Hello Readers!
Koh Lanta was by far the most controversial place I visited. Meaning, I both loved it and disliked it at the same time. Koh Lanta is a little of the coast of Thailand. It is a beautiful little island, with warm waters and soft sand on every coast. As much as I would have liked to stay in a little beachside resort, we didn’t. My mom decided to stay at a little jungle farm, called AsaLanta. AsaLanta stands for Asian Sustainability Academy. AsaLanta is run by a Dutch lady and her Thai husband, they have a baby daughter, who they joke is the real boss. They aspire to one day have a sustainability academy that runs all the way through college. Right now they run volunteer programs for foreigners and free, after-school programs for local kids.
There are five mud huts on the property. The largest one housed a common kitchen, volunteer room, and an open-air tea house. The walls were mud, and the floors were bamboo. Everything was open to the outside. I loved that the walls had colored, glass bottles built into them. We were staying in ‘Dad’s house’. It had two floors, on the first floor there were two single beds, and there was a big king sized bed on the second floor. You could tell that the small, thin structure was hastily thrown together, and there were many cracks between were the walls and the floor should meet, etc. That made the house open to the outside, which meant all kinds of bugs could easily creep in, as they could in all the other huts on the property. We saw hundreds of spiders, millipedes, and other bugs on our first day alone. This didn’t bode well with me. That is one of the main reasons I didn’t like Koh Lanta so much. Which you might think is a bit shallow, but spiders and the rest of their bug crew really creep me out. Plus, would you like it, if ants bite your rear when you go to the toilet in the outhouse, and then creep into your pants. Then you literally have ants in your pants for the rest of the day. In addition to the wildlife, when you stay on the farm, you must help with the garden and construction work. Which in the beginning I didn’t like so much, my family and I were assigned to clear out a patch of jungle, while the three other volunteers rebuilt the tree house. I am a city slicker, and I had no intention of going out into the jungle, with a machete and clearing out a patch of jungle. In the beginning, I went along, but early on I picked up a small stick, which turned out to be a huge stick bug. After that, I decided it would be better if I took care of Asa, the baby, instead.
Every day after work, we would go to a little restaurant/bar called Jai Dee home, that was recommended to us. This was definitely the highlight of my trip in Ko Lanta, maybe even all of Thailand! Other than the delicious mango lassies, and the beckoning ocean, we also met a family with a girl about my age and a boy about my brothers age. They were staying at Jai Dee home, along with their crew, (to be explained later), in the spare rooms. They actually had a quite interesting story. They were English, but lived in Portugal, and the father works for the band Prodigy, fixing their instruments. (Hence the crew). The girl and I shared interests in reading, mango lassies, and generally being lazy on the beach. So we naturally became good friends. Aside from volunteering, and sitting at Jai Dee home. My mom brothers and I also visited the animal welfare center, where they rescue street cats and dogs. Which, I forgot to mention there are many. The island of Koh Lanta is a mostly Muslim island. Muslims generally don’t keep pets. But when Koh Lanta became a more touristic location, builders were sent over from the mainland, to build hotels and restaurants. These builders and their families brought pets over, and then left the pet's offspring on the island when they went back. That left the streets littered with unwanted pets. The welfare center is trying to rescue, heal, and send the animals out for adoption. We spent an hour there and got to play with all the puppies. Including an adorable three-legged one.
I will write more later!
Liv the Explorer
Koh Lanta was by far the most controversial place I visited. Meaning, I both loved it and disliked it at the same time. Koh Lanta is a little of the coast of Thailand. It is a beautiful little island, with warm waters and soft sand on every coast. As much as I would have liked to stay in a little beachside resort, we didn’t. My mom decided to stay at a little jungle farm, called AsaLanta. AsaLanta stands for Asian Sustainability Academy. AsaLanta is run by a Dutch lady and her Thai husband, they have a baby daughter, who they joke is the real boss. They aspire to one day have a sustainability academy that runs all the way through college. Right now they run volunteer programs for foreigners and free, after-school programs for local kids.
There are five mud huts on the property. The largest one housed a common kitchen, volunteer room, and an open-air tea house. The walls were mud, and the floors were bamboo. Everything was open to the outside. I loved that the walls had colored, glass bottles built into them. We were staying in ‘Dad’s house’. It had two floors, on the first floor there were two single beds, and there was a big king sized bed on the second floor. You could tell that the small, thin structure was hastily thrown together, and there were many cracks between were the walls and the floor should meet, etc. That made the house open to the outside, which meant all kinds of bugs could easily creep in, as they could in all the other huts on the property. We saw hundreds of spiders, millipedes, and other bugs on our first day alone. This didn’t bode well with me. That is one of the main reasons I didn’t like Koh Lanta so much. Which you might think is a bit shallow, but spiders and the rest of their bug crew really creep me out. Plus, would you like it, if ants bite your rear when you go to the toilet in the outhouse, and then creep into your pants. Then you literally have ants in your pants for the rest of the day. In addition to the wildlife, when you stay on the farm, you must help with the garden and construction work. Which in the beginning I didn’t like so much, my family and I were assigned to clear out a patch of jungle, while the three other volunteers rebuilt the tree house. I am a city slicker, and I had no intention of going out into the jungle, with a machete and clearing out a patch of jungle. In the beginning, I went along, but early on I picked up a small stick, which turned out to be a huge stick bug. After that, I decided it would be better if I took care of Asa, the baby, instead.
Every day after work, we would go to a little restaurant/bar called Jai Dee home, that was recommended to us. This was definitely the highlight of my trip in Ko Lanta, maybe even all of Thailand! Other than the delicious mango lassies, and the beckoning ocean, we also met a family with a girl about my age and a boy about my brothers age. They were staying at Jai Dee home, along with their crew, (to be explained later), in the spare rooms. They actually had a quite interesting story. They were English, but lived in Portugal, and the father works for the band Prodigy, fixing their instruments. (Hence the crew). The girl and I shared interests in reading, mango lassies, and generally being lazy on the beach. So we naturally became good friends. Aside from volunteering, and sitting at Jai Dee home. My mom brothers and I also visited the animal welfare center, where they rescue street cats and dogs. Which, I forgot to mention there are many. The island of Koh Lanta is a mostly Muslim island. Muslims generally don’t keep pets. But when Koh Lanta became a more touristic location, builders were sent over from the mainland, to build hotels and restaurants. These builders and their families brought pets over, and then left the pet's offspring on the island when they went back. That left the streets littered with unwanted pets. The welfare center is trying to rescue, heal, and send the animals out for adoption. We spent an hour there and got to play with all the puppies. Including an adorable three-legged one.
I will write more later!
Liv the Explorer