Living Like a Local on Lanta

December 21, 2024

Sara’s Recap and Thoughts

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

After nearly five months on the road, it’s been so anchoring to settle into a longer stay in Koh Lanta, Thailand, where we’ve been for the last four weeks. Koh Lanta (or “Lanta” as locals say) is a small, laid back island in the southern part of the country. Pre-children, Justin and I traveled to Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai, so we didn’t feel much of a need to visit these areas again on this trip, and after a lot of research, selected Koh Lanta after reading about the wonderful worldschooling community here. The island has not disappointed. It’s been so lovely to slow down and just… live here. We’ve fully unpacked our bags, staying in a three-bedroom villa with a small pool. We bought a giant inflatable pizza floatie, as one does, and a smaller kitty cat floatie. We are close to the beach, but as we learned quickly, the better beaches for swimming/family meet ups are a couple miles up the road. We rented a car – Justin is now a pro at left side of the road driving – but occasionally take tuk tuks. This has been a mixed bag; one night, Simon and I tuk tuk’ed back from dinner and the driver drove the wrong direction despite me pointing behind us and begging him to turn around. But, we made it back eventually, and continue to learn invaluable lessons about navigating language barriers. The island is long, and lots of people drive motor scooters, as well. There are no crosswalks or traffic lights, so if you need to cross the street you basically just dart across and hope you don’t get hit by a car or motorbike or tuk tuk. Oh – or a construction truck! There is tons of construction on Lanta at the moment.

I think the change of pace has been really good for everybody, even if the first week or so was bumpy due to the rain and what I am now terming the “Thailand hazing period,” whereby both Jonah and I came down with the same 24-hour stomach bug that plagued Justin and Calla back in Koh Samui. We are sending Jonah and Simon to the International School of Asia, which allows short-term enrollments, and this provides some nice structure for their weekdays. Calla has been going to Lanta Trinity Playgroup 2-3 mornings/week. It’s a Montessori-style classroom, and she absolutely loves it to the point where we have to carry her out when it is time for pick up. Justin and I have been enjoying using our mornings to work, exercise, and spend time together. I attended a Muay Thai lesson, a Sound Meditation class, and my first (and likely my last!) CrossFit class. Jonah and Simon are taking weekly Muay Thai lessons, though are no longer sparring one another after session #2 proved that this was a Categorically Bad Idea™. I wish we had just a bit longer here, and at the same time, with a firm end date to our travels, I also know that I don’t want to cut anything else short in the months ahead.

A few weeks before we arrived here on Lanta, we discovered the Bliss hub. The founders of Bliss run a free worldschooling community here, with an active What’s App chat and near-daily activities, including a Monday games meet up, a Wednesday crafts meet up, and a Friday ultimate frisbee game. The day after we arrived, Jonah and Simon went to school, and we took Calla to the Backyard Café for the games meet up. We were there for hours, just chatting with the dozen plus families in attendance. We’ve been to two birthday parties for children we didn’t even know, one at a local waterpark and one at the beach. Everyone is very friendly and open, and it’s been nice to speak with so many traveling families. Some people we’ve met are just traveling for a year like us, and some are doing this more long-term, working and traveling slow with no set end date. This is very much an expat community – at least as we enter high season; I’ve met very few Thai people on this island other than those who are working here. This can sometimes feel uncomfortable; I am acutely aware of the cost of living differences between Kirkland, WA, and Koh Lanta, Thailand, and while it is much, much cheaper to live nicely here than at home, it is not because things are objectively cheap by any means.

For example, I am being spoiled rotten by the prevalence of inexpensive massages. (Or - rather - inexpensive according to US standards.) Massage clinics are peppered across the island, and it’s approximately 300 Baht ($9) for an hour-long Thai massage. I’ve also taken Simon for foot reflexology at the place around the corner, where we sit next to one another and read our books. My favorite Thai massage is at a place called Moon, where you lie on mats on the floor. It’s not as comfortable as Anchan (private rooms, a place to put my head), but it’s a better Thai massage. However, Anchan has better deep tissue massages. So – you know – I alternate. Everywhere takes walk-ins. Did I mention how incredibly spoiled I am these days? 

We’ve had some fantastic Thai food here, but we’ve been surprised by how much non-Thai food we’ve enjoyed, as well. One of my favorite meals has been a burger with gorgonzola, pork belly, and apple chutney at a restaurant whose patio abuts our condo complex. There’s a lively night market, where I purchased a swirly fried potato with nori powder on a stick for 50 Baht ($1.50) and a huge portion of mango sticky rice for 100 Baht ($3). The downside, I suppose, of everything being so inexpensive is that we rarely eat at the house, save for breakfast. Our favorite treat is to stop at one of the pop-up Thai pancake stands nearby, where you can get a roti-style pancake with all sorts of fillings (banana, mango, cheese) and/or toppings (Nutella, honey). I’ve taken two cooking classes. One – “Cooking with Mon” – with the entire family, and the other – “Time for Lime” – on my own. Cooking with Mon was high energy fun. We made four dishes, and while Calla and Simon punked out early, Jonah cooked everything. We were able to select from several menu options, and between the five of us we made pad see ew, pad thai, pad kee mao, penang curry, massaman curry, larb, papaya salad, sweet and sour stir-fry, tom ka soup, and mango sticky rice. It was so much food, and since the younger kids barely touched it, we took home a lot of leftovers. Time for Lime was a completely different vibe, oriented much more towards adults as there is a 13+ age restriction. It’s next door to Lanta Animal Welfare (more on this below) and run by the same woman; all proceeds from the cooking class go directly to the animal shelter. We started the morning with a mini cocktail class. The instructor made a lemongrass margarita, a chili margarita, and a gin and mint drink, and had us sample all three to decide which one we wanted to make ourselves. I was surprised by how much I loved the chili margarita, so chose to make that. The rest of the day proceeded at a leisurely pace. We had long breaks to swim in the pool, and everyone made the same dishes (tom ka, deep fried papaya salad, penang curry; the instructor made mango sticky rice for us). Justin and Calla came to hang out by the pool for a while before picking up the boys from school, and I enjoyed chatting with the other participants.

I’ve taken Simon and Calla on several outings just the three of us, including a full day visit to Following Giants, an ethical elephant sanctuary (i.e., no riding or touching the elephants). There, we walked amongst the 5 female and 1 male elephant on the grounds, made seed balls for reforestation (which we hurled by sling shot into the forest), and made paper from elephant dung (three cheers for Simon for being the only one of us willing to do his duty and collect the…you know). After lunch, we went for a hike to a waterfall, where we were able to swim, before returning to the sanctuary for ice cream. While tiring, it was a really nice way to spend the day, and the kids enjoyed the various activities (except for maybe the bat cave and seeing the giant tarantulas). We also visited Lanta Animal Welfare, which rescues dogs and cats and places them for adoption, and spent half a day at the Thung Yee Peng Mangrove Forest. There, we took a gondola ride and saw mud fish and monkeys. The kids kept throwing bananas at the monkeys, and one of them swam up to our boat! I hadn’t even realized monkeys could swim, but this one certainly could. Afterwords, we visited a coconut farm, where the owner showed my kids how to pick coconuts and crack them open for juice and meat. Finally, we went back to our guide’s family home, where we cooked pad Thai with her mother and Thai pancakes with her sister.

One thing I’ve really appreciated about a longer stay is that it’s afforded us opportunity and flexibility in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Early on in our time here, I was chatting with an expat who is an expert on sharks about how I was hoping to try scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. He remarked that we shouldn’t wait until Australia to try scuba diving since you can get certified as an open water diver in 3-4 days, and that a practice dive in the GBR would not be nearly as extraordinary as a dive we could do if certified. (Once you get your dive certification, it last forever, though you may need to take a refresher course if it’s been more than 12-24 months since your last dive.) I took this under consideration, and even with the boys’ school schedules, a few days was definitely doable, particularly given the week-long break due to Thai holidays. I wasn’t sure I was interested, but we decided that it would be great for Jonah and Justin to do together. (We couldn’t all get certified together since there is a minimum age requirement of 10.) Jonah was hesitant, but as an avid animal lover, was eventually sold by the idea that he could expand his sea life viewing opportunities. After three days, Justin and Jonah were certified as an open water diver and a scuba diver, respectively. They will write more about this experience, but I was super proud of Jonah for taking this on. It certainly isn’t easy.

Through a different diving company, I decided to try a discovery dive just to get my feet wet and see if I enjoyed it. A discovery dive involves one day out on a boat, where you review a pamphlet and get a brief overview of the equipment before the instructor takes you and one other participant into the water. Unlike a certification course, the discovery dive is meant to give you a taste of scuba diving. There are no tests to take or skills to practice; it’s just you and your equipment and the water. I felt a bit apprehensive but was excited to dive. During the first dive, the instructor held onto our air tanks the entire time. I enjoyed the experience – which felt markedly different from snorkeling – particularly when several schools of fish would envelop us as we floated through the water. During the second dive, however, I had trouble maintaining neutral buoyancy and kept floating up. My regulator (i.e., the mouthpiece) was hurting my jaw so much that I was having trouble breathing. This threw me, and after I completed several requested tasks under water (clearing my mask, dropping and locating the regulator), I just couldn’t recover my mask or my breath. I resurfaced after only 15 minutes and was told to return to the boat. It was only about 12:30, and there were still another 1.5 dives left in the day plus lunch. I was disappointed; I’d really wanted to enjoy my experience, and instead felt like I had failed something I didn’t quite feel prepared to do. When I got home, I told my family that I did not think scuba was for me, and that I never wanted to do it again. Justin expressed surprise that the day did not begin with any time in the pool, as it does for the three-day certification course. He validated how challenging it would be to go immediately into the water with no prior experience using the scuba equipment. I struggled to let the experience go for several reasons. First, I felt some shame about how challenging I’d found it. No other divers left the water early, and I wanted to prove to myself that this was something I could do. I also knew I was unlikely to have another opportunity to complete a certification course as readily accessible and affordable as the one on Lanta. I didn’t want that one day to be my only experience with scuba diving, and felt confident I would really enjoy it if given more time to practice before getting in the ocean. So, within 36 hours, I did a total 180 and decided to complete my open water certification with Go Dive, the shop that Jonah and Justin used, as both really liked their (very patient) instructor, Alex. As hoped, this was a completely different experience. On day 1, I met Alex at a pool, where I learned how to assemble and disassemble my scuba gear. I completed a swim test, and then practiced several skills in the water, including taking on and off my buoyancy control device (BCD), sharing air, and taking my mask off under the water. On days 2 and 3, I was out on the water. We traveled to two local dive sites, where I completed four separate dives. As part of the certification process, I needed to demonstrate that I could maintain my position under water, regulate my air supply, navigate with a compass, as well as complete many of the same tasks I was first asked to do in the pool. Parts were tricky. I still struggled with my regulator, even with a smaller size and actively working on not biting. My jaw was in a lot of pain after both days of diving. I popped some Tylenol and persevered. One thing I hadn’t anticipated was how challenging it was to remain underwater. In fact, I was explaining the process of scuba diving to my mother-in-law, who shared that having to wear a weight belt in the water would scare her because she’d be worried about sinking. I found the opposite to be true; it was tricky to stay in the water and very easy to inadvertently float back up given the changes in pressure. There were times I thought I was still under water but would suddenly find myself at the surface. I started to get the hang of this by day 3, and by my last dive, felt much more confident in my skill set. The sea life was magical: I saw a giant clam, blacktip reef sharks, puffer fish, and even a turtle swimming above my head. Now, I am pleased to share that I am officially a certified open water scuba diver! At the end of the day, I was able to make lemonade from my discovery dive day. Because I had done some “practice” diving, I felt more adept walking into the pool day and was not nervous at all before going in the ocean on day one. So, while my first experience scuba diving wasn’t great, in the end, I’m glad I allowed myself more time and space to try again, and I’m really excited to scuba dive in the Great Barrier Reef in March.

All in all, for the most part we’re just doing regular life here…. Meeting up with others, braving our annual flu shots, getting haircuts (bye bye, 5+ months of grays!), trying (again) to send a package back to the US. One night, we hired a babysitter through Calla’s playgroup and met new friends for trivia at a hotel/restaurant next door. (I tried to keep my fiercely competitive side in check so as not to antagonize people I’d literally met the week before.) We are constantly trying to find the balance between traveling slow and settling into living somewhere and traveling faster so we can see more parts of the world. I don’t think we’d find the same type of community we’ve found in Koh Lanta in most other places, and thus I’m glad we’ve been so intentional about planning our longer stays for areas in which we know we can connect with others. We have a longer stay planned in Hoi An, Vietnam, next month and anticipate seeing some of the same families we met here on Lanta. Our final month of the trip – a month-long program outside Cusco, Peru – was just canceled, so we’ve been exploring options for alternatives that will still allow us to conclude our year abroad with a culturally immersive experience. I think we are almost done sorting this out, and I look forward to a finalizing the last three months of our journey so that I can truly kick my feet up and relax. (Ha!)

See you all in Vietnam, where we will explore the country from top to bottom, visiting Hanoi, Bai Tu Long Bay, Sapa, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh, and the Mekong Delta.

Sara’s Stats

Flights: 15 (including 2 seaplanes)

Accommodations: 38

Countries: 10

Books read: 45

Massages in Koh Lanta: 14

Justin’s Soapbox

Koh Lanta was probably the location I was most looking forward to on this trip, and it certainly has proven to be one of the more enjoyable locations we've had the pleasure of staying at. 

This seems like a common stop for families doing long-term travel. I had gotten used to explaining our year-long plan to people we met along the way as the unexpected, surprisingly long outlier of a family trip that it is; however in Koh Lanta most of the other travelers we're meeting are here for just as long if not longer than us, and similarly in the midst of a long-term travel plan. It's funny to suddenly have the roles reversed and be the more structured, shorter-term traveling family in the group, whereas it seems like half the people here say something like "yeah we're staying here for another month or two, then maybe going to Bangkok, eh we'll figure it out..." Regardless, it’s nice to not be the only crazy people in the place who decided to go traveling with kids for a year.

The geography of Koh Lanta is pretty simple for visitors. The west side of the Island is basically one long road, a strip that runs from North to South covered with locally owned restaurants, general stores, fruit stands, and small accommodations. In one sense, the economy is undeniably geared towards tourism, but a slower kind of tourism that expects people to slow down and adjust to the pace of region, rather than building up big sterile hotels to provide first class comforts. This isn’t the kind of place where you can expect to find room service. So we go to the store, we meet up with other families, we go to the gym (or Muay Thai class), and we take the boys to school.

It’s remarkable that we found an English-speaking international school here that accepted short term enrollments. This was perfect for the boys (though Jonah may not fully agree on that) and it provided us with a sense of consistency and routine that we have been lacking. Simon made some friends there and is already having online meetups with them playing Roblox. And while their time attending was short, they’ll be able to say they went to school in Thailand for the rest of their lives! The presence of the school itself speaks to Koh Lanta’s ability to provide a hub for families from abroad looking for a temporary home.

And now time for some SCUBA thoughts. I don't know why I'd always been so neutral on the idea of learning to SCUBA previously. It neither held great interest for me nor did I feel any real apprehension about it, and when I saw I could get certification classes here I initially shrugged it off. After a day or two I realized that that was foolish since when else would I have such an obvious opportunity to devote some time to learning this? Three days of practice later, and I'm very happy I took the plunge. I hadn't realized is how intrinsically calming the mindset of SCUBA is. You have to maintain mental focus on your safety, but this requires physical orientation towards relaxation and mindfulness, focusing on your breathing, awareness of surroundings, and finding balance (literally). I knew nothing about SCUBA, so it was news to me that one straps into a buoyancy system to manage while submerged - basically an inflatable/deflatable life vest to regulate your depth - and I found this interaction to be really engaging both as a reassuring safety measure as well as a fun challenge. Too much air, you start floating up. Too little, you start to sink and need to work harder at swimming. Learning to manage this balance so that you are serenely suspended at your chosen depth is a first step, and I found it both amusing and poignant to be continually trying to achieve this even plane.

The four official dives I did all took place at Koh Haa Yai, a spectacular little archipelago of cliffs that appear in the ocean a few miles off the coast. Just being able to take a boat out to see these pillars would have been worth it, but getting to explore beneath them was really special. Another fun / disorienting aspect I found here was diving next to a vertical wall of coral, as the act of turning my head to look up and down it while submerged really seemed to mess with my sense of perception. It's just not a normal thing for my brain to process looking up a huge wall to see "the surface" and looking down to see "the bottom" while just suspended next to it. It was definitely strange being that far under water (only about 30 feet at max depth, but still). Looking up and seeing the surface that far above me gives me a kind of reverse vertigo feeling. I'm reminded here a bit of the experience among the dunes in Morocco, which triggered a similarly disorienting quality, albeit of a different kind. It's a real privilege to be able to throw yourself into such a change of environment like this and just see how your brain reacts. Maybe I'm more sensitive to this than other people would be, I can't know for sure. But for me personally, this was another first-time experience that made my brain go "woah."

This is the second time I’ve traveled to Thailand and it’s firmly established itself as one of my favorite places to travel to. I don’t know when, or where exactly, but I plan to return again someday.

Jonah’s Musings

We've been in Koh Lanta for almost the last month. But although I am loving this place there are some things I want to talk to you about, including my likes and dislikes. I love that we are kind of in the middle of a jungle, because I like the fact that we can see this beautiful forest outside our hotel room. This is something I enjoy because it makes me feel really out in the wilderness.

The food here is also great. We've had Thai food, burgers, and pizza. Also, I have been going to an international school which has been a new experience for me. Some things I like about it is that the kids are really nice, and that it's really simple.

We also did some scuba diving where we saw all sorts of things such as some parrot fish, pufferfish, eel and a bunch of other fish I couldn't identify. The training for scuba was quite hard though. We had to learn how to put our mask on if it falls off and same with the mouthpiece underwater. 

Learning how to scuba dive was a new experience for me. and I haven't done anything like it before. Just the feeling of being about 30 feet underwater felt like being in another world. I loved scuba diving and I would recommend it to anyone who is into that sort of thing. Here is my video:

Anyways stay tuned for the next blog, follow our newsletter, and sub to the channel!

 Simon’s Reflection

Koh Lanta is nice, fun, and easy even if it is a very weird place. It's fun because there's very good food, the beach is nice, the hotel is amazing and the massages are very good! It's weird because the same people we meet seem to be everywhere, wherever we go. It feels a little like home here. f you had told me we were moving here, I would believe you. That's because we all have our own places to sleep, I made a lot of friends here, and so did Mom and Dad.

We went to this crazy water park birthday and Jonah and I went on this crazy slide. It went almost straight down and I got on it by jumping, but then Jonah was scared but he slipped and fell and went down. He loved it. Then we went on this green slide to see how fast it was, and it was even faster than the straight down one. Then we went on a bumpy one that went up and down. I would give that park an A-minus!

I've been going to an international school where I've made lots of friends. And there's one who is now one of my best friends. It's not that different from my old school, except that the lunches are a little bit worse. Most of the time there's a lot of saucy, green-y stuff and it tastes exactly like what it sounds like. 

I have made a lot of friends here in Koh Lanta, but here are some of my best friends:

Noé is a good friend of mine who plays Roblox. He plays the game Blocks Fruit (I don't like that game!) but he also plays Toilet Tower Defense (which I love!). He is very nice, and has very nice hair like me. We have gone to the beach together and stayed in the water for almost 3 hours talking. We didn't even bring any screens that time - that's impressive (for me!).

Gethen is the best friend I've made at this school in Koh Lanta. He's a nice dude who is 10 years old. He plays Roblox, as well, and he plays a game called Fish (I don't know what that is). He of course also plays Toilet Tower Defense (I love it!). I've played Roblox with him a lot’ he's a really good player. At school we've played football (soccer), and he's such a good goalie. He can kick the ball far, I can kick it only about 6.8 meters. I think Gethen can kick it about 38 meters.

There's one fact that you all must know. Book your tickets now because KOH LANTA IS AWESOME!

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Calla, we’ve been in Koh Lanta for about a month. What have been some of your favorite things you’ve done here?

Calla: I don’t remember doing stuff at Koh Lanta.

Mommy: <reminds Calla about what we’ve been doing here>

Calla: [Talking about Lanta Trinity Playgroup] So, I got this new toy that looks like it puts baby to sleep, and there’s a crib there. There’s a bunch of toys in the crib. It was comfy. It was a big imagination. There was trucks! Lunch. Cakes and cookies.

Now let’s do the elephants. What I did at the elephant sanctuary…. Oh yeah, the hike of the elephants. There was grass and elephants. I got some crackers because I was hungry. There was lunch. Then we made paper out of elephant dung. Then we went home.

Mommy: Calla, what are some of your favorite Thai foods you’ve tried?

Calla: I don’t know. Like…. Pad see ew, Thai pasta. Pizza. I don’t really know.

Mommy: I know your favorite. Thai pancakes!

Calla: Kind of. Still I like pasta that’s not Thai.

Mommy: Calla, we’ve met a lot of other traveling families here. Can you talk about some of the meet ups and the other kids you’ve met?

Calla: Sure! So there was like these new toy swings and there was a ball pit, a swing set, two baby swings, lunch. I made some new friends. There was a slide. There was a stroller. It was just…yeah.

Mommy: What has been your favorite thing about Thailand?

Calla: Thai pancakes!

We anticipate sending our next blog shortly after the new year, but before our January Schmidt ladies birthday celebrations. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!! We will see you all in 2025.

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla