАЩs less hot than normal. Water temperature usually stays at 29┬░C, (84┬░F)
Basic language skills: hello = sa-wat-dee, thank you = kob-kun
How to get there: British Airways flies to Bangkok, Air Asia or Thai Airways from Bangkok to Krabi.
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