Living 2 months in Koh Lanta
After 10 days in Bangkok, I spent 2 months living on Koh Lanta Island, in Thailand.
In this blog post I will explain everything: What I loved, what I didn’t like, the cost of my stay and what I visited on this Island.
Rent
Compared to Bali, it was a little harder to find a very cheap accommodation. My goal is always to rent something under 330€/month (max 11€/night). While in Bali you can get something amazing starting at 200€/month with a swimming pool, proximity from the beach, and a great double bedroom, here it’s a little harder.
But I succeeded! 😄
On my first day on the Island, I walked on the side of the road and asked every locals, every resort, basically everyone: Do you have a room to rent and if yes, what’s the price?
At the end, I found an amazing resort in front of the beach, renting houses for 12k Baht per month (that’s 330€!).
Welcome to Wonderful Resort 👋🏨
Their house are super clean, they got AC, a fridge and your room get cleaned once a week + they give you fresh towels. Not that bad for this price!
And the best: It’s perfectly located. 2 minutes walk from Kohub, the coworking space in Koh Lanta.
Bonus point: They have optic fiber, like 150Mb/s, just perfect when you want to watch a movie at night.
Food
As I was saying in my previous article, food in Thailand is just amazing.
From the famous Pad Thai, to green/massamam curry, noodle soup, chicken in coconut milk: it’s always good 😋
Here are some typical meals I was having in Koh Lanta.
Chicken Vegetables, 70 baht (1,93€)
Coconut soup with chicken and rice, 120 baht (3,22€)
Sweet and Sour with rice, 70 baht.
About the price, it’s a little bit more expensive than Indonesia, but it’s still quite cheap.
- A Pad Thai is usually 60-80 baht (1,66-2,21€).
- Noodle soup is usually 60 baht.
- A more complex meal can easily be 120-150 baht (3,32-4,15€).
The best Pad Thai in Koh Lanta
If you want to have the best Pad Thai of your life, go to Mr Pad Thai (just type Aleena minimart on Google Maps, it’s in front of it.
The owner is really nice, doing everything by himself, and portion are really big!
A must do!
The best Chicken Massamam Curry in Koh Lanta
You can find it at Lanta Panda restaurant, quite near Mr Pad Thai.
I found this place only at the end of my stay, but it’s definitely the best Massamam Curry I ate in Thailand.
In general a chicken massamam curry is easily 120 baht, but here it’s only 60 baht! Really good address.
Working in Koh Lanta
Kohub is a great coworking space. You have plenty of space and can work inside with AC or outside to enjoy the open air/jungle view.
Internet speed is like in Thailand in general: really fast.
The community is welcoming and from all other the world.
Let’s start a new week of work on Gladys 4 at @kohuborg 🏝 pic.twitter.com/c1vAzl6nOy
— Pierre-Gilles Leymarie ✈️ (@pierregillesl) February 11, 2019
Tourism
Koh Lanta is a small island. You can go from the top to the bottom in 50 minutes by car.
You can still do plenty of things during your weekends!
You can go on a boat tour and visit several islands, go snorkeling.
There is a national park in the south of the island, it’s not really worth it in my opinion.
And you can find a great waterfall in the middle of the jungle, and this one is a great tour.
Finally, you can just chill by the pool with a drink and a good book 🍹
Visa
To stay in Thailand I got the tourist 30 days visa when entering the country, and I renewed this visa in Phuket immigration office for 52€.
My budget
This is not exactly my two months in Koh Lanta in this budget because I was in Lanta from the middle of January to the beginning of March, but you get a general idea of my spendings in Thailand.
In January you can notice my 300€ flight from Paris to Bangkok, and my 33€ flight from Bangkok to Phuket.
This explains why this month is slightly more expensive.
My rent in Koh Lanta was just for the end of January + February + beginning of March. At the beginning of January I was sleeping in an hostel in Bangkok (see the “hotel” row in the budget).
In general I try to keep my spending around 700€ spent/month.
My feedback
My feedback about Koh Lanta is really positive.
You can easily work, have fun and stay on a budget.
I had an amazing time here!
I still have two negative feedbacks about Koh Lanta:
- The road was in construction while I was there, and it was really painful to walk/drive. Some days were really a nightmare in terms of traffic, dust and construction noise. But this is just a temporary issue, nothing related to Koh Lanta :)
- A few people got dengue fever when I was there, and it became a recurrent topic with my coworking space colleagues. We were all scared of getting dengue 😅 But it’s like everywhere in tropical countries, mosquittos are everywhere. You just have to use repellent and be cautious.
What’s next for me
I’m flying next week to the Philippines 🇵🇭
I can’t wait to discover this amazing country, and will share all my trip on this blog.
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