Lanta Animal Welfare and Monday market

Today after school we visited Lanta Animal Welfare on Long Beach. Lanta Animal Welfare (LAW) is a non-profit organisation. It is funded by donations and from support from Time for Lime. Time for Lime is a cooking school on our beach, run by  Junie Kovacs. Junie has a multi-cultural background. Her mother is Norwegian, her father is Hungarian, she was born in California and moved to Norway at the age of 14. She started Lanta Animal Welfare in 2005. LAW that takes care of cats and dogs in Koh Lanta. They have a very nice animal centre at Long Beach. People can visit, take the dogs for a walk or cuddle with the cats. We arrived very close to closing time, but got to feed the cats in the Happy Cat House and we got a tour on the centre with one of the volunteers.

The animal centre is always operating at full capacity which means they need to free up space by finding people who are willing to adopt or foster one of the dogs of cats. They can help with the whole process of getting the dog to your country. As you can see on the picture some of the dogs have been adopted to Norway.

One of the young puppies that live in Lanta Animal Welfare. We got to visit them in their spacious cages and play with the puppies.

Lucas fell in love with this shy little girl.

One of the puppies playing with Arvid. He is kissing my hair..

One of LAW`s goal`s is to stop the suffering og homeless, abused and injured stray animals on Koh Lanta. Spraying and neutering is the most human and efficient way to solve this problem. As to date they have sterilised and rabies vaccinated more than 5000 animals. There has been no recorded case of rabies on Koh Lanta for fifteen years.

 

If you want to learn more about Lanta Animal Welfare you can go to the website: http://www.lantaanimalwelfare.com where you make a donation or maybe you want to adopt? You can also like them on Facebook.

When the Animal Centre closed we went to the Monday market on Klong Dao Beach.

Always fun to go to one of the local markets to browse around and look at the exotic fruits and seafood.

Spicy!!

Lucas had popcorn(with sugar).

The plan for tomorrow is to try out kids Thai boxing. Stay tuned!

Il dolce far niente. The sweetness of doing nothing.

 

Before we left home, people kept asking us: What are you going to do when you are traveling for so long? Will it not get boring after a while? Let’s try to answer those questions. First of all what are we not doing when we are traveling? We are not working, one of the things that occupy us most at home both mentally and physically. We are not watching TV, another time-consuming activity. No driving in rushhour, no grocery shopping, no homework, no cooking and cleaning. So what are we doing with all this time left over? A normal day at Koh Lanta starts at 07.00. Wake up and get Lucas ready for school. When he leaves at 08.25, we stroll down to the beach and have a really long breakfast. Two hours are not unheard of. After breakfast we hang around on the beach reading or swimming, or have a long walk along the sea . Time for lunch. Lucas has lunch at school so we eat before he comes home at 14.00. After school we stay outside the bungalow, checking Facebook and e-mail. Reading some more before we head for the beach or a pool again with Lucas . The best time at the beach is between 16.30 and 18.30, the sunset is one of the highlights of our lazy days. We have time to talk to each other, time to read a nice book and time to play. Things that are so seldom back home. After sunset we have dinner on the beach, with new friends, while we look at lucky balloons and fire-show. Before we walk home under the stars. The last question: Does it not get boring? So far we have not felt bored one second. On the contrary we are enjoying every minute of our day. Taking time to be in the moment. The warm climate, the sandy beaches and warm sea, the sunsets and the stars at night. Our day is over at 21.00-22.00. This is our dream to have this “time-out” from the buzzy life back home.

 

Langkawi and Koh Lipe

What we love about our traveling is the fast changes and the contrasts. From hectic and action filled days in Borneo with a lot of impressions and wonderful experiences to relaxing days in Langkawi. From the luxury of Shangri-La to the welcoming warm atmosphere at basic Zackry`s Guesthouse. From the jungle to the beach. Getting together with old friends and meeting new friends. We are enjoying every second of it, and are feeling extremely privileged to be able to live our dream.

It has been 6 years since we last visited Zack and Pi in Zackry`s Guesthouse on Langkawi. Lovely to see them again. A lot has changed with the buildings, but not with the friendly people and the welcoming feeling of staying there. Our favorite place in Malaysia.

Cenang beach had become more build up since last time but it`s still a very nice beach.

Monday we rented a car and drove to the heritage village on Langkawi. The plan was to go on the cable car to the top of the mountain.. As you can tell by the pictures there was just so much else to do in the village that we never got to the mountain top. We have been there before, Lucas do not remember it, but he was not the least interested in the cable car. More exiting with rabbits, horses and fish feeding.

We met these guys on our way back to the Guesthouse. Not exactly a recliner they had for a chair. No wonder they looked a little depressed.

April 9th we headed back into Thailand, time to slowly make our way back “home” to Koh Lanta. But first a couple of days on one of our favorite islands, Koh Lipe. 4 years since our last visit. We stayed at the same resort at Sunrise beach. The Castaway resort. Still no cars on Koh Lipe but a lot more resorts. Even if the low season have started it was a lot of people there. That can be explained by the Songkran, the Thai New years festival.

We celebrated Songkran with the Larsson family from Sweden. Anders, Cia, Alvin and little Arvid. anglatorpet.wordpress.com. Hopefully we will see them again on Koh Lanta. We had to get som water gun´s before we headed into town. Songkran is all about water. And boy did we get wet!

Lucas’s water gun lost against the bucket full of water with ice cubes!

Back home after a short trip to town to get som Saturday sweets for the kids.. Once all white. The chalk is for good luck.

No one was safe, not even in the restaurant on Castaway. Waiters and kids all wet.

Almost every evening we went to the movies in Pooh’s Bar. The best way to see a movie and eat popcorn.

Right outside Castaway there is a lot of colourful corals and fish. Lucas and Bos went snorkeling a lot.

Sunrise at Sunrise beach.

Finally weekend!

Borneo

Our Borneo journey stared April 2. direct from Gold Coast via Kuala Lumpur. A long but nice travel day. On the 3. we were picked up on our hotel by Borneo Eco Tours and taken to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation centre, where they raise orphan baby Orangutan and set them out into the wild again. The centre is run by the Malaysian government and a british project. To read more about Sepilok go to: http://www.orangutan-appeal.org.uk.

We went to see the feeding of the Orangutans that are in the wild around the centre. Most of them are raised at the centre and continue to come back twice a day for food. Some of them are quite naughty and steals mobile phones and cameras. Lucas was skeptical to the whole feeding thing. Sure that the naughty Toby would come and take our camera. It all went well the Orangutans behaved themselves.

After lunch we started the boat trip into the rainforest to get to our lodge. Sukau Rainforest Lodge. http://www.sukau.com. The two and a half hour boat ride was a really nice experience. We were on a speedboat going up the river.

At the lodge we met Adele, Jacob, Ulrik and Sofia, our neighbors from Oslo, currently living in Xiamen in China. Sofia is in Lucas’s class in Oslo and meeting Sofia was the biggest event of the day for Lucas.

In the afternoon we joined a monkey spotting boat ride up the river to look for the Proboscis Monkey(the big nose monkey), and there was lot`s and lot`s of them to be found.

There were also a lot of Pig-tailed Macaque monkey’s, also known as the Mafia of the rainforest. They are not popular by the local fishermen as they find and steal their scrimps form the crates.

We also saw a lot of birds, the Kingfisher bird amongst other’s.

The lodge we were staying at was nestled in the rainforest and we saw long-tailed Macaques in the garden. We had a very nice dinner with the Rognhaug family that evening.

Next day was departure day and we headed down the river in the speedboat again. Half way to Sandakan the guide started to get very exited and told us that there was a Pygmè Elephant spotting a bit further down the river. That is very seldom to see the Elephants. There are only about 200 of them in the area, and they are on the move constantly. We had a very close encounter as the elephants were right on the riverbed. Up close there is nothing pygmè about them. Some of them came as close as 4-5meters to the boat. What a thrill!

We counted about 20 elephants in the herd.

The kids were not as interested as the adults.. Elephant- Smellephant..

After lunch and a short flight to Kota Kinabalu, we checked into the Shangrila Tanjung Aru Resort right outside Kota Kinabalu. A very nice place to spend a few days. The kids were ecstatic about the pool area with slides and a lot of water fun.

Friday we went on a snorkel trip to Palau Mamutik, a 10 minute boat ride from the hotel. A lot of fish and a very nice beach.

Heeps of impressions in a short amount of time. Only 4 days on Borneo. Next time we must stay longer.

We had a great time with the Rognhaug family! Sad for Lucas to say goodbye to Sofia.