2nd March - Koh Racha Yai

Sunday 2^nd March

I am cheating by posting this while it is still Saturday 1^st March because…there is wonderful internet connection right this minute and…there probably won’t be tomorrow.  I have whipped all of my photos into place on Saturday’s post and will improve upon this one if and when I get connection again.  Cyberspace – so fickle!

Rose's birthday cake (Tasmania...)

We left Nai Harn at 8am on Saturday and were immediately in BIG sea.  We are no longer used to this!  Our intention was to go to Koh Lanta and to get there late afternoon but…we couldn’t face pounding into the waves and made straight for a glorious little island called Koh Racha Yai.  We expected it to be empty and silent…

It is indeed absolutely lovely.  We are in a sheltered inlet – you would never know the waves are pounding, just metres away, out there.  After a bit of shuffling around, we dropped the anchor in clear blue water – yes!  Visibility!  We haven’t had visibility for many weeks, not really since Koh Muk. 

2XS and just some of the tourboats, from the water

Within minutes of dropping the anchor, the tourboats started to arrive, in their dozens, literally.  The little jetty is heaving with people; it is almost as busy as James Bond Island – hard to believe, this island isn’t even in Lonely Planet!  We are so grateful we got here just before the onslaught…it would have been impossible to drop the anchor in the melee otherwise.

 I went for a swim in the clear blue water and saw…lots of fish but no coral.  And hundreds, yes HUNDREDS of divers, ducking and weaving between the many boats zooming around over their heads.  When I came back Pete was standing anxiously on the deck, making sure that none of the speedy boats accidentally chopped off my head…