Posted on by garyandlinda

Lanta Old Town

Day 2 with a rental car

After eating breakfast our destination was Old Town which is south of here and on the East side of the island. It faces toward the mainland. Where we are in Klong Dao we face West which is great for sunsets. We were down in Old Town several years ago and it is a cool spot for a visit. While it is only 14 km away it takes about 25 minutes or more to get there. It didn’t help that we got started and soon realized we had forgotten our masks!! So a quick turn around and a few minutes later we were back to Oasis Bungalows, grabbed our masks and got back on the road.

Always remember where you are. We drive on the left, the signal light lever is on the right, the windshield wiper lever is on the left. Think about that.
Many years ago Koh Lanta’s Old Town was an important port and commercial centre for the island. It provided a safe stopping place for vessels sailing between Phuket Thailand, Penang Malaysia and Singapore

We arrived in Old Town at the iconic pier. The drive was good except for a bit of road construction, but nothing major. We parked near the pier in a shady area. We were lucky enough to find a spot under the trees. We wandered down the pier and watched a guy fishing off the pier with a net. At the end of the pier is a large area where people can wait for the ferry. Two ladies were sitting there and pointed out the monkey sitting up on one of the rafters. We did see they had a trap set out on the roof, we assume it was to try and catch the monkey as he makes a terrible mess tearing through the garbage cans on the pier. The monkey seems to be wise to the trap as he gave it a wide berth.

At the shore beside the pier a pirate style sailboat sits grounded on the beach. The ship named Rawi Warin Grand Ship was used to take tourists around the island of Koh Lanta. It was damaged in 2020 during bad weather.

Rawi Warin Grand Ship, damaged during a storm in 2020
Rawi Warin Grand Ship. There it sits, maybe forever.
From the pier we wandered back down the main street with many over-the-water restaurants and shops. We checked out a number of the shops and stopped at Grandma’s House for a passion fruit smoothie. Phil, one of the other guests at Oasis, told us to check it out. Apparently he orders donuts from them sometimes. When we asked her if she had donuts today she said, “oh, you must be friends with Phil!!”
We stopped here for a passion fruit smoothie.
We have seen "blue crab" on the menu here in Koh Lanta. This huge statue in on the shore side of the pier.
The Old in Old Town is falling down
From Old Town we headed back to Saladan and made our way to the Lanta Mart where we picked up two cases of Tiger beer. We like Tiger beer best but for whatever reason it is hard to find. One of the restaurants on the beach that we really like has Tiger beer on the menu. So far they are the only restaurant we have found with Tiger! The gal there just said she buys it in Saladan but wouldn’t tell us where, basically she said come here to have beer!! Anyway, this past week we hiked into town and found some cases of the large bottles of Tiger beer at Lanta Mart. We bought one case and got a tuk tuk back to the hotel. So while we had the car we thought it would be a great time to pick up some more. We were able to get two more cases but that’s all they had. We ended up getting another case across town at Mother Marche’s, another grocery store. A few days ago while walking around in town we found an Indian restaurant, the Maharaja Indian Restaurant. We decided to go there for supper while we had use of the car. It was also raining. We had a great Indian meal there. The food quality was great and portions were much better than at Heama (Indian Restaurant) where we have eaten in the past. We’ll likely go back to Maharaja again a few more times!
Very good Indian restaurant
Maharaja. So far this is the best Indian Restaurant we have found in Koh Lanta.
We had to top off the car gas tank to 7/8 before turning the car in the next morning. We put in 15L but should likely have only put in 10. It is always a guessing game to know exactly how much you need to put in. We are pretty sure they made a little extra on the gas. Gas prices here in Koh Lanta are comparable to back home in Saskatoon. While most things here in Thailand are cheaper, gas is expensive by comparison.
We used the GoPro as a dash cam here in Thailand. It’s our proof in case of accident. We pieced together our trip to Old Town mostly in fast motion, added some music and loaded it on our YouTube channel. Please watch and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
We used to allow comments on our blog. We had to stop comments because of all the spammers. The same thing happens when you put your email address on a web page. If you would like to contact us, we have a hint in the image below.
To get in contact, you need to read the sign on the wall of the restaurant.
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