Lanta Island is located approximately 70 km south
of Krabi on the east side of Southern Thailand's Phang Nga Bay.
It stretches for 27 kms in the north-south direction and is traversed
by a mountain range that is partly still covered by virgin rain
forest.
The range reaches heights of 500 m in its northern and southern
parts.
The water off the west coast is crystal clear and the beaches of
powdery sand.
The Island has a population of approx. 20,000 people. The community
is a mixture of local Muslims and northern Buddhists, while the
local trade, especially in Ban Saladan is predominantly under the
control of Thai Buddhist's from Chinese descent ..
Most of the Muslim community earn their living from fishing, prawn
farming and rubber plantations.
The name Lanta is derived from a kind of rack (Lantan), that the
people of the South used, to grill the catch, that they regularly
found in the waters of these islands when travelling along the Andaman
Coast.
Since 1996 the island has been connected to Thailand's southern
electrical grid and since 2001 to the telephone network.
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