Koh Lanta: the slow island of the Andaman Sea among deserted beaches and the village of the sea gypsies

descriptionDescription

Koh Lanta Yai is a 25-kilometer island in the Strait of Malacca that has resisted tourist pressure better than any of its neighbors. Its elongated shape and the road that degrades toward the south create a natural filter: the further south you go, the fewer tourists you meet. The west-coast beaches, like Kantiang Bay and Bamboo Bay, offer golden sands with no rows of loungers and no vendors. The east coast holds the Old Town, a village of stilt houses where the Moken — the sea gypsies — live amid the peeling leftovers of an ancestral fishing economy. Mu Ko Lanta National Park at the island's southern tip protects virgin jungle, a colonial lighthouse and beaches where only the monkeys arrive. Koh Lanta's sunsets are the longest in the Andaman because the island looks straight west with nothing between it and the Phi Phi islands. Each day is devoted to one activity at most: snorkelling the islets, strolling the Old Town, swimming under the waterfalls, or simply a hammock and a book. Nobody hurry on Koh Lanta — and that is precisely the point.