Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta is located just South of Krabi. It's pretty laid back island compared to the nearby Koh Phi Phi. You can get a ferry to Koh Lanta from Phi Phi or from Krabi. We took a minivan from Krabi straight to Lanta, ticket included 2 ferry trips.

We had looked beforehand that there should be some fair-priced accomodation in NW-part at the Lanta at Kaw Kwang beach. When we finally arrived there we realized how much this place must have changed since the publish of the latest Lonely Planet travel guidebook. The bungalows had been transformed to big resorts and we were offered orange juice by resort workers when we walked to the reception. The cheapest room available was 3500bahts(70euros) so we had our orange juices and left saying that we were looking a little bit cheaper option. It was quite late already and we were pretty fed up by long day travelling. The only "fair" option at the NW area was a resort which offered us a basic double room with 1200bahts(24euros). We took it and decided to look cheaper accomodation for the next days.

It turned out that all the budget accomodation is located in the Southern part of the island. Lots of backpackers stay at the Kantiang bay where you might find some nightlife but we headed further South. We got a bungalow close to a nice beach for 12euros a night. We spent there few nights just relaxing since there wasn't much of a nightlife going on. 95% of the island population are muslims which means there wasn't too much alcohol-filled parties around. I think it's a good thing and helps to keep up the island's relaxed atmosphere without pumping techno-music and shouting tourists. We checked the island with scooters and went to trek to a small waterfall. There was elephant trekking available and caving options as well. We also went to the four islands tour with a longtail boat but weren't really impressed by tons of tourists and destroyed corals.
If you're into diving, Koh Lanta is the best spot to arrange diving trips to nearby Hin Daeng and Hin Muang for around 3900 bahts(80euros). They say there's regular manta rays and you could even see whale shark around. I was considering of doing a diving trip but it turned out that the visibility in the area wasn't very good at the moment. Some were blaming el nino but nobody was sure why it wasn't as good as usual. I decided to try my luck later from Koh Phi Phi.