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Published: June 27th 2014
With an extra member added to Craig's Harem (Ellie), we headed for the ferry to take us off Koh Samui, back to the mainland and onto Koh Lipe. After buying bus tickets to what we thought would be at least a coach we were not loving the fact we were crammed into a mini van like sardines with many other people plus bags all piled around us and zero aircon. No air con would be fine but Adolf (as we nicknamed the mini van driver) refused to let us open any windows so it turned into a very hot sardine can. This plus the rally driving was a slightly hair-raising experience, after narrowing missing a crash he stopped and we piled out for a little breath of freshair. A young Euorpean guy headed straight for some beer whilst we all slagged off the driver and compared how much everyone had paid for the transport (we paid the least i was glad to hear, one guy had been promised a VIP bus for a hefty amount). After 7 hours in the tin can, we were moved to a public bus which then dropped off in the middle of a town which mustn't
Koh lipehave seen many tourists for a while, as they were unable to help us to get a taxi/rickshaw/any means of transport to the guesthouse we were staying in. After hanging around for long enough so someone would have to help us, we managed to get a lift to our guesthouse. This was very basic, but very cheap and after a shower we all felt a bit more normal again. We found out where the one and only restaurant was and headed there as we were starving from the travel. This bar was definitely a 'special' mens bar, which was full of cocktail waitresses in short skirts and lots of men looking rather dodgy. It did however, have the nicest/tastiest food we have scoffed for a while. We had a huge prawn steamboat and a few beers and easier only spent a fiver. Brilliant.
Following a nice sleep we ventured back on the same bus to the port to catch the ferry to Koh Lipe. It turns out we could have stayed at the ferry port rather than random town an hour away. But we did have a lovely prawn steamboat so all is good. Koh Lipe is a bit
of an adventure to get to when you haven't been before as we were finding out. The ferry took a couple of hours to reach Koh Lipe. From here you had to clamber up to a floating port and then get on a longtail boat. We were staying on sunset beach whilst the rest of the harem were on pattaya beach. Craig and myself were staying in a bungalow in the forest which was nice enough with a shower which was private but outside. I quite enjoyed looking up at the clouds and trees whilst having a shower, and there were a few HUGE resident frogs to keep an eye out for who also lived in the bathroom.
We had heard a lot of great things and recommendations about Koh Lipe so we were looking forward to seeing it for ourselves. It is a reasonably new tourist destination and is dubbed Thailands best kept secret (sorry the secret is out now). From one stance it is beautiful as it is on the border of the Tartutoa marine park which is quite untouched, however, long term it remains to be seen if it will stay like this. The place is
resembling a building site and has absolutely no infrastructure set up, so there is lots of rubbish everywhere, and only long tail boats transport people around the island so the coral in parts is now dead. The 7/11 shop has just gone in as has the ATM. The Main Street (a sand street really) is turning into a mini khao San road as well with tatt shops. I like new places, but it is billed as something slightly different than it is. That is, there is much hype for somewhere which is getting ruined by tourists which leaves a slightly sour taste in my mouth. Some hotels have acknowledged this problem of rubbish and on Sundays ask for volunteers to do some litter picking in return for a free lunch which I thought was a good idea. The beaches were lovely though and l havent seen water so clear, it was like being in an actual aquarium underwater. Lets hope it stays this way. Craig spent a morning diving and saw a mini seahorse which is quite rare and said he visibility was excellent.
We met one of Amanas friend Maz who was now the 5th member of Craig's
Harem. We spent our time on Koh Lipe, mainly sunbathing, but also exploring and relaxing. Amana continued her Backpack trials and with the help of Craig went snorkling to say hi to Nemo and his friends. We also found a secret beach that Amanas new Italian stallion friend told her about (another backpacker challenge was to meet a new friend everyday) so after taking part in what can only be said as an Indiana Jones adventure we reached it to watch the sun set. Amana got 50 backpacker points for this find.
We ALL pondered with the idea of getting a bamboo tattoo of a Thai symbol, but safe to say, ink was not put to skin.
After a couple of days we left Thailand via ferry to the Malaysia island of Langkawi.
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