Koh Lanta

Koh Lanta
Day 1
We arrived in Koh Lanta after a 1/2 hour boat ride from Phi Phi. I love just being able to hop onto a boat and then we are on a new island. Koh Lanta is North East of Phi Phi and a much larger island than Phi Phi. Upon arrival, we had a taxi to our hotel, which was called Sleep In Lanta. We booked a private room with a fan and it was massive! I could almost go on a jog around the room haha. The hotel had a pool so guess the first thing we did!

The weather was a little disappointing. There was no sun just clouds but it was relaxing just to chill around the pool. Then all of a sudden, the heavens opened and the rain appeared! So due to heavy rain and kinda being in the middle of no where, we just chilled in the room researching things and booking things etc until it was dinner time.

Day 2
The weather still isn’t great! Thailand is always so unpredictable. It was late morning time and wandered out along the street. As I said, we were kind of in the middle of no where apart from a few cafes and restaurants. We found a little cafe and ordered some breakfast.

Our plan for the day was to hire a bike and go to the beaches. The first beach was lovely! It was huge and not that crowded, which is always winner! The sun finally made an appearance so I decided to sunbathe and work on the tan!

We stayed there for a couple of hours and then headed to the next beach. This one was a bit of a let down with rocks and seaweed everywhere so unsurprisingly, us and another couple were the only ones there! There was a cute beach bar there and I ordered a mango shake and caught the last of the sun.

After, we decided to put our towels down and lay down on the sand. The clouds had covered the sun and we ended up falling sleep until we woke up to rain on our face. The joys of just nodding off on the beach. Because of the rain, we quickly jumped back on the scooter and headed back. The rain continued for hours so we sat back at the hotel and hoped for it to blow over.

After hours of waiting, we thought ‘we can’t just sit here and do nothing’ so we headed out. Lewis had found an animal welfare centre online so we grabbed a tuk tuk and went there and the rain was thankfully stopping! The animal welfare centre was called Lanta Animal Welfare and it is a completely non profit shelter that work so hard to take animals off the streets, medicate them and provide short term shelter for them before they are hopefully adopted by tourists. I’d you have been to south east Asia, you will be aware of the hearrbreaking amount of stray dogs and cats on the street and how mistreated some of them look. A crisis that Koh Lanta have tackled and are still tackling. They rely on donations from the public, visitors and have sponsorships from companies. One being ‘Lush’! As soon we we walked in, cats were everywhere and we were in our element! The cats (and dogs) all had room to play, toys to play with, enough food and love from the shelter volunteers and tourists. It was truly amazing to see. We took the dogs out for a walk and went on a guided tour around the high intensive units and x ray rooms where the animals are all treated. The business itself is ran by a woman who came to Koh Lanta on holiday and was distraught with all of the seriously injured and unwell cats and dogs. So she went home, sold her house and came back over to set up the shelter! Absolutely amazing. It was an eye opening experience and we were amazed by this truly fantastic shelter.

Day 3
Today we had a pool day and didn’t do a lot! It feels like a luxury having a pool right outside our room. Feels like we are on holiday and not budget backpacking! Not a lot to write about today!

I don’t think we would come back to Koh Lanta again. I’m not sure if we were in the right place. Other than the animal welfare centre, we were underwhelmed by the place itself. However, it was lovely to make use of the pool and chill out.


Laura and Lewis x