Why Ko Lanta?
Why I decided Ko Lanta was the right place to be!
Every year there are more and more yachts visiting Thailand. Many of those yachts stay for extended periods of time, some for weeks, some for many months, some for years, and some never leave! This is what has happened to me, Graeme Belshaw, Managing Director of LMS.
I have been cruising around the waters of Thailand and Malaysia for more than 8 years on my 50’ steel cutter, “Khulula”, mainly cruising between Phuket and the Similans to the north and down to Langkawi and Penang to the south. In this time I have visited most of the islands en-route many times but I still find no problem at all to seek out new places and often hear myself asking, ‘How did I miss this place before…?’
This is almost what happened with Ko Lanta Yai. When I first arrived in Thailand, on my very first (of many) visa runs to Langkawi, I stopped at Lanta Old Town on the east coast. It was ‘low’ season, meaning the south west monsoon, and it was raining! Once I stepped ashore and saw ‘old town’ for the first time I remember thinking, ‘this is a bit of a one horse town’.
There didn’t seem to be much going on at all, a pleasant atmosphere, a couple of shops, and mud roads leading out of the town to ‘who knows where?’ First impressions eh? It took more than 4 years before I stopped in Lanta again, preferring Phi Phi or Ko Muk/Ngai/Kradan as my overnight anchorage.
Having survived the Tsunami aboard ‘Khulula’ in Phi Phi, I revisited Ko Lanta a short time later. Like many yachties I was looking for somewhere relatively safe in the aftermath as we were still getting regular scares of new tsunamis. I’d heard that Lanta had been less affected than many other places and headed once again to Old Town where I stayed for about a week… and fell in love. The mud roads were nearly all replaced with hardtop, making it easier to explore the island on my rented motorbike and, with more time on my hands, I discovered that Old Town had a lot more to offer than I’d remembered. (see Old Town section)
In December 2006 I decided that I wanted a ‘land base’ in Ko Lanta, and old Town provided the best of all worlds as I wanted to be able to keep my boat in safe waters, in both seasons. I took over ‘Orange House’ (as it has become known) which is on stilts over the sea, and I sat on the back deck looking out at ‘Khulula’ thinking it unlikely there could be any place better to live, and also keep an eye on my boat at the same time.
Like many cruisers, my budget had always been pretty small and most of my capital was in my boat. I have only visited the UK once since I started cruising and I remember the agonizing decision I had to make about where to leave my boat while I was away. I didn’t want to pay for a marina but I also couldn’t even consider leaving my boat to look after herself. In the end I decided to haul her out as this was the only way I’d be able to sleep at night while I was on the other side of the world !
As I contemplated these memories on my back deck I realized that if Lanta was such a good place for me to keep an eye on my boat, it would also be a great place for me to keep an eye on other people’s boats too, and this moorings project was the result!
by Graeme Belshaw, MD – Lanta Marine Services.
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