Specially imported!

Upon listening to some of our guests, we have now specially imported (thanks to my mum) individual portions of Marmite and Nutella!

For those of you who are not English, Marmite is worshiped by half of the country and hated by the other half! But if you love it, there is nothing better on your toast in the morning!

Nutella seems to be a craze with our French and German guests, especially the kids, so we thought we would make some of our European friends happy too.

Unfortunately both of these are expensive, even in England, so there is a small extra charge, but you are worth it!

Children of the Forest

Every year the people of Koh Lanta host some children from the charity 'Children of the Forest.'

These are orphaned kids who have been displaced from Burma. In Thailand, they are not recognised as citizens and have no right to healthcare or education.

'Children of the Forest' offer safe houses for these children, as well as love, food, medical attention and education.

Obviously we cannot host all the children, but we do like to send back to the village, something for those who could not come.

This year we are asking our guests to donate unwanted toys and clothes to our reception and we will ensure that they are given to these needy children.

I would like to thank all those guests in advance for their generous donations

Mellisa

Laanta Lanta Festival

Every year the Laanta Lanta Festival, located in Old Town, has grown in size and importance in the Koh Lanta calendar.

Held every year from the 7th to 9th March, the festival is a vibrant celebration of island life, with many bars, restaurants, shops and hotels building a temporary site to sell food, drinks, clothes and trinkets etc.

This year however, we were rocked by the very sad death of King Bhumipol, the most beloved King Of Thailand, and we believed that the festival would be cancelled for this year.

However with only 2 weeks to go, the posters started to appear around the island and Old Town becomes the centre of activity on the island. The festival organisers decided that they would honour King Bhumipol's life and built a marquee in his honour with pictures about his life. This was a great way to remember him.

The festival is almost an all day event, starting about lunchtime, the bars, shops and restaurants open and the parade starting about sunset (6.30pm) but bands and shows can go on until late into the night. Because the road to Old Town is not well lit and there are many potholes, this year, like every other year, we organise a taxi for our guests to get to the town cheaply without the use of a motorbike.

It was great to see so many of our guests and friends celebrating our wonderful island.

Feedback is important

I know many people think that your comments on TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Expedia or direct to us or other hotels are ignored, but here at Mook Lanta Eco Resort, we are always keen to listen to people's ideas.

Whilst we cannot act on every request, we do on many, or we come up with a better solution.

This has really helped us in the past:

- We bought toppers for the mattresses for those who like a softer bed.
- We added more mirrors to the rooms.
- We helped our guests recycle their used toys, toiletries etc with other guests.
- We limit the bar times, to ensure our guests get a good night sleep.
- We choose the tours we recommend, SOLELY on your feedback.
- We have added additional fans to rooms.
- We have improved the curtains in the fan bungalows.
- And we have fixed problems that we could not know about unless we slept in each room.

So this week, we listened to the request, by guests of more electric sockets in the rooms. But with every request we look at what people want and why and try to come up with the best solution. Most people want extra sockets to charge their phones and tablets, which all have a USB cable. So instead of just adding extra sockets to the rooms, we have bought electric sockets which also have a USB plug (so no need for a Universal plug) and offer more than enough sockets for all your devices.

Your feedback is really important to us, as there is no way we can sleep in every room, use every toilet and see what you see. Please do not be shy and tell us what would make your stay better. We cannot guarantee we will do it, but we will look into it.

Island Life!

So Saturday was an interesting day.

Nick and I had taken Friday evening off and headed to Krabi for a well earned break. Heading back to Koh Lanta, we get the dreaded text.... the electric meter had blown up!

Our burnt out Electric Meter!

Unfortunately living on an island in Thailand, this is not an unusual happening, but in the middle of high season, right in the middle of breakfast, it is the last thing we need.

Gin, our Hotel Manager and our staff leapt into action, calling the electric company out and turning on our emergency water supply (our water pump needs electricity to drive water to the rooms). By the time we returned at 10:30am the Electricity company had reconnected us!

Next to go was the Transformer

Then we hear a 'BOOM'........ and that was the transformer!

Unfortunately, our electric here is not as stable as elsewhere in the world and this had lead for the Government transformer supplying us and a few businesses near us to blow up! This is the 3rd time I have seen this happen on Lanta!

Now we had a real issue, we had no transformer and the nearest one was in Bangkok (12 hours drive away!). But Gin explained to the Electric Company how essential it was to our guests that they had electricity (and water!) and they agreed to send over a generator for the night and the morning, until the new transformer arrived.

The Generator that we were so delighted to see!

We anxiously waited, worried that the generator would take a long time to arrive and be very noisy, but we need not have worried, it arrived by 6pm and by 6:30pm there were cheers throughout the resort as all the lights and air conditioning came to life!

The next day as promised the new transformer arrived and was installed quickly and easily.

Our new Transformer

Big thanks to the Electricity Company for working so hard to get us running again and big thanks to Gin (for her tough negotiating skills!), Ya (for constantly trying to ensure guests had water), Teng (for ensuring all the customers knew the situation), Tar and Pi Deng (for delivering breakfast with no electricity!), Sao, Kai 1 and Kai 2 (for sending the laundry out that day, cleaning the rooms with little water and doing a mountain of washing the next day) and of course all the guests (who took the whole thing in their stride, enjoyed the free beers and cooled off on the beach).

Replacing the Transformer

It can be tough sometimes living on a tropical island, but it can also make everyone pull together!

Safety 'Thai Style' keeping the 3 phases of electric separated by water bottles!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

In our continued effort to reduce waste, we are helping our guests share the toys, beach mats, toiletries etc with each other.

We are now collecting the items our guests do not want to take home with them but may still be of use to someone else and enabling other guests to use them.

The kids are loving the idea, sharing each other's games, lilos, bucket and spades.

But the adults are enjoying it too, many guests have kindly left their beach mats and umbrellas for others to use.

Happy 60th Birthday Monica

It is not everyday that you turn 60 and we would like to take the opportunity of wishing Monica a very happy birthday and wish her many many more!

She came on holiday with her husband, brothers and sisters and was surprised to find one of her daughters Jenny and her father had made a surprise trip to be with her too.

Nang Sabai (The German Bakery) made a beautiful chocolate cake and Time for Lime opened especially for her, so they could have a cookery class on her birthday. Our housekeeper and cleaners made the room look extra special for her.

And Jessica, her other daughter, was upset she could not make it, so she emailed me direct to ensure her mum had some lovely flowers from her and her family.

Congratulations Monica, hope you have a fabulous day,

The Mook Lanta Team