Mangrove båttur i KO Lanta med lunch

I had a lovely trip in the mangrove by a long tail boat guided by the knowledgable Karim. Karim answered any questions we had. We got close up with lots of monkeys and saw some bright coloured crabs. The lunch and fresh fruits were very good. Good communication from this company as well (I was unsure about when I was being picked up from my resort. I emailed them and they replied straight away). The trip I went on was 3 hours long and that was perfect for me.

This is a very honest review as I unfortunately spend most of the day in the hospital and not on my tour in the Mangrove Forest. TL;DR: unpleasant pickup/dropoff service, unorganised trip where they lure monkeys onto the long-tail boat without further instructions. I was bid by a monkey and spend the rest of the day in the hospital. Not much help from the tour operators or the so-called included insurance. No SOP’s when something bad happens. Respect the wild and avoid this trip. It’s unethical to lure wild animals with food and use it as entertainment for tourists. Everything seemed disorganised, hectic, pushed, forced etc. Though it was nice that a tour offered hotel pickup/dropoff, but if we’d known they’d try to squeeze 13 adults onto the open pickup truck we would have arranged some transportation ourselves. The driver drove like he had stolen the vehicle which made the 45 minute drive excessively long. We had specifically chosen the long-tail boat tour so that we could enjoy everything from a distance, but boy were we wrong! Apparently a part of the tour is for the tour guide to lure the Macaque monkeys onto the long-tail boat so he can feed them and we can watch. But we’ll get back to that. When we sailed out we were told some tales about some of the birds and the tides of the mangrove forest. Our tour-guide told us about the monkeys and that they were not aggressive and that him and his colleagues feed them everyday. He also said that they don’t eat breakfast, so that we would try to feed them later. Besides this we sailed along the shore and our guide threw fruit in the water to bate the monkeys. They even sailed so close, that the monkey could jump from the tree and down onto the boat. Eventually 2 monkeys joined us on the boat. No explanation beforehand other than “If you have food in your bag, the monkey will take it”. We got absolutely no instructions on what to do and what not to do while these wild animals were roaming around on the boat. They were climbing on top of us, searching our bags and eating the fruit the tour guide had for them. At one point the “non-aggressive” monkey bid me in the arm and the response of the guide was whether or not I’d like to continue the trip? I had just been bid by a potential rabies infected wild animal! Of course we’ll not continue the tour?! We came back to the pier and they were ready to clean my wounds but it seemed like there was no standard procedure for when bad things happen. I had already cleaned my wounds myself and they kept asking me what I wanted to do etc. Luckily for us we remained calm and didn’t let the tour-personal confuse us. I dialled my own insurance and had them help me out. The tour-operator drove us to the hospital himself. It’s shocking they don’t have any SOP’s for what to do when something bad happens. I’m sure this tour is rather nice when everything goes to plan, but when not you’ll have to think for yourself. We’re still uncertain as to what’s included in this “included insurance” or whatever it is. No one said or did anything after I was bid. I contacted my own insurance and sorted everything out. No part of the information about the tour includes information of monkeys on board of the long-tail boats! We weren’t informed at the pier either so that we could leave belongings behind. If we had known we would not have booked the trip. Monkeys are wild animals and they’re not here to entertain us. Our tour-guide had strong knowledge of the Mangroves. You can tell this area means a great deal to him. It was interesting to see how they all get along with the nature. Unfortunately we only got to enjoy 30 minutes of our tour before I was bid, so it’s hard for us to really comment on anything else regarding the tour. But overall an horrible experience and I’m terribly afraid of monkeys now.

Highly recommended. We took this tour with our family. It was a warm day and the two-hour boat ride through the mangroves was truly memorable. Our guide, Kib Diamond, was very informative. The food was delicious, including fried rice, fruit, and drinks. We also got to see the fish in the cages and feed the monkeys safely. Overall, it was a perfect experience. Highly recommended.