Klong Khong Garden — Hotel in Ko Lanta Yai

For what one pays, and it is one of the cheapest, you get to stay in your own little cabin a short walk from the beach. You get a kitchen to use, which you may not get at other more expensive places, and provided you're not pernickety about little details, you'll have an ok time there, as the young people who run it are always ready to help if they can, and there's a certain camaraderie amongst the guests. ||My gripe is with the island itself: no rubbish disposal, so this obliges the burning of rubbish including plastics, so lying in bed tryimg to get to sleep despite the heat, in wafts the disgusting stench of dioxins from near and far. With so many foreign tourists on a little island, all contributing to the septic pits which are the only means of evacuation, and all using vast amounts of water, to shower in the clammy heat, the filtration through the water table is such that the water coming out of the shower smells of sewerage. As proven when looking at the telltale froth bubbles of effuent in the waters of the nearby estuary of the Khlong River (Klong) which flows out through the nearby beach, and has the accompanying foetid smell. It is useful, however, to deter the minute jellyfish which plague all the other beaches I have visited on the island. with the exception of the canal running between the Southern main island and the smaller flat sparsely inhabited northern island, but this is a bit off-putting as it is water used by the ferryboats and anyway runs out of the mangroves opposite. Swimming off all other beaches has been the unpleasant experience of being stung by an unseen jellyfish, which in some cases has grown to be able to discerm; indeed on the famed and supposedly best beach, Phrae-Ae, the Long beach, these little blobs of jelly would be running through ones fingers before stinging the more sensitive of ones flesh in the flanks; like swimming in a warm soup of tagliatelle, but annoying. This is a phenomenon possibly worsened by the warming of the waters, as is not always present, but also affects nearby islands. In short; there is no such thing as paradise, and I left there longing to be on the coasts of somewhere like Tarragona in Spain in summer, where the local authorities employ a boat with a catcher on the front which goes up and down the coastline all summer, picking up jellyfish and any detritus which may have found their inadvertent way into the sea. Nothing even vaguely similar could be imaginable in the present-day Thailand, where the authorities claim to be following the precepts of the Paris Agreement, but are planning to build a coal-fired electricity generating plant at nearby Krabi, and where recycling is not facilitated in the slightest, except for certain private enterprises which will pay a few bahts per kilo of plastic, alu-or tin, and more for glass. It does hurt, however, to see young Europeans; Finns, Germans, Belgians; French, Swedes, etc., who in their own countries do conscientiously perform recycling, here on the fragile ecosystem of Koh Lanta, treat it like an enormous rubbish dump. I have personnally stopped young Europeans in the act of throwing beercans and bottles into the undergrowth behind the beaches, asking them if they would do that in their own countries, to get replies highly despreciative of the Thai people, such as; they are a bunch of filthy Asiatics - we might as well just do whatever we feel like. The future for Koh Lanta and all these beautiful islands does...

Unfortunately a few key things let this place down, all of which could be resolved pretty simply. Almost all of the hammocks outside the bungalows were completely ripped apart, an in need of replacing. I only counted one bungalow with a hammock that was useable. The mosquito net ceiling fixture was half broken when we arrived, we had to fix it ourselves with a temporary fixture we made from some old screws we found lying around on the floor of our bungalow. Inside the bungalows there’s no hooks or railings to hang your towel on, we resorted to hanging them on the curtain rail. There’s not even a table which would be really useful considering the one and only plug socket in the room is about 3/4 of the way up the wall, charging our gear was almost impossible!! Putting a table in the rooms would have been soo useful.

Other than this, the beds are really comfy and bungalows overall very clean. Staff are nice. Location is ideal for Khlong Kong Beach but away from the main road with restaurants and shops about 3...

Abu and the team at Khlong Kong Gardens are absolutely amazing - I’ve never been made to feel so welcomed in a hotel ever in my life. 10/10 customer service for start to finish. One night his family were having a BBQ and they made extra food for all the guests staying at the resort - that’s a good example of how kind, thoughtful and incredible these guys are.

The huts are very clean, Thai traditional and comfortable. Excellent wi-fi speed. The location is perfect and Abu will help you arrange literally everything one could require whilst staying in Koh Lanta (taxis, local information, scooter rental, day trips, visa info etc). They have a fantastic selection of high quality scooters and you won’t find better prices on the island.

I’ve been to Koh Lanta twice and both times I stayed at Kong Khlong Garden, simply because both times have been such a wonderful experience - I’ll be back again next year!

Much love to Abu and this family! If you’re reading this, thank you for being an amazing human...