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Published: March 26th 2009
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Koh Lipe
The first day we left by speed boat to Trang about an hour ride through islands to the mainland. It was beautiful with many different islands and the crystal clear waters.
After waiting on the dock in Trang for an hour we got on a bigger boat for a 2 ½ trip to Koh Lipe. This island is another one that we were told about by others. When we arrived the beach was so shallow that we were taken off the big boat by longtail boat to the shore where you had to walk through water with your suitcase to the beach. Again the beach was covered in boats, which are extremely loud in the morning and distract too much from the beauty of the beach leaving a bad taste in your mouth for the whole scene. After walking the beach, carrying our luggage in extreme heat; we were met at the reception desk by very rude employees.
We stayed in small huts here and the people at the resort were obviously tired of tourists as they made no effort at all to make you feel welcome. The breakfast, which was free, was so covered
in flies and ants we could not eat most of it. The staff in the restaurant seemed to be more interested in their cell phones than waiting on the people. The restaurant was full of begging dogs and cats, some even jumping up on the tables to eat leftover food on the plates (staff were so lazy that they were not even cleaning tables off promptly.
When we finished dumping our luggage we tried going for a swim. The tide was out and the water so shallow we walked some distance tip toeing through coral before we got to our waist and a bank of coral far too thick to even walk further. This could have been prime snorkeling however because of all the boats you would be afraid to get hit by one of them while you were doing it.
Now, we all decided that there has to be more here than meets the eye, since everyone raved about this island. We went for a walk on the beach trying to find a path that would take us to another beach and a sunset. We started off and eventually found this crazy little
path through the jungle, where we climbed and slipped, and practically hung from trees to get down to a beach covered in huge boulders to get a picture of a sunset. Since I was having no part in going back the same way in the dark, I waded out in the water and walked until there was another spot where there were some people. Asking questions does help; we found another path that was much easier for our trip back. I have to admit that the sunset was wonderful, the scenery with all the large boulders on the beach beautiful; but as you al can see there is no picture, why because we did not bring a camera. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day.
I woke up tired and miserable the next day. Everyone was in a big hurry to get to the beach, after yesterday; personally I could not see any point in hurrying. We got back down to the beach and low and behold the tide had come in, and swimming was wonderful. Oh, the boats were still there but if you ignored that it was great. The sand on this beach is very fine
and white, the water crystal clear. You could easily see fish swimming around you. I was still determined to find another path to anywhere, and eventually by just watching people, I found a nice concrete path with beautiful little shops and restaurants all along it to the other side of the island.
We found a great little restaurant here with fantastic service, food, no bugs or critters running around. It was impeccably clean, and the people running it were actually happy to see you there.
In the end we did enjoy our stay on Koh Lipe, but I would not recommend it to anyone myself. The people here are going to ruin it, others we spoke to said it was lovely once, before the rest of the world found it. The main concern of all the people on the island is to make money, all the boats coming in has ruined the beach and coral beds. The noise from the boats assaults your senses. Everywhere, even though there are garbage cans is garbage, laying and smelling. Beauty of the beach area ruined with big barges carrying dump trucks and cranes.
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