Ko Por Cultural Homestay: Experience, first-hand, the life of a local island family by spending a few days on the island of Ko Por living in a local family’s house and joining in with their daily routine.

Ko Por Cultural Homestay visits can be arranged on request by contacting Mr. Sanae:
Mobile: +66 (0)874 743 247
Email: sanae.yamae [at] yahoo.com

You can also fill in the enquiry form at the bottom of this page.

How much does it cost?

• 700 THB per person, per night

this is payable in cash, each evening, to your host family

What’s included in the price?

• Return Longtail boat transfers from Old Town Pier to Ko Por
• 3 meals per day
• Simple accommodation in the host family’s home. (A bed with a mosquito net is usually provided in a private room)
• Daily activities with your host family – usually the normal daily activities they do every day

What’s activities can I expect to take part in

• Cutting and collecting Sap from the Rubber Trees in the Plantation
• Fishing Trips by Longtail boat to catch crabs or prawns
• Digging for Mussels at the beach
• Preparing freshly caught seafood to eat
• Making hand-made curry pastes
• Sight seeing around the Island or Bird Watching

If you decide to stay longer, we can arrange for more activities such as visiting nearby islands or snorkeling trips.

Please note: All activities depend on the Tides and the time of the day. Sea conditions are considered very carefully and trips will only be made if the weather permits.

What do I need to bring with me?

• Sun cream
• Mosquito repellent
• Personal toiletries
• Sarong
• Long sleeved tops and long trousers (for the early evening when mosquitos may be around)
• If you’d like to swim off the beach, you’ll need modest clothing too – bikinis are not allowed (board-shorts and a rash guard is fine – or even shorts and a T-Shirt) and you should try to cover up as much as possible in accordance with the Muslim faith. A short-sleeved T-Shirt and long shorts is acceptable – spaghetti-string tops and hot pants are not!

Please don’t bring alcohol, no gambling, please dress discreetly and kindly respect the Muslim way of life.

Other customs that need to be respected include:

• Alcohols and Drugs are strictly prohibited
• You must sleep in separate bedrooms if you’re not married, due to Muslim Regulations
• All activities depend on the Tides and the time of the day
• Sea conditions are considered very carefully and trips will only be made if the weather permits

Cultural Homestay visits to Ko Por can be arranged on request by contacting Mr. Sanae:
Mobile: +66 (0)874 743 247
Email: sanae.yamae [at] yahoo.com

You can also fill in the enquiry form at the bottom of this page.

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Your cultural homestay experience begins by being picked up by traditional longtail boat at the main pier in Old Town by your host family. You will already start to get to know your host and can chat to him as he takes you the short distance from Lanta Old Town to Ko Por. You might alight on Ko Por at the main pier, or you may be taken directly to the beach in front of their house.

Depending on the time of day you arrive at your family’s house, you might be offered something to eat or a shower, be shown around the village to meet the other villagers or be given an orientation to the island and suggestions for things you might like to do.

At around 5:00pm the family usually congregates at the house. Depending on the tides, this might be a time to set the nets in the sea to catch the crabs, or time to take a shower and think about preparing the evening meal. Everyone takes it in turns to take a cool, refreshing shower (this is usually inside the house, but can also be outside – it is a good idea to bring a Sarong that you can wear in case the shower is outside).

People tend to pitch in and help with whatever jobs need doing, so you’ll be made to feel welcome to help prepare the evening meal (usually steamed rice, and a fragrant curry or soup made with whatever fresh fish or seafood has been caught that day), or help with attending to the longtail boat. The timing of most tasks are dictated by the tides, so although there is a rhythm to the day, it changes according to the tides.

The mosque gives the call to prayer at around 4:30-5:00am so that the whole family can go to the mosque and pray. After prayer, the wife cooks a quick breakfast of hot coffee and heated up leftover rice and fish from the day before, and then the men of the house go out to work.

The women usually stay at home and take care of the house and children – although some go out with their husbands to fish. Most families have a small farming area in the garden in which they grow a huge variety of things including chillies, lemongrass, coriander, basil, ginger, cumin, sweet potatoes, green beans, spring onions, bananas, mangos, papaya, guavas and tamarind.
There is one family who grows rice on the island, but most rice is bought from the general store. For things like fresh chicken and beef, they must travel to Lanta Old Town and go to the market.

The Muslim faith requires that the mosque be visited 5 times per day, and although most people on Ko Por consider themselves strong in their faith, their work takes priority and they pray when they can. The morning and evening prayers are the most attended and usually last only 20 mins, but there is also an important social element to time spent at the mosque. After prayers, people discuss important news of the day, swop fishing stories, and pass on advice about where the best fish can be found. This can often last 1 or 2 hours.

The main jobs on Ko Por are cutting rubber from the rubber trees and fishing by longtail boat. Shrimp and Crab fishing is done in the morning from longtail boats, using small, but specialised drag nets. The shallow waters around Ko Por are rich in small shellfish.

The best time to catch larger fish is during the night. The fishermen leave at around 5:30pm, so they can be ready with their lines and nets by sunset. They usually spend up to 5 hours waiting in their longtail boats with the engines switched off, letting the tides gently move their boats around, never straying too far from their island. Sometimes only enough fish is caught to feed the family, but on a good night, up to 500kg of small silverside fish can be brought back. This is kept on ice and a taken to Bor Muang, near Krabi, to sell at the market.

At the right time of the month – a very special occasion takes place and the islanders can go diving for a local shellfish delicacy; ‘Hoy Shack Teen’ (Shell with a Long Leg). Two times per month, for about 5 days, when the moon is black and the tide is low, the 20 or so best swimmers/free divers from the island, free dive to find the shells that Ko Por is famous for.

Diving with just a mask, fins and a hand-made net bag, each shell-diver spends 2-3 hours during the morning, diving to look for the tiny tracks in the sand that will lead to a, much hoped for, gathering of Hoy Shack Teen. Up to 1,000 Shells (40 kg) can be found at a really good spot. These shells are a huge delicacy of the local area and are worth good money. The shells are sold to restaurants and markets around the Krabi province – but a few are kept to be enjoyed by the island families. The children of Ko Por especially love to eat Hoy Shack Teen.

Ko Por has a very strong sense of community, which helps their way of life to continue. Fishing tends to be quite an unpredictable source of income. The people of Ko Por have developed a community fund with the local store, where people can ‘invest’ in groceries that are bought to supply the store – any profits that are made each month are then shared with the ‘investors’ that month. If, on the other hand, a family is having a less good month – they can delay payment for their groceries for up to 3 months.

Ko Por is a small island with no cars or electricity. A few people have motorbikes and there are paved tracks for the main routes around the island. It takes about 2.5 hours to walk around the entire perimeter of the island.
On the island there are around 280 inhabitants, a mosque, a school, a few local hawker food stalls selling local snacks, delicacies and homemade chilli pastes, a homemade virgin coconut oil business that makes Spa oils, a nursery, a general store and a community bank. As Ko Lanta rapidly develops, the islanders on Ko Por wish to protect and maintain their natural resources in accordance with their Muslim beliefs in order to provide a sustainable base for the future of their families. Therefore the Ko Por community has drafted a request to all visitors wishing to explore their charming island.

Please don’t bring alcohol, no gambling, please dress discreetly and kindly respect the Muslim way of life.

Other customs that need to be respected include:

• Alcohols and Drugs are strictly prohibited
• You must sleep in separate bedrooms if you’re not married, due to Muslim Regulations
• All activities depend on the Tides and the time of the day
• Sea conditions are considered very carefully and trips will only be made if the weather permits

Cultural Homestay visits to Ko Por can be arranged on request by contacting Mr. Sanae:
Mobile: +66 (0)874 743 247
Email: sanae.yamae [at] yahoo.com

Please fill out the Enquiry Form:

for further information or to find out about availability