6 things to do in Koh Lanta, Thailand

Daniel 2 Comments
Activities to do in Koh Lanta Thailand

Southern Thailand is a sun-drenched paradise. It’s also a morass of disrespectful backpackers, sullen locals, and sex tourism. And yet, it is quickly becoming one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, drawing pilgrims by the tens of thousands with Instagram-worth beaches, mouth-watering food (literally!), and budget-friendly prices.

So what’s a person to do, if they want to sip margaritas on a Thai beach without suffering all the above, or being harassed by touts every two seconds? Go to Koh Lanta, of course.

Koh Lanta is a medium-sized island in the Andaman sea, located very close to the Thai mainland in Krabi province. It’s just a short boat ride away from the famous, but overcrowded, Koh Phi Phi. Some of the best scuba dive sites in the Andaman Sea are accessible from Koh Lanta. And best of all: the place still has a low-key, quiet vibe.

You will certainly see some backpackers, but the place isn’t overrun with the hordes of partiers like Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi are. A single two-lane road circles the island, and most of the route is rural, undeveloped jungle.

It’s a relaxing, authentic spot for a holiday.

(If you are curious about the digital nomad aspect of Koh Lanta island, my other post goes into more detail. This one is for general travelers).

So what is there to do in Koh Lanta?

Learn to drive a scooter

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Our first scooter in Southeast Asia.

Take advantage of that deserted two-lane road to learn how to drive a scooter safely. Motorbikes, or scooters, are the preferred method of transport throughout most of Southeast Asia. If you are comfortable driving one, a whole new world of experience opens up to you. You can scooter the length of Vietnam. Or take a weekend trip out of Chiang Mai to go see the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Laos, and Burma converge. Heck, drive to the grocery store. Whatever it is, if you know how to drive a scooter, you never need to charter a tuk-tuk again.

Koh Lanta is a perfect place to learn to drive a scooter. It’s where I learned, and now I can confidently drive one in city traffic. Koh Lanta’s one road is (relatively) well-maintained, and traffic is light. There are a million places around the island which will happily rent you a scooter and give you a quick lesson on how to operate it. Gas is abundant and cheap.

You can take it out for a quick spin in the parking lot, learn the basics of balance and turning, and when you feel comfortable, try it out on the main road. Renting scooters is a perfectly legitimate business in Thailand, and it’s expected to see tourists on the roads. Some people report that Thai police have pulled them over and ask for bribes, but we didn’t experience this. In fact, once, we were even waved through a checkpoint they had set up without so much as a word. YMMV, but worst case scenario, pay the guy his bribe and be on your way. It’s unlikely to cost you more than a few USD.

Can I drive a scooter in Thailand without a motorcycle license?

Yes. This is a huge industry in Thailand and no one cares if you have a license or know how to drive. This is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s no hassle at all to get a rental: paperwork? Insurance? Liability? These words mean nothing to the Thais. On the other hand, it means there are potentially a lot of very inexperienced drivers sharing the road with you. The plethora of travelers sporting scraped knees, crutches, or arm slings around Koh Lanta attests to this.

Luckily, the hospitals are well-equipped for such incidents. The downside is, if you don’t have your motorcycle license, your travel insurance and/or health insurance is unlikely to cover your medical costs. However, these are usually low and easy to pay out of pocket, for most injuries.

Final word: pay attention to the road, go slow at first, and ease yourself into scooter driving by learning somewhere quiet and remote, like Koh Lanta. Don’t try and learn in a big chaotic city like Chiang Mai, Saigon, or Ubud. You’ll save yourself a lot of stress.

Hit the beach!

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You didn’t come to a tropical island to waste away inside all day, did you?? Lanta’s got some great beaches: big ones, along the tourist strips, but also smaller, hidden ones only accessible by motorbike or hiking through the jungle. A bit of local knowledge will go a long way here, as will an adventurous spirit. I’m not giving up any secrets here on the Internet, but asking around once you’re on the island will usually yield some local beta.

Lanta’s beaches are pretty tame, as far as waves go. You won’t find anyone surfing here. The tides are pretty easy and manageable, since Lanta’s located in the protected bay of the Andaman sea.

The beaches are a great place to lay out, enjoy some sun, and splash in the water. Unlike more popular beaches in Thailand, you won’t find many touts here. I don’t know about you, but it always helps my relaxation when I don’t have to turn down a sarong or sunglasses every three minutes.

If sand’s not really your thing, you can get a Thai massage at several locations on the beach, so you can listen to the surf while some lady literally stomps on your back. (Thai massage is PAINFUL— But mostly good pain.) Expect to pay $10-$15 for an hour, on the beach. If you go in town, it can be a little less.

Finally, all beaches on Lanta face West, so they’re a great spot to hang out and watch the sun set over the sea. Almost all the bars offer a 2-for-1 sunset deal. The drinks in Koh Lanta tend to be super watery, so this isn’t necessarily the greatest deal, but it’s still nice to kick back with a cocktail (or a Chang) and watch the sun go down.

Party

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All beers in Thailand are named after animals.

Although Lanta’s not a huge party destination, it does have some modest nightlife. Beer is cheap, but not as cheap as in Chiang Mai. Expect to pay around 40 baht for a small Chang— about $1.10, give or take. You can buy a BIG Chang for that price in Chiang Mai, but Chiang Mai doesn’t have any beaches. Cocktails and imported beers are considerably pricier— 100 baht ($2.50-3) or more, in many cases. Expect the cocktails to be severely watered down.

There is a rotating party which moves around the island— it’s held at a different bar each night. This means if you want to party, you always have a destination. Which saves you from hanging out in deserted bars with Thai prostitutes. Unless you’re into that sort of thing, in which case you can it find in certain spots of Lanta. Sex tourism’s not my thing, so I can’t really comment.

Scuba Diving

Several outfits offer Scuba certification courses and trips, although they are quite expensive. A basic PADI certification course on Lanta runs from 12,000 baht to 16,000 baht ($330-$450). The host at our guesthouse was an avid scuba diver himself, and he recommended we take both the basic and deep water courses, if we really wanted to hit the best spots. This would have taken the costs up to at least 25,000 baht ($700), so we passed.

Still, the scuba shops around the island were tempting enough for us to seriously consider it. Had we had enough money, I still think it would have been a fun thing to do.

If learning to Scuba Dive is one of your main reasons for coming to Thailand, you can take a similar PADI course on Koh Tao for 7000 baht, about half the price of those offered on Lanta. However, those courses are considerably more crowded, meaning you may not receive as personalized of instruction. Still, for a 50 percent savings, I know where I will go if I want to learn in the future!

Snorkeling

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Lanta’s a great destination for snorkeling: both organized trips and just off-the-coast exploring. We bought a pair of snorkels, which was probably a poor decision, since we didn’t use them too often. Renting a snorkel or borrowing one from your accommodation is probably the best way to go.

A snorkel trip can be joined for $15-$30 per person, which covers your whole day: pickup at your accommodation, transport to the pier, a spot on a longtail boat, use of snorkel gear, and food.

Again, don’t expect any waivers or instruction here: snorkel, mask, jump on in! The guys who run these tours are very strong swimmers and would probably be capable of rescuing you if you were visibly drowning, but I wouldn’t test it. I’m not a super-confident swimmer and I was fine, albeit a little stressed at points.

We took the “4 island tour,” which involved a boat ride to two clear-water snorkeling spots, a swim through a tidal cave to a hidden beach inside of an island (think The Beach), and lunch on a different beach, on a different island. Not too shabby.

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The engine on a longtail boat. The engine is connected to a propellor on the end of that long beam. The pilot steers the ship by moving this “long tail” back and forth

Our boat actually broke down at the second snorkeling spot (courtesy of this ^ rusty old engine). One of our guides jumped off and SWAM at least a mile to get help (this same guy was catching fish with his bare hands during our tour— quite a sight). A second longtail was over to assist within 15 minutes, and the practiced seamen had our engine up and running again within another 10.

Not a swimmer? Just take a boat trip!

Cruising around the Andaman Sea in a boat is a fantastic way to spend a day. Huge, sheer rock faces climb out of the sea at almost every turn. As a rock climber, the area ignited my imagination in so many ways. The climbing here would be incredible. You can also just take a boat tour, if you want to see the sights but don’t fancy snorkeling. Just ask any of the tour operators; they’ve got quite a few options, including a visit to the photogenic spots of Koh Phi Phi or James Bond Island, a jutting spire which was featured in The Man With the Golden Gun.

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James Bond Island

So there you have it: six things to do in Koh Lanta, Thailand! There’s much more certainly (the mangrove forest is worth a visit), but some of the fun of visiting a place is discovering things for yourself.

Ko Lanta, Thailand: A Digital Nomad Guide

Daniel 2 Comments
Phrae Ae beach ko Lanta Thailand

Or: “I feel like a dork.”

For our first foray into the international digital nomad lifestyle, Polly and I followed a pretty established trail. We started our remote work journey in Chiang Mai, Thailand, then moved south to Ko Lanta for a month on the beach, and then dropped anchor in Ubud, Bali for two months. Hundreds of people run this exact route, or the reverse, every year.

Plenty has been written about both Chiang Mai and Ubud as digital nomad destinations. A little less is out there for Ko Lanta, so I thought I’d give some perspective on what it’s like coworking from an island in Southern Thailand.

“In Chiang Mai, I felt cool. Like we were on the cutting edge of something. Here in Lanta, I just feel like a dork.”

This statement sums up the experience of remote work on Ko Lanta perfectly.

Yes, the island is pretty viable as a digital nomad destination. But the atmosphere and vibe couldn’t be further from the “digital nomad ideal,” which in my head, involves a lot of people sitting around, drinking coffee, coding and talking almost exclusively about entrepreneurship.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of that mentality— as a writer, I often find myself excluded from the conversation. Plus, it’s just kind of dry. You’re in Thailand: why does it sound like any office in San Francisco? It is noticeably missing– or at least reduced– in Ko Lanta.

You don’t have the “I’m a digital nomad” hubris in Ko Lanta

It’s just people who are working while traveling.

The island has one coworking space, called KoHub. KoHub offers a decent Internet connection, but I found it to be spottier than I’d like, prone to weather and power outages. Additionally, the island is prone to power cuts, from which KoHub is not immune.

Still, the community is super approachable, and the owner James is friendly and always available. I found the people at KoHub to be friendlier and more conversational than at any other coworking space I’ve frequented so far— Including Hubud, which has an online reputation as a stellar community, but seems quiet and focused in reality, not so social. (Not that that’s a bad thing, tbh).

The people working at KoHub are humble, social and just happy to be near the ocean. It’s a good vibe. I wish their Internet was a bit more reliable.

But here’s the thing/

You don’t NEED a coworking space

The Internet likes to champion the value of a coworking space, but in my view, they’re kind of over rated. For certain types, like those whose work depends on fast, reliable Skype calls, a coworking space can be a necessity.

If your work just requires loading Internet pages and sending emails? Save your money. Most are overpriced.

Most of the time we were in Ko Lanta, I worked from our room at Patty’s Secret Garden. Patty’s features a bar, restaurant and rooms, all running off an old, outdated router. It’s slow. But it was free, and the owners Julian and Jeed were more than accommodating to our needs. I saved quite a bit of money this way.

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Plus, one night they spontaneously taught me how to make Pad Thai in their kitchen. Bet your coworking space won’t do that for ya!

The Internet on Ko Lanta isn’t as fast or as freely available as Chiang Mai, but I’d say it’s better than Bali. My TrueMove SIM card provided coverage anywhere on the island, plus in the coastal town of Ao Nang, where you may end up if you need to wait for the ferry.

Remote Working from a beach in Thailand

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The problem with working from the beach is simple: you don’t want to work.

Why would you? An endless ocean in front of you, bars serving 2-for-1 cocktails all day, and all around you, everyone is having fun. It’s impossible to be around this environment and not want to join in.

Although Lanta is sleepy, as far as Thai Islands go, make no mistake: it’s still a tourist destination. The island’s economy revolves around tourism, and there is no shortage of people trying to sell you something. Luckily, beach touts are very rare, and people in general are quite respectful here. There’s still the odd bar blasting techno music till 4 a.m., but in general things are quiet and relaxed.

So, should I go to Ko Lanta??

Ko Lanta is a good place to go to relax. On the flipside, it might not have the energy a lot of nomads like to be around. A pair of nomad friends in Chiang Mai expressed that exact sentiment to us before we left. “Lanta? Why are you going there?” they asked. “It’s a fucking snoozefest.”

And they were right. But sometimes you just want to relax on the beach. This certainly isn’t a bad place to do that, while still remaining confident that you’ll be connected to work.

What is there to do in Ko Lanta?

Check that out in my post: “6 Things to do in Ko Lanta, Thailand!”

Best!!

Dan

 

Backpacking Singapore’s famous Marina Bay Sands

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Marina Bay Sands hotel at night

We were the only people wearing backpacks in the check-in line at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore’s most famous 5-star hotel. All around us were businessmen in slick suits, Indian families on holiday and wealthy Korean socialites. Shiny, wheeled suitcases abounded, sliding silently across the perfectly polished floor of the Marina Bay Sands’ immaculate lobby.

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And then there’s us: two very young Americans, soaked in sweat and baggy under the eyes, with these huge scruffy backpacks sticking up above our heads; looking up at the impossibly high lobby ceilings, with their suggestive curving lines and beautiful architecture. We were starstruck.

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Probably looking something like this.

A five star hotel isn’t a traditional backpacker– or even flashpacker– destination. But this was the Marina Bay Sands— it is THE touristy thing to do in Singapore. It has the world’s highest rooftop infinity pool. The supertrees at the nearby Gardens By The Bay were one of the first things we agreed we wanted to see, a year ago when we first started discussing travel. And, it was Polly’s birthday.

So I booked a night in the cheapest room at the Marina Bay Sands.

The cheapest room at a five-star hotel is not cheap. In fact, I paid as much for one night at the Marina Bay Sands as it costs to rent a lower-end serviced apartment in Chiang Mai for a month. But sometimes in life, you have to go big. This was one of those times.

The benefit to looking out-of-place

After quickly reaching the front of the check-in queue, we were greeted by a very friendly clerk, who asked us if we were backpacking around Asia. “Traveling,” we said. “It’s my birthday,” Polly told him. “My great boyfriend over here bought us a night here as a birthday present.” “Good present!” he said, and upgraded us to a 51st-floor suite with a view of the bay.

Sometimes, looking out of place can make things happen for you.

Sometimes, it just makes you feel awkward as hell in Malaysia.

A suite at the Marina Bay Sands

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Now in possession of a suite for the price of a simple deluxe room, we giddily headed to Tower 3, where we used our RFID room card to gain access to the upper floors (exclusiveeeee).

We were floored when we walked into the room. Coming from tiny backpacker rooms on Ko Lanta and Ao Nang, to THIS, was more than we could handle.

The suite consisted of a big lobby area with a couch, chairs, and big screen TV, and a wall of windows looking out into Singapore Harbor, where dozens of ships were docked. There was a small– very small– balcony you could walk out on. For a couple of landlocked kids like ourselves, this was an amazing sight.

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The living room was separated from the bedroom by two large sliding doors. In the bedroom, the wall of windows continued. A plush, king-size bed commanded the room, facing a second, slightly smaller TV. All the lighting and drapes could be controlled from switches on either side of the bed.

In the bathroom: a huge bathtub, two sinks (godsend for couples), an opaque toilet cubicle (complete with a wall-mounted phone), and a rainfall shower. Toiletries and puffery out the ears, of course. There was also a huge walk-in closet and massive safe, but we honestly had no use for that. All our possessions fit on our backs.

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The room was so cool it was tough to convince ourselves to leave it and actually go see the city. You could easily spend a week in Singapore without ever needing to leave the Marina Bay Sands complex— provided you had the money to burn. The area has a high-end Vegas vibe and is priced accordingly.

The Skypool at the Marina Bay Sands

We didn’t have a week, we only had one night; so we had to jam as much as we possibly could into that one night.

First stop: the famous Skypool on top of the building. Visitors willing to pay a small fee can access the restaurant, bar and observation deck on top of the Marina Bay Sands, but pool access is a privilege reserved exclusively for hotel guests. You can be damn sure we were going to take advantage of it, and get those Instagram photos.

To be honest, I never did nail “the shot” from the skypool. I got a lot of good ones, but no one definitive image. So I’m just going to post a gallery.

The pool area’s actually quite large, stretching on for 300 meters. It is pretty crowded, but we didn’t find it obnoxiously so. There were few enough people that your personal space could still exist, something which you can’t always take for granted in Asia. We were able to grab pool loungers or a spot in one of the three hot tubs without any trouble.

Unfortunately it was pretty chilly while we were there, so we didn’t spend too much time in the pool, which was apparently calibrated to help beat those sweaty tropical nights. We spent most of our time in the hot tubs, which don’t have such spectacular views.

At night, they put on a fireworks and laser show in the marina, which you can view from the infinity edge— an experience sure to make you feel like you’re “on top of the world!”

The Casino

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We lost some money in the casino. I tried to take a picture but got yelled at and then followed by a guy in a suit. As you can see, it wasn’t a very good picture. Not worth the yelling. Turns out I’m a bad gambler no matter which continent I’m on.

The Gardens By The Bay

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We went at 1 a.m. just to check out the Supertrees— this is a cool, free activity which is also open until late at night! Singapore’s reputation for extreme safety had us feeling fine strolling through the deserted Gardens in the middle of the night.

The Supertrees aren’t to be missed. They are huge, man-made megastructures, covered in lattices for vines and other tropical plants to grow on. Additionally, the trees are models of sustainable engineering. They have open funnel tops, which serve as water reclaimers: they capture rainfall, which is then recycled. The wonderful purple lighting comes from solar power collected by panels installed on the trees themselves.

The tallest supertrees are 50 meter (150 feet) tall. For a small fee, you can go up and walk between two of the tallest trees on a skywalk (we didn’t do this).

In addition to the supertrees, the Gardens By The Bay boasts an impressive collection of international flora. Sadly, we didn’t have much time to experience this, but those into plants and gardning would find a lot to like in this attraction.

In Conclusion

Despite taking a significant chunk out of the budget for one night, I don’t regret staying a night at the Marina Bay Sands. Our free upgrade to a suite definitely colored my experience, but I think I would have been just as blown away by the simplest room this hotel offers. I can’t imagine anything here being bad.

Feeling Othered in Kuala Lumpur

Daniel 5 Comments
Kuala Lumpur Regalia Serviced Apartments AirBNB

NOTE: I’ve really been slacking on the travel blogging, partially because we’ve been having so much fun, and partially because I do have a day job. Bler. Despite that, I do have a backlog of adventures to write up, so look for those in the coming week. They’re not quite in chronological order, because I figure it’s better to get content, any content, flowing again. So, without further ado:

Feeling Othered in Kuala Lumpur

Before we were feeling othered in Kuala Lumpur, we were in Ko Lanta, Thailand, sitting cross-legged in a treehouse on the beach. It was nighttime, and now and then a huge lightning storm went off in the distance, lighting up the whole Andaman sea for a moment, before it all went black again. In the foreground, a few local Thais put on a show of their own, spinning and throwing flaming balls of kerosene-soaked rags for the tourists in the chintz plastic chairs.

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One of those things a picture could just never do justice. 

Polly and I sat cross-legged above the scene, in a second-storey tree house nested in the clavicle of a beach palm. A local Thai and two British schoolteachers were our company. We told the teachers of our travel plans: to Singapore, where we’d stay at the Marina Bay Sands, then on to Kuala Lumpur for a few nights, in transit to Bali.

“Two days is about right for Singapore. Like… negative one days for KL,” they said. “It’s… not a very nice place.”

This is what everyone says about KL.

Continue reading →

A Ski Bum in the Tropics

Daniel Leave a comment
Bluebird Day in Blue Sky Basin Vail

 

This time last year, I was cruising around Vail’s legendary back bowls, thigh-deep in powder.

Today finds me halfway around the world, in a place where the very concept of snow is totally unknown. The language isn’t English, the people don’t party so hard, and the weather is much too hot for my liking. I’m a tourist in Asia, not a local.

It’s quite a big change from Vail, where I relished being someone set apart from the hordes of international tourists. It’s increasingly looking like I will miss ski season entirely. After skiing for solid months last year, it’s weird to be developing sandal tan lines in December.

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NOT THAT IT’S ALL BAD (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

 

The digital nomad scene is a different sort of running away, full of very different people than ski bums. In some ways I fit in better here, but there’s not much room for outdoors adventures when you spend most of your time hunched in front of a laptop screen. Joining a pre-arranged tour for a hike up a volcano is a very different experience than going backpacking in your backyard.

(And truthfully, Colorado is sunnier than the tropics!! It rains a lot here!)

Since I’m missing the outdoor adventure lifestyle so much, I’m bringing on another writer to keep me informed, keep you psyched, and keep everyone aspiring to more.

C is holding down the ski bum dream in Vail, Colorado. He’ll be providing a continuation to the ski town content I started last year. He’s 20 years old, a college dropout, adventure seeker, and all around smart guy. In fact, you can spot him in one of the rotating banners up top— looking at his cell phone in a Vail Mountain lean-to. Last year found us alone in the glades on the backside of Beaver Creek’s Grouse Mountain; slamming into walls while doing quasi-legal rock climbing at Wolcott, and on top of four 14,000 peaks in one day, predawn, in the middle of a meteor shower. He’s solid company.

You’ll enjoy him.

C will be introducing himself with a post in the coming week, and after that, you can expect to see his posts interspersed with mine.

That’s all for now. Merry Christmas from halfway across the world! Make some holiday turns for me, a ski bum stuck in the tropics!