RTW Trip Day #60: A Visit to the Koh Lanta Animal Welfare Centre

27 November 2025

Steps: 11,744

Today we enjoyed a slow, relaxed morning at the villa, and took the opportunity for Pops to spend some time working with Jess on her maths - it’s not every day you have a maths teacher on hand to help with these things!

After a bit of homeschooling, we walked down to Lock Lack Coffee, where we got some fantastic smoothies and yogurt bowls. It was nice to have some fresh fruit in the morning!

Lanta Animal Welfare Centre

After an hour playing in the pool, we made our way across to the Lanta Animal Welfare centre, as we had booked into a tour in the afternoon (you do have to book a tour, you can’t just turn up and look around).

The Lanta Animal Welfare Centre does an incredible job caring for injured and stray animals on the island. The centre runs on donations and volunteers, so every visit helps support the work they do.

The tour isn’t just a ‘come and see the animals’ visit. It walks you through how the centre began, how close it came to shutting down during Covid, as well as explaining the incredible work they do for cats and dogs on the island.

We learned that the centre’s main purpose isn’t just about finding homes for dogs. It’s about making sure street dogs are neutered and healthy. The team works hard on population control and looks after animals that have faced issues like limited food, neglect, and abuse.

During the tour, we met a few of the dogs at the centre. The first dog was called Frida, and she was so friendly and loved treats and being stroked. Then there was Thomas, a three-legged dog hopping around happily and greeting everyone.

It’s incredible how resilient dogs can be. We also met a dog that was incredibly shy and is learning to be socialized after experiencing a very tough life before being rescued. You can of course adopt the dogs if you are a good fit for the dog.

The centre also runs a flight home program, which we would have loved to help with if we could. When someone adopts a dog or cat, it usually takes around three months to complete all the necessary paperwork, which means that the new owners are usually back in their home country by then. The flight home program allows volunteers to help transport the animal (at no cost to the volunteers) safely to their new family. Such a great idea!

The centre also runs cooking classes, and all profits go directly to the care of the dogs and cats. There’s even a swimming pool next to the cooking school, so kids can enjoy a swim if they don’t want to join the class.

Learning About the Rubber Making Process

We walked past them yesterday and didn’t think much about it, but we noticed them again today - these small pots collecting something from trees that had been ‘cut’. After a quick Google, we learned that they were actually rubber trees, and that got us curious about how rubber is made.

We found a great video by Maddy Moate, whose science videos we’ve watched before because they’re so kid-friendly. We learned that farmers collect a milky sap called latex by making small cuts in the tree bark, and that latex is then thickened, pressed into sheets, and dried.

rows of rubber trees

It was fun to realize how something so simple from a tree becomes everyday things like tires, gloves, and even balloons - a perfect little world-schooling science moment for the girls!

For dinner we ate at a lovely restaurant called Yawee Restaurant. The food was really good and I tried a papaya salad for the first time and it was incredible!

Tomorrow is my birthday so we have booked a cooking class over lunch, and for dinner a meal at a lovely looking restaurant called Yang Garden Restaurant, so it should be a fun day!

Previous Day #59: Arriving in Koh Lanta and Villa Lila

Next Day #61: Lanta Thai Cookery School

Read About Our Itinerary here