So after our couple days of staying in Krabi Town the rest of our friends arrived on Monday morning, I organised a shuttle for us all that picked them up from the airport and then came to pick us up from our hotel to drive us to Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta was about a two hour journey from Krabi Town, we would take the van to the port and take our van onto the car ferry over to the island and then to our accomodation for our time on the island! On our van ride we had a bit of a scare, as I was sitting in the back seat a huge spider crawled out from beneath the seat and ran across Alina’s lap, then ran to the back, we were all screaming!!!!!! The van pulled over and we emptied it out to look for the spider! Luckily we were able to find it because none of us were getting back into that van knowing that the spider was there! Here’s a picture of it below! Not the clearest picture but you can imagine 11 people in a van screaming because of this thing and it was FAST!!!!! lol anyways back to the trip!
Where we stayed
We booked at the Chom Dao Resort located around the middle of the island. After searching around on booking.com I thought this place was the best for value, location and what they had in terms of facilities and review scores. There are definitely better options on the island in terms of looks, and reviews but the price that I was trying to go for was one more for budget travellers with some nice touches. Some notes from our stay, the staff there were super nice, friendly and always helpful. They cleaned our rooms on request and were easy to locate when we had questions. The pool was pretty simple but did the job when we wanted a quick dip, the restaurant open when we were hungry. The only thing to note is the cheapest rooms are not completely sealed so there is some bugs that get in and crawl around on the floor! Not a complete deal breaker just keep your stuff off the floor and you’ll be fine! Overall we were happy with our stay there!
Where to eat on Lanta
We had some great meals on lanta and I actually found my favorite thai dish there too which I’ll mention below! Some places around Lanta you know you’re definitely paying for the view (beachside restaurants) so if you want some cheap eats, eat closer to the streets or in the local markets, it’ll definitely save you some money.
Shine Talay Restaurant in Lanta Old Town
Shine Talay was a restaurant some of our friends who visited before on their holiday in Lanta, so we went back there! First of all the view out the back of the restaurant was amazing! They had two levels and the upper deck was definitely the place to be if you wanted to enjoy the views of the bottom half of Lanta. Upstairs there are bean bags, swings, chairs around the outer edge of the seating area. The food was great, they had a number of discounted dishes so we decided between the four of us that we would just order all of them! So we ended up with about eight dishes all up to share between us along with some big beers.
Yawee Restaurant
I found my favourite Thai dish at this restaurant! Deep fried papaya salad! I’ve had regular old papaya salad in the past, crispy and fresh! But once you’ve had the deep fried version you wont want anything else. I think we ate at this restaurant three times while we were there, the other dishes there are tasty too and a good price since it’s located away from the beaches. You can stop by for a meal at a good price, sit outside and enjoy the sun and people watch as locals and tourist roll through on scooter and on foot.
Sometimes you wake up when you’re in the middle of South East Asia and you want WESTERN FOOD lol, yeah I said it, and so if you’re craving some good ol fashioned bacon and eggs why not check out the Living Room Cafe & Restaurant. I ordered the french toast set a coffee cube latte, and the salted caramel tart. The servings here are a big and filling, the space is quite nice with an open air deck and enough seats to fit large groups. If you’re gonna get any of the desserts I can vouch for the caramel salted tart, super dark chocolate, thick caramel sauce all over the top and some whipped cream to finish!
What to do on Ko Lanta Island
RENT A SCOOTER! You will definitely enjoy your trip and get around a whole lot easier when you have a scooter! You can get your hotel to organise one for you which might be safer or you can get one from one of the many vendors on the main streets.
Beaches: Our favourite was Khlong Nin Beach
Our favourite beach of the entire trip was Klong Nin Beach, we stumbled upon this beach after driving around the beach front. The sand was white, the water didn’t go back out too far and we managed to find some beach chairs to set up for the days we went by there. We went there about three times while we were in Lanta. The chairs we were using belonged to the hostel and we were able to buy drinks and food from them while we posted up for the day.
There are beaches up and down the island on Lanta, there’s a beach for everyone. Some are secluded and make you walk through the bush a little, some are nice and have cafes/bars close by to get refreshments, you just gotta find what you’re looking for in a beach and they’ll have it on the island.
Day trip to Koh Rok with Lanta Dream and Paradise
During our stay we planned on doing a small island tour to Koh Rok, after reading a bunch of reviews and checking out different blogs, Lanta Dream and Paradise seemed like our best bet. Great reviews, and guide knowledge, as well as them pulling out some surprises from the ocean, we saw sea turtles, he handed us some starfish and sea cucumber and we got to see some monitor lizards up close and personal. Not to mention we saw a bunch of hermit crabs crawling all over our picnic blankets just after lunch! Needless to say they were super professional, polite, and really nice during our day trip with them. They provided lunch and drinks all day to keep us satisfied and the snorkelling which was the whole reason we went was amazing! We stopped by three different spots to check out during the day and was able to see a lot of sea creatures while we were out. So if you’re looking for a day trip from Ko Lanta go with these guys, you won’t regret it. Heres some footage from our trip below…
Khlong Chak Waterfall
The waterfall we heard about was on our list of places to check out, when we arrived we found a few people coming back from the waterfall who said it was worth the walk. So we made the trek through the “jungle” lol bunch of trees and small hills, up and down we went, around through a few small rivers until we came out the other end of the path to find the waterfall. Which was a small trickle of a waterfall lol the cool part was that there was a huge log going through the middle of this lake that was there, we all jumped up on the log to take a photo. There were monkeys in that area too, so you gotta be careful when you got small things close by because they will snatch and grab your stuff. Anyway I heard that the waterfall is in full swing in the off season, rainy season that is. So if you wanna see a big waterfall go in the offseason, going in the on season isn’t too bad just curb your expectation! (Skip to 1:40s to see us at the Khlong Chak Waterfall)
Searching for a sunrise – Check out View Point Hill
Friend of mine flies drones and wanted to get some footage of the sunrise so we woke up early jumped on our scooters and went out to View Point Hill which we saw on google maps as a place to catch the sunrise. You can drive about 100m up the hill till you gotta get off and walk the rest of the way, it’s a bit too dangerous trying to ride your bike up when it’s pitch black up that way! We got to the top set up our time lapses and drones ready to fly! It was a cool crisp morning but got warm pretty quickly! Here’s some footage from the morning
Lanta Animal Welfare Centre
Alina and I had been to the Welfare Centre before on our previous visit to Lanta Island. As a person who loves dogs we were definitely visiting again this time around, we rode our motorcycles over and were greeted by a newer facility than the one we had previously visited. You could tell that they had been investing a lot of money into the centre which is awesome, there were also a lot of people there for the tour and to help out where they could, so that was awesome to see! The sad part was because there were so many people we weren’t able to play with the puppies or sit with the dogs! We also missed dog walking time, which was in the a.m, but no worries we spent some of the day playing with the cats, there were plenty of those there! So if you’re an animal lover and wanna give a helping hand to a great cause come check out the Lanta Animal Welfare Centre!
All in all we had an amazing trip to Thailand, 11 of us altogether in one place, travelling together, eating together and doing life together. Lanta is one of the most relaxed places you can visit with something for everyone. Beaches, food, massages, the works! Make sure to support the local businesses there and eat away from the beach if you want a cheap meal! Let me know if you have any questions about our holiday, or anything about Thailand, I’ll try and answer any questions you have! Enjoy! Here’s a big recap video my friend took of our entire trip!
Officially moved home to New Zealand 