Advertisement
Published: February 16th 2020
Edit Blog Post
5754F60D-94A5-4757-BE66-F28E53BDA9CA.
Small rooms at Noi Guest House, but really clean and quiet. Not much blogging lately due to a succession of beach days. The snorkelling is so good here that I didn’t feel the need or summon the energy to go on any trips, although at 600B for a full day with lunch they are reported to be very good.
On my second day I walked over to Sunrise Beach but was not impressed with it. There were a phenomenal number of long tails lined up as far as the eye could see and more rubbish washing up than I’d seen on other beaches. The beach is a more or less continuous line of resorts ranging from fancy to huts, with bars which looked like they would be really good fun in the evenings. After discounting staying around the Anda Resort for the day, I walked up the beach to find Adang Sea Divers Eco Resort, on a mission to retrieve a necklace left by Roisin whom I’d met on Ko Lanta. She asked me to get it and post it back when I get home, to save the resort the trouble. I was armed with her address and a photo of her on my phone. They checked their emails to make
sure, found it and handed it over.
I carried on up the beach to find somewhere with shade away from the boats and there wasn’t anywhere. All the sun beds were very much attached to the resorts. I got all the way to Bulow Resort at the top, beautiful but shadeless, and ended up going up the steps to Mountain View Resort, through it and used maps.me (very useful app) to find Sunset Beach again. I was as hot as hell when I got there, walked about 5k in 32 degrees. This turned out to be my favourite place, great snorkelling with clown fish etc to be seen right off the beach and the nice people and food in the Bay View Sunset Resort, highly recommended. In theory you have to spend 500B (1000B in high season) to sit in one of their deckchairs, but this wasn’t enforced at all and one day I didn’t spend anything. At 3pm you can get happy hour mojitos for 100B and the guy walks along the beach taking orders. It was fab! Some people might be put off by the number of dogs, I counted 11 at one point, but the Spanish guy
working in the restaurant said they all belong to people and are well fed, they are just allowed to roam all day. A Swiss woman runs a charity on the island for their health care, but a lot I saw could do with neutering. All of them were gentle and friendly, and spent a lot of the day under the bushes and digging in the sand to find a cool spot. I enjoyed their company.
So I alternated between Sunset and Sanom Beaches, although the Spanish woman was trying to dissuade people from sitting on the beach near to her chairs, which was annoying as there is public access. One day I tried to go to Bila, further along from Sunset, but access is through the Decho Beach Resort and it says no outside food and drink allowed. The beach was so small it would completely disappear at high tide so I thought, no point.
I had a plan one day to go to the Ananya Hotel on Pattaya Beach, you pay 200B to use their pool and you get a towel and bottle of water. Handy when your stuff is all in the laundry. But it was raining
first thing and all their cushions were sopping wet so I didn’t fancy it. I liked Pattaya for cocktails in the evening, although happy hour finishes at 6 in most places, so I missed it a couple of times.
Tomorrow I’m getting the ferry to Langkawi. The staff at the Noi said to be there 2 hours before departure to exit immigration. This seems a long time for a quick stamp from a guy in flipflops. It will be low tide so I’m expecting a longtail out to the speedboat.
Ko Lipe is fabulous if you just want to lounge around on fabulous beaches and enjoy a backpacker vibe. It’s been my favourite place I’ve been to in Thailand. Next time I’ll find a cheaper place to stay though. The Noi is lovely but expensive for what you get. A private room in a hostel (the Chic Lipe is fantastic inside) would be a good option. You can eat cheaply enough, 100B for pad Thai, but there are also a lot of places advertising European food and Aussie burgers. The street across the top of Walking Street is a better option.
8 days whizzed by. I could
happily have stayed here for a fortnight.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0821s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb