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Published: March 24th 2014
Sah wah dee kha! - Hello
Finally found the time to start writing this.Had a few hiccups with adapter problem so sorry for the delay. Arrived in Phuket last Monday, a week gone already! Took a five hour journey to Krabi passing some beautiful scenery and two small ferry rides to get to this lovely island.On the journey down I kept getting images of Captain Jack and The Black Pearl lol! It's a bit more built up than I imagined, a lot of tourists!The island is 30 Km long and 6km wide and has 11 white sandy beaches, most are lined with bars and various accommodation mostly bamboo huts surrounded by a backdrop of rubber trees, palm trees, mountains and jungle.The further south you go the quieter it is and there are four secluded beaches almost untouched. Obviously haven't seen much of it yet but I'm here for six weeks so plenty of time to explore.
Started at the Lanta Animal Welfare center on the Wednesday.The organisation was started by a dutch lady Junie Kovacs who came to Thailand to set up a cooking school and restaurant. Koh Lanta was relatively a dog free island as its population is 98 percent Muslim and many of them do not like dogs. The problem started when the big resorts started to build on Lanta and workers were were hired from other parts of Thailand because they were cheaper labour than the locals. These workers brought guard dogs with them and abandoned them once the work was completed. Tourists fed them, meaning high survival rate and the population exploded. Locals began dealing with the dog situation by poisoning, drowning, stabbing them or putting fish hooks in their food. Junie a big animal lover, very distressed at the situation began rescuing the animals , numbers increasing she used her profits from the business to build this amazing center which opened in 2010 now home to Twenty three cats, twenty kittens and thirty five dogs. The dogs are kept in different packs, throughout the day they are outside with lots of space water and shade and every dog has at least one walk a day. If any dogs are in the kennels during the day for various reasons, illness etc, they are walked three times a day.Not only do they look after these animals, they run a sterilisation program, regularly checking the island for strays. Locals also bring there pets to be treated here, no animal is turned away even if the owner cannot afford the treatments. The vets treat everything from snake bites to car accidents carrying out operations on site. Volunteers and animals live in very close contact sharing the facilities. The volunteer accommodation consists of six double rooms with a toilet and shower, very basic!! Shifts are from seven till one and one till seven, with one day off. We also do a night shift once a week . There is a mosque close by and the dogs start barking at five am at the call to prayer, some of the locals have been complaining so we have to be here to quieten them down as there is the fear of the center being shut down. The center has a few paid workers, but is staffed mainly by volunteers. It is incredible what has been achieved by one woman alone!
Found my first week pretty hard going trying to cope with the heat and the sheer amount of tasks to take in but getting there, once I've been here a few weeks and know the routine and all about the center I'll have to give guided tours to the many visitors that come - one task I'm not looking forward too lol!. As you can imagine I'm sweaty, covered in mozzie bites, cat pee and dog poop but loving every minute of it and so glad I came. Hope I haven't bored you all too much with the detail.
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Jo Ann
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Hey May, it's wonderful to read your blog, and to know that you are making your dream real! So happy you're there, I was just thinking about you the other day but I thought it was in the summer you were going...and happy for all the details too, that really make it come alive. Keep the blog coming, please - lots of love xxx