Koh Lanta's national park lists two one-hour nature trails with numbered stops: what the park says, and what it leaves out
The park lists a 1.2 km loop with ten stops and a 1.725 km horseshoe with seven, each about an hour, plus a headquarters at Laem Tanod with a shop open 08:30 to 16:30. It does not say where the trails start.
The national park that covers the south of Koh Lanta lists two nature trails on its own page, each about a loop of an hour, with numbered stops that teach you to read the forest as you walk it. It is a small detail that most visitors never see, because the park is mostly sold as a place to reach by boat.
The Pha Samet Daeng trail
The Department of National Parks describes the Pha Samet Daeng trail as a circular route of about 1.2 kilometres, taking roughly an hour, with ten stations. All of this is our translation from the Thai, and the page is undated. The stations, in the park's order, are:
- Useful palms
- The natural compass
- The chain in the ecosystem
- Air-pollution indicators
- The green carpet of the forest floor
- Ancient plant lineages
- Thin-barked trees, a source of herbs and food
- Plants that grow on other plants
- Pandanus in the beach forest
- The past in the rock layers
The second trail
The second trail is called, in our translation, "Marvels of Plants". The park gives it as a horseshoe-shaped route of 1.725 kilometres, again about an hour, with seven stations: vines, tabaek, the tao palm, agarwood, lichen and a termite mound. Its fourth station has a Thai title we could not translate with confidence, so we have left it out.
The park's forest figures fit what these trails teach: it gives 19.42 square kilometres of moist evergreen forest with a canopy averaging 15 to 25 metres, which we cover in our article on the park's wildlife list.
Where the park is run from
The park's headquarters is at Ban Laem Tanod, which the page gives as 59 Moo 5, Ko Lanta Yai Subdistrict, Krabi 81150, with the phone number 0 7565 6576. The page lists a welfare shop and restaurant there, open daily from 08:30 to 16:30. It says guests who book lodging collect the key from staff at the visitor service centre first, and gives no hours or location for the centre itself. The mobile signal at the headquarters is AIS, as we describe in our article on mobile signal.
The lodging is listed as numbered units, 202 to 206, in pairs, each pair with its own name. The last pair, 206/1 and 206/2, are marked closed for renovation, though the page gives no date for that. Capacity and prices are not in the text. Each unit links to a page we could not read. The park also runs a ranger unit at the Khao Mai Kaew cave.
What we could not establish
The page does not say where either trail starts or how to reach it from the headquarters, and it gives no opening hours for the trails. It does not say whether they are signed, whether they are suitable for children, or whether a guide is needed. It mentions no camping. The fee table, including the foreigner rates, is an image we could not read, and the page only says visitors should carry their payment card in the park. The park's seasonal closure, 16 May to 15 November, is stated for Ko Rok, Hin Daeng and Hin Muang and not for these trails. If you plan to walk them, ask the park on 0 7565 6576. The illustration above is generated and is not a photograph of either trail.
