It’s an island in thailand! It’s called Koh Lon.
It’s a large, mostly empty island, off the, less touristy, southern side of Phuket island. The low season for tourism in this area is from May – October, meaning that for our purposes in June and July most places will be a lot more empty and laid back.
Getting There
Here’s a quick 360 video tour showing you how participants can get to our island!
- Get a cab from the airport to Chalong Bay (~1100 baht).
- Catch a free Longtail ride to Koh Lon (9am, 12pm, 3pm).
- Come sign in to the conference!
Amenities
Our location offers the following luxurious (and not so luxurious) to participants for free! We can house up to 30 people for free at any given time. If the average participant stays for about a week, that means we aim to have around 200 people at this conference overall!
- Main Bungalow (HQ): can fit 10 folks
- Campground: Can fit 10 tents and up to 20 folks
- Kayaks
- Access to aquatic and terrestrial parts of island for exploration
- Local guides available for hire 500thb ( $15 USD )
- Wifi
- Three free longtail boat rides per day (travel to the mainland / hauling gear)
- Electronics, Crafting, and Prototyping Gear (Including: Mobile/Wearable Studios, Robotic arms, 3D printers, Laser etchers, Sensors and actuators of all sorts, yarn.)
- Additional private cottages available for rent (1500 THB / 48USD with breakfast included OR 1200 THB without breakfast.)
cool.spot #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
(this shot is on the “campground” in front of the bungalow HQ)
The rest of the island has one other resort, and a small group of 2-3 houses where some local folks live. Otherwise it is pretty much empty and wild. From what we saw there are some plantations/ overgrown plantations / and more fresh looking forest.
It seems that we would have pretty free reign to explore this island and its forests, beaches and mangroves.
Location: https://goo.gl/maps/Enk5ESDWzzC2
Advantages
One of the biggest advantages of this location is that Tasneem will be based right off the island for the next year (she can see the island looking out her house!). It’s only a 10 minute or so dingy ride to get from the island to the mainland.
Thailand, and Phuket area is quite advantageous in terms of its accessibility for travelers. For international visitors the visa process is easy, quick, and cheap. In Thailand, conference attendees only need a tourist visa as well.
For South-east asian locals travelling here is very fast and not expensive, and for folks further away it’s still pretty easy to get to! People can get a taxi from the airport, and make it to our island in about 1-1.5 hours.
This southern side of Phuket is quite relaxed, not super touristy (and we will be there during the off-season anyway)
Terrestrial Exploration
Here’s a 360 image of some nearby forest exploration (more to come later):
Outside the house: https://theta360.com/s/fQGtCheTdaFNSSRjde9W8Vw4S
Inside living room
main living room #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
https://theta360.com/s/t9UVDyZXDdbPKJPUU3IkW9YcG
Near Rain Barrel outside
side of house #theta360 – Spherical Image – RICOH THETA
The island has a couple small resorts on one side, but the whole rest of the island seems to be pretty wild and fun! There are also lots of other little islands around, and some mangrove swamps we can canoe through, explore, and even build our own little monitoring stands. There seems to be plenty of wildlife around, and the tidepools have all sorts of fun critters like octopuses changing colors and textures, pistol shrimp popping, and plants that have calcium skeletons!
Check out some nearby mangrove exploration we did:
Marine Exploration
Tasneem has tons of connections with all kinds of great, caring people who work with large ships (such as Sail in Asia, where she is working). Basing our project here would likely open us up to the whole blue world as well! We met really nice, interesting people with big, luxurious diving ships, and could probably work out some times during the conference where some of the group goes on a multi-day sailing trip!