Ko Por

Ko Por has a long stretch of sandy beach for swimming on it’s North coast, located opposite the pier of Lanta Old Town. Ko Por is a short sail from Ko Lanta.  Most of Ko Por’s 500 residents are Muslim fisherfolks; it has one primary school, a mosque, 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 accord 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.

source UNDP

A Day in the Life of a Ko Por Fishing Family:

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.