KoHub Activities on Koh Lanta — part 1

If you are one of the lucky people who are staying on Koh Lanta and working from KoHub, the one and only co-working space on Koh Lanta, you will soon realize that there is more to KoHub than just sitting in front of your laptop, sipping coffee and working on your projects. In addition to an astonishing community and a fantastic location (I am really curious about the KoHub 2.0 area ;-)), there are more activities than you can even fit into your all too busy day. Although we came to Koh Lanta to mainly work on our projects, the condition for doing this abroad was to be able to spend our free time exploring new places and enjoying our life. And there is no better place to do this than Koh Lanta and KoHub. Although there are more activities than I can write about in one post, I’ll have to start somewhere 🙂 Therefore I want to share with you the first bunch of KoHub activities on Koh Lanta.

KoHub and its community

Everything you do, at least that’s the case for me, is much more fun when being in great company. I’m not sure how to describe KoHub and the community you can find on this small island. The best way to convince you that you should pack your stuff and go there at least for a couple of weeks is probably by mentioning, that after being on Koh Lanta twice for in total more than 100 days we are already in the process of planning our next trip 😉

Everything is awesome!

You have this beautiful island with those amazingly friendly and curious people. You have the sea and lovely beaches. You have a great co-working space “KoHub” which is being relocated while I’m writing this post and will definitely surpass all of our dreams. And the best thing is you have the KoHub community which is like nothing else I have seen my entire life. Of course, some people have seen more in their lives than I have. But I doubt that they will argue about the amazing and encouraging community that “lives” on Koh Lanta.

I for sure know that after being a bit shy in getting to know new people, I met people who became friends for life. If you want to know what kind of people you can meet and spend your time with, check out the more detailed post on the amazing KoHub community. But be warned: after reading this post the probability is pretty high that you end up packing shorts, tank-tops and swim wear into your luggage, and booking a flight to Krabi without even noticing it 😉

Let’s explore strange new worlds, seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before …

KoHub Activities on Koh Lanta

KoHub is not ONLY a co-working space. It’s a place where you learn new skills and expand your knowledge. It’s a place where you meet interesting people every day and where friendship for life is born. And it’s the meeting point for all further Koh Lanta adventures. No matter if you are more of an early bird or a night owl; a bookworm or an adventure seeking person; a dancer or a singer. Whatever you are into, you will most likely have the possibility to share your passion with others or even find new passions for yourself.

If you like adventures you will love the different activities KoHub and KoHubbers are up to during your stay. Even if you had a hard week of work — yes to all the Non-Digital-Nomads out there, we are working even though we are on an island with beautiful beaches — try to get your sweet little ass out of your air-con room at least on the weekends to experience something new.

So let’s check out what KoHub activities on Koh Lanta we have been part of during our two months stay.

Communal Lunch / Breakfast / Dinner

Staying in Thailand means eating a lot of delicious food, at least I have the feeling that that’s what I am basically doing the whole time while being in this beautiful country. That’s also one of the reasons why I am working out like a crazy person as soon as I am trespassing the borders of Thailand. Just to not gain too much weight during our stay 😉 If you got curious how I keep my weight while eating 24/7, check out the post where I share “3 top activities to stay in shape on Koh Lanta”.

Communal Lunch @KoHub

If you are working from KoHub you have the opportunity to enjoy the delicious food from the KoHub kitchen. You can either order your pancakes first thing when you come in or enjoy the communal lunch with other hungry KoHubbers. Just order your food through the new online system (yay to that) and let the staff know if you want to eat at your desk or with the others in the Courtyard. The food the KoHub kitchen provides is always freshly prepared and delicious. If your stomach rumbles in between meals you can always order one of the incredible smoothies or shakes — my favorite is the Cold Comfort (Coconut). Or just grab one of the healthy cups from the fridge — yummy chocolate.

But because you are on Koh Lanta and working from a co-working space, I assume that you are quite interested in getting to know new people. So order your food and find your seat at the communal lunch, where you will meet a lot of new folks almost every single day.

The menu at KoHub is for a small kitchen pretty big. It focuses on Thai food, but you will also find Western Salad or pancakes on it. Although I went through the menu almost every day and was willing to taste different dishes, most of the time I ended up with a Pad Thai in front of me. It just happens to be one of the best Pad Thai I had had.

Communal Dinner

Next to the communal lunch at KoHub there is the communal dinner which happens once a week and is organized by the KoHub staff. There is usually one restaurant picked and a table reserved for KoHubbers. It’s a great opportunity to meet other KoHubbers, catch up on some stories and of course, also enjoy amazing Thai food. One of my favorite places for communal dinner are:

• Patty’s Secret Garden
• Red Snapper
• Where else
• Fat Monkey
• Greek Taverna

Communal Breakfast

So because KoHubbers seem to favor eating lunch and dinner in the company of friends, I decided to figure out if by any means it would be possible on a Sunday morning to get some of the KoHubbers out of bed for a communal breakfast.

The way to go is to create an event in the KoHubbers Facebook group and check the overall willingness to get up on a Sunday to grab some breakfast with a beautiful view. After receiving a great amount of positive response I decided with the help of Kevin, Steph and Sara on a place called The Fat Pig and the first communal breakfast was officially scheduled. Reaching out to Hakan, a nice guy from The Fat Pig and booking a table for 15 people, after 9 KoHubbers have signed up, we ended up being 17 people at the first communal breakfast.

During our stay on Koh Lanta, we managed to organize further three communal breakfast events all happening at The Fat Pig, just because the food is great and they have this “create your own perfect breakfast” kind of thing. Besides, the view is breathtaking.

For a couple of us out of the planned 1-2 h communal breakfast event was born a more extensive Sunday schedule. We started the day with earning our breakfast at the 8 am Muay Thai class at Lanta Gym, feeding our hungry stomachs and challenging each other to a game of Port Royal at The Fat Pig, relaxing our tense muscles with a massage and going back home with a short break for dinner.

• 8 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.: Muay Thai at Lanta Muay Thai Gym
• 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 a.m.: Communal breakfast @The Fat Pig
• 12:00 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.: A game or two of Port Royal or Tuk
• 2:00 a.m. – 4:00 a.m.: a quick 1h massage or 2,5 h full body package at Serenity Massage and Spa
• 5 p.m.: and sometimes even dinner at Sole Mare or Fat Monkey

I can only say one thing: BEST SUNDAY TIMETABLE EVER!

Kayak and Climbing Day Trip

One week Nookie got me all excited by suggesting a Kayak Trip to the east-northern side of Koh Lanta. A day-trip organized by KoHub where the only thing I have to do in advance is signing up — count me in! Unfortunately, that was the weekend where Gerwin decided to have his yearly “I’m on Koh Lanta, let’s get sick” week, so no Kayaking for him.

Already on Friday, I was super excited to be going with Laura and Sara on the Kayak Trip. When do you ever get a chance to see new places with your friends without having to organize everything? Well, for me it’s not that often.

Preparing my stuff — waterproof bag, sneakers, clothes, sunglasses, hat, sun lotion, money — on Saturday evening I got the message that Sara and Laura wouldn’t come tomorrow ;-(. Feeling a little bit disappointed I tried to see the positive in that — another great opportunity to meet new people and get to know them.

Sunday 7:15 a.m.: although I knew that I would be the first at KoHub I was so excited that I couldn’t wait anymore and made my way to KoHub, which was the meeting point for the Kayak trip. Walking down the beach and seeing the tourists boarding the boats for their 1-day trip I for once wasn’t jealous of them. Meeting a couple of people shortly after I arrived at KoHub and eating Pascal’s breakfast cookies we’ve waited a couple more minutes for the two cars to arrive.

After I would guess, a 20 min drive we arrived at a landing stage. But wait! One car was missing. Ok, let’s cool, they are probably just a little bit behind. After almost everyone has gone to the toilette and what felt like an hour we started to worry. I mean, it’s not like there was no option for a misunderstanding?! But we couldn’t even ask our driver because he was long gone: drove us to the landing stage and set off to wherever he was going next.

So let’s recapitulate: two cars leaving KoHub, two cars taking the same road to the north-eastern part of Koh Lanta, one car arrives. Can you guess what’s missing? Exactly, one freaking car! Ok, so before you send out “Missing KoHubbers” messages via social media, no worries, at some point even the 2nd car managed to arrive at the landing stage meeting point. Probably the driver had to stop at a 7/11, buy a couple of errands for his wife and deliver them on his way up the island 😉 These errands seem to be a pattern, but honestly, they really make sense 🙂

After getting to know the not KoHubbers, and yes they exist ;-), we boarded the longtail boat and off we went. I love those boats. It feels like you are on an adventure with Robinson Crusoe exploring new lands and civilizations to conquer the world. Or you could also say it feels like a bunch of sweaty people squeezed onto a small boat trying not to get sea sick. Whatever version you are more comfy with 😉

First stop — the climbing part

Out of the boat and up some improvised steps made out of tires, we visited a nice cave and spent there some time. Feeling a bit like Batman the moment he found out about the Batcave, we have been exploring the cave and all its hidden treasures. But don’t get too excited — we won’t share the hidden entrance to the Batcave with EVERYONE. But by all means, Christian B. just contact me if you want to get the details … maybe over a dinner?

Second stop — Kayaking

After the cold and dumb air inside the cave, we went a bit further with our longtail boat, let’s call her Delilah (kind of just what I’m listening to right now: Hey There Delilah by Plain White T’s), to finally find 7 Kayaks floating in the middle of the ocean. The view was mesmerizing. It felt like we were rescuing those Kayaks from having to live a lonely life without any adventures. Because Gerwin was binge watching Netflix while being sick at home and Sara and Laura bailed on me the day before, I had the chance to share a Kayak with Keji. And now I have to reverse the sentence before: THANKS to Gerwin being sick and Laura and Sara bailing on me, I had the great pleasure to meet a great Kayaking buddy and a future friend on Koh Lanta.

Thanks for being my Kayak buddy, Keji!

After the first couple of minutes of struggling and adjusting ourselves, I have to admit, that we have been a fantastic team. Girl, we did a great job 😉

Third stop — Swimming

After a lot of kayaking and training our core muscles we earned the next stop: swimming. Like in the movies we stopped in between three huuuuuge rocks that touched the sky, at least from our position on the boat. But no matter how beautiful the landscape was, the only thing I could think about right at that moment was to jump into the water, wash off all the sweat and watch the sky while floating on my back on the soothing waves of the Andaman sea. OMG, I should write a poem about this floating stuff 😉

Fourth stop — Lunch

When you have been to Thailand before, you probably know that there is always food involved. Like literally, wherever you go you will have the opportunity to eat delicious Thai food. No exception on a Kayak day trip!

After boarding our kayaks once again and doing bit more core training, we arrived in a little, dreamy bay. This was the well-deserved break where we had time to relax, swim, snorkel, play frisbee and set our inner kids free — I mean what else could you do after seeing a piece of wood attached to a line hanging from a tree? It’s swing time! And hell yes, we had a lot of fun and probably decreased the average age of our trip by at least ten years. Loved it!

As usual on these organized trips, the food is not a Candle Light Dinner but absolutely fine. There are always several options including almost always a veggie meal and rice. Also, there is always enough water and soda, to not to have to worry about something to drink.

Fifth stop — Another cave

After having lunch and giving our inner child time to fool around, we took off by boat and moved on to another cave. There we spend only a couple of minutes, so not a lot of time to let our fantasies wander around. After boarding the boat for the last time, we got some more fruit and made our way back to the landing stage where we have started this amazing trip.

Final stop — Getting back & Dessert

But don’t be fooled. Don’t think, even though we’ve been already on our way back home, and the only stop would be to get from the boat into the car, to be driven back to KoHub, that there hasn’t been an opportunity good enough to fit in one more break to grab something to eat. After we arrived with the boat next to the landing stage, the wife of our tour guide greeted us with … guess what? … food. Banana fritters and fruit in ice water — OMG — the perfect “we had a fantastic day trip” dessert!

Then, unfortunately, the trip was finally over, and we were on our way back to KoHub. I was lucky and was sitting next to our main guide, who was one of the funniest guides I ever had the chance to go on a trip with. A balanced mixture of crazy, friendly, funny, nice and chatty 😉

Cooking Classes @Thai Cookery School

One of the things that I love to do while being in Thailand is joining workshops to learn new traditional things. And no matter where we are in Thailand, there always seems to be some time for a cooking class.

Compared to cooking classes we have been attending in Austria, Vienna the ones we have been to in Thailand are so much better and also at least 50 % cheaper. In Vienna you normally have at least 6-10 people signed up for the workshop, which is not that bad. But the thing that annoys me the most is that although there is enough space and you are normally cooking at least three dishes, you always get only specific tasks assigned. So you may end up cooking a delicious meal like Beef stew with Ras elHanut (Moroccan) and the only thing you were able to contribute is cutting some carrots. In Thailand though, where we have been now to at least four cooking classes you are always responsible for your own meal.

WYCIWYE … What you cook is what you eat.

That was also the case for the cooking class at the Lanta Thai Cookery School. Sara organized the cooking class, and we ended up being 7 KoHubbers and 3 None-KoHubbers. After being picked up at KoHub and our host welcomed us with a drink and a short introduction into Thai culture. After the brief intro, we had to decide on four dishes out of 10 options.