5 highlights – Koh Lanta 2024

There are tons of things you can do in Koh Lanta, Thailand. What I love about this place the most is that every single season I find new exciting things that I haven’t done before. This season it was not any different. So let’s dive into (everyone who read my previous post gets the “pun intended” thing) the adventures I got to experience in 2024. From Diving to Rock Climbing and spending my Tuesday nights at Pangea, there have been so many things that could make the top 5 list, but if I had to pick, the following would be the top highlights.

Diving

I finally managed to take my OWD – Open Water Diving certificate with OK Club Diving Center in February 2024. So this season was filled with learning, practicing, and taking the exam. Followed by some cool adventures during the so-called “fun dives”. I was lucky to have had some very cool and chilled dive masters – Thomas and Sebastian. And I was even luckier to be able to go on some dives with friends like Kevin & Ophelia and also with Camille & Bauke, whom I have just met this season.

What I loved about diving?

There are several things that I love about diving, most and foremost that it forces my fucking busy and loud brain to shut up. But obviously there are other things as well:

• getting my certificate: having to study and take an exam was an experience I haven’t been missing since I finished University. But it was nice to challenge my brain with learning some theory for a change.
• meeting other divers: getting to know random people who share the same affection for diving is one of the big advantages if you have to somehow get to the diving spot by boat. In comparison to Egypt, where we will be entering the water directly from the beach, on Lanta you had to spend 2 hours on a boat before you arrive at one of the diving spots. You can obviously use this time to chill and relax, get some more sleep, or in my case chat with people you just met.
• never have I ever: enjoyed peace and quite so much before. If you have never been under water for a longer period of time, I won’t be able to explain to you, how diving makes me feel. I think the closest thing would be if you are lying in your bathtub and just want to shut out the whole world and you put your head underwater to just have some peace and quiet. Now multiply this feeling by 236, add 13*17 to it, and … naaaahhh … just kidding 😉 It is just the most peaceful and quiet place on earth, at least for me.

I have to admit that diving has become one of my new addictions and I can’t wait to go in September to Egypt on a diving trip with Marta. I am obviously also looking forward to the next season full of fun dives and further certificates with André and his team at OK Club Diving Center.

Beach walks

I don’t remember how it started but I ended up going on several beach walks with friends and I absolutely loved every single one of them. Some happened during the day. Some while the sun was setting. But most of them took place in the middle of the night while the moon was the only light source that kept you from stepping on the crabs making their way to the sea. Well except for all the bright and colorful lights that were radiating from every single beach bar along the way.

Most walks have been with guys I met either at KoHub, during my dives or people I met at the Lanta Lanta festival. We have been talking about tattoos the guys had, expectations all of us have and none of us want to fill, traveling and being a digital nomad, about home and what home is and where home is, about self-development books, how to make the first step, if guys like women to take the first step – btw. I asked 3 guys and got 4 different responses ;-). We discussed relationships, dogs vs. cats, where to go next, where we have been, plans to build a diving center in Mexico, divorce, kids and marriage, bullet journaling, journaling, and how to get back into the habit of doing it every single day, workouts, fitness, and health. And probably tons of other things that I can’t recall anymore.

What I loved about the beach walks?

Next to the most obvious thing that makes walking on the beach great – the weather, the sand between your toes, and the sound of the waves crushing before hitting the land, there are several other reasons, why those walks made the top 5 list:

• having the most intriguing chats: talking openly and without any judgement with people I barely knew, was on one hand very challenging. And on the other hand very easy. Maybe the easy part came because we knew that we probably wouldn’t see each other after Lanta ever again. But more likely because the people were just amazing and extremely interesting and so have been the discussions.
• enjoying the moment: and just doing whatever feels right in the moment, was one of the things that I have been reminded of during some of the walks on the beach. I know that I am a person who most of the time needs action and something to do. And taking those walks especially before going to bed on Lanta was a sort of cool-down thing for my brain before falling asleep. I wish I could implement something similar while being in Vienna.
• never have I ever: gone on some spontaneous walks with guys I barely know – yes this is me literally being pushed out of my comfort zone. But if that is the feeling you get while being outside your cozy, fluffy, and secure comfort zone – hell count me in!

I remember every single walk dearly and am really grateful for all the time I was able to spend with such amazing, interesting, and intriguing people, questioning a lot of life choices and beliefs.

Random encounters – Ryan Edmond

What I love about Thailand and especially Koh Lanta is that you never know whom you will meet. So one day during the 8:00 am workout with Slava I realized that Ryan, one of the guys who has been now and then joining the training was a musician performing at two hotels in Lanta. It took me at least 3 weeks but I managed at least once to go with a bunch of friends to see him perform at Lazy Days. It was one of the nicest evenings I had the chance to enjoy. Sitting on the beach, watching the sunset, sipping some cocktails, and listening to Ryan perform, while being surrounded with friends was definitely an evening that made the top 5 list of Lantas 2024 season.

If you wanna listen to some of Ryans originals, just follow him on Spotify: Ryan Edmond

What I loved about random encounters?

As you might have already figured out, you never know whom you will meet on Koh Lanta. It might be that you find your bestie for life, your perfect personal trainer, your love of your life, or a musician who’s voice will stay in your memory until he hopefully brings out another album you can listen to day in day out – no pressure Ryan 😉

• don’t judge a book by it’s cover: and I don’t mean that in a negative way – I was just reminded not only once that you never know who is hiding behind all the tattoos, behind the Surfer boy vibe, behind the shy smile or in Ryans case, behind the Baseball Cap
• music changes your mood: and especially Ryan’s performance reminded me that music has such a huge influence on how I feel. Especially that on bad days it can boost my mood in ways nothing else can, well maybe except for a friend asking me to spend time with them. Guess what my love language is 😉
• never have I ever: listened to song covers that have blown my mind in a way that I wish I would have recorded more than just a short part of a song while listening to Ryan’s performance on Lanta

Rock Climbing

Last year I started bouldering and totally got into it. Going once or twice a week with a couple of friends in Vienna, I wanted to try and find something resembling in Lanta. I looked into bouldering and no surprise there, couldn’t find anything like that on the island. I started asking around and my physiotherapist mentioned Deep Water Solo and Rock Climbing in Thailand. So that’s what I started researching and asking friends about. It turned out that near Krabi on Railey Beach, you could go Rock Climbing. I figured that might be an option to satisfy my bouldering heart and get some adrenaline pumping through my body.

As soon as I arrived in Lanta I tried to do a bit more research and realized that a friend of mine, who also was in Lanta, was not only a way more advanced climber than me but also interested in going climbing. Win-win for both of us. I started contacting the climbing company, asking in the KoHub group if someone else wanted to join, and got into organizing the trip. The drive itself would take us at least 3-4 hours by car followed by a long tail boat trip of around 20 min, so we had to figure out what the best option would be to get there. We ended up being 5 people – Erica, Jacob, Florence, Joost, and me – who would be going on this adventure together. Because of the long trip and me being the only early bird, we decided on going Saturday morning, taking the afternoon climbing option, spending the night at Railey Beach, and going back on Sunday morning, making sure that Jacob would still catch his flight.

The climbing adventure was amazing. Our guide was the best guide ever, not only because he had a stellar sun-kissed body but was one of the funniest people I met on this journey. I was eager to climb my first rock ever and they made it really easy. You could see that all the guides, and the beach was full of muscular, sun-kissed bodies holding a cigarette in one hand and a rope in the other, were all professionals. If you wouldn’t know better you might have been thinking that they all were Weed smoking guys not giving a fuck. And to be really honest, maybe that was the case. But nevertheless I can assure you that every single moment I have felt super secure and safe while being on the rock, figuring out my way up the mountain, all 30 meters.

What I loved about Rock Climbing?

You might have already noticed that stepping, falling, or literally jumping out of my comfort zone might be my thing. And that’s what Rock Climbing on Railey Beach was. Another adventure that made me climb – pun intended – out of my comfort zone.

• who said I am not spontaneous: this was one of those things that I decided to do even though I really didn’t know what was awaiting me. I knew I wanted to do something to satisfy my bouldering heart. But going with people I barely knew, and some I just met, on a rock climbing adventure on the beach, that’s on my spontaneous scale definitely at least a 7. (for all people who need the details: the scale goes from 1-10)
• first time rock climbing: was one of the most exciting, frightening, and challenging things I did this season on Lanta. But it was soooo worth it. Might become a tradition 🙂
• never have I ever been woken up by monkeys fighting probably over a really delicious banana on my roof.

Pangea Tuesday Nights

Being an early bird means also that I am normally in bed by 10 pm. This season in Lanta a lot of things changed. Especially my sleeping habits. Going to bed at 2 am and waking up at 6 am, after just 4 hours of sleep, became my new and sometimes very exhausting habit. Not only one time did I hear friends saying “Kasia, it’s passed midnight and you are still awake!”.

So now that I was not able to sleep anyway I started experiencing the one part of Lanta I have never seen before. Lanta by night: enjoying what everyone else was doing past my normal bedtime. And one of those things was the Pangea Tuesday nights. Normally it doesn’t make any sense to go there before 10:00 / 10:30 pm, which is one of the reasons I haven’t been there ever before. But this season … well this season a lot of things were different. So one day a week it became almost a ritual to go to Pangea Tuesday nights, with loud music, sometimes better sometimes worse, obviously cocktails, and a lot of dancing on the beach and also chatting and just enjoying life.

I have to admit that it became one of my favorite places for Tuesday nights!

What I loved about Tuesday nights?

As for the Tuesday nights, I have to admit that I probably only managed to go to Pangea as often as I did because there was almost always someone who would keep me awake by playing boardgames with me before leaving for some music and dancing at the beach. To everyone who sacrificed his pre-Pangea nap to keep me awake – ขอบคุณมากค่ะ (kop khun mak ka).

• going to bed way past midnight: this was one thing that I have been doing a lot on Lanta in 2024, and on Tuesday nights it was because of Pangea. Just going there was probably way more stepping out of my comfy zone than rock climbing on Railey beach or diving for the first time in my life 😉
• dancing on the beach: the beauty of Lanta is that no one gives a fuck about how you look, what you wear or how bad a dancer you are. As long as you have fun and enjoy yourself, the world is a beautiful place.
• never have I ever: been dancing my ass of with sand between my toes, a Sicilian Sour in my hand to music I would normally never listen to. And I loved it!

Top 5 Highlights in 2025

As mentioned there have been tons of other things that could have made the top 5 list. Every season I am telling people that the last season has been the best season ever. And every single year I am pretty sure that next season can’t get any better. Also every single season I am being proved wrong. And that is why I am already counting down the days (< 215d) and looking forward to what next season in Koh Lanta will look like.