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Published: February 23rd 2007
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After one of the most drawn-out boat journeys ever, we finally came ashore at Pattaya beach on the beautiful island of Ko Lipe. This island is in the national marine park of Ko Tarutao, which is in the most southern part of Thailand. Correspondingly, as we would soon discover, it was exhaustingly hot, and full of pesky flies. Nevertheless, this gorgeous piece of paradise had enough about it to keep us there for a good week.
It didn't take us long to settle back into Thai beach-life after the relative arduity of Malaysia. The sea was perfection itself, inviting us into its dreamy-blue bliss at very regular intervals. It was the perfect antidote to the relentless sun.
Finding some cheap accomodation in the form of a tent (for the first time in our trip), we soon had our hammock set up for some much needed quality loafing time. Our hours here were equally divided between reading and relaxing in our own shady spot, ambling along the beach, splashing about in the water, and wandering inland to the village, where the local sea-gypsy inhabitant population provided jewellery stores, banana roti cafes, massage huts and restaurants. We particularly enjoyed a fabulous
oil massage, and spent one evening lounging in front of a film in one of the pleasant eateries.
The beach itself was a long strip of white sand, fringed by swaying palms, and lined with chilled-out bars and barbecue-style restaurants, like in Ko Lanta. At the far end, there was a Thai army bar which existed due to the rather unsightly presence of a huge grey military ship planted in the middle distance. Thankfully, this was completely innocuous and unobtrusive. Since the military coup here last autumn, the army seemed to be almost omnipresent, although, in truth, there was nothing very intimidating about this.
By this point in our trip we had extricated ourselves from Amanda and Michael in order that we could each spend some quality 'couple' time on this very romantic island, and we spent many an hour in and around our guesthouse restaurant playing with the five adorabe resident kittens, and vainly trying to communicate with the landlady. She appeared to find our attempts to speak to her in English extremely funny; practically bursting into hysterics each time we so much as opened our mouths.
Our other favourite hang-out was 'Cafe Lipe', which did
a fantastic fruit muesli for breakfast, and more remarkably, had a semi-domestic macacque tied-up outside. This cheeky monkey, 'CJ', would unashamedly steal any accessory you were wearing, or even anything you happened to have in your pockets! Aside from this, however, she was really quite affectionate. One one occasion, she even picked out the stray bits of sand from Louise's hair in true monkey-grooming fashion. She also had a little friend; a cute ginger kitten whom she would tirelessly pull around by the back leg, and in one instance picked up for a kiss and a cuddle (this video is going straight to 'You've been framed'!). The owner of this pet had adopted her following a tragic accident in which the parents had mistakenly been caught and killed in a trap intended for wild boar. Unable to survive on her own in the wild, she had been given a new home. Unfortunately, you could really see on her face the pain of what had happened to her family. Just as bad, was that the rope tied around her middle was causing a ring of sores to develop, that she continually scratched.
Feeling sorry for CJ, and taking matters into
her own hands, Amanda enlisted the help of a German friend we had made on the beach, Sarah, who was a zoologist. They soon had her sorted out, using antiseptic to help clear up the sores, and attaching a new, more comfortable piece of rope with plastic tubing around it, to avoid further rubbing. We all felt much happier now.
We didn't laze about
every day. On one occasion we decided to organise a boat trip to enjoy a spot of snorkelling and fishing. The snorkelling turned out to be a bit of a disappointment, as there was not really much to see, and what's more, we kept getting bitten by what we believe were small jellyfish (ouch!). After stopping off for some lunch (a tasty combination of vegetable pad-thai and chicken fried-rice) on a small secluded island, we bagged ourselves some free tucker (which we would later take to one of the many restaurants to be grilled for our dinner), and simultaneously learned the art of sea-fishing. Snapper and mackarel were the order of the day, and we caught 'a lot'. In all truth, the sea was so jam-packed with these particular species, that it would actually have
been quite hard to fail. We simply had to chuck the line in, which had a serious of lead weights and hooks on it (no live bait), pull it up and down a few times, and moments later, up would come a tasty bite.
Another day, Louise created a beautiful batik sarong at a workshop along the beach. If you don't know, batik is a process whereby a design is first drawn onto a piece of fabric. The lines are then re-traced in wax. Next, coloured dyes are carefully applied to the sections marked out by the wax, and it is left to dry. Louise had an exhausting, but extremely fun and rewarding day, and the end-product was a handsome garment depicting the sand, sea and sky of our surroundings, with large pink flowers in the foreground.
It should be mentioned at this point that, although we had techically separated from Amanda and Michael, Pattaya beach was not a big place, and we frequently bumped into each other and enjoyed a few drinks and meals together, as well as joining up to charter the boat for our aforementioned trip. This was a very welcome addition to our time
on the island.
Well, all good things must come to an end, and we were all too aware that David had yet more dentistry pending. A real come-down after such an idyllic week, but then who could really complain?!
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june & graham
non-member comment
nothing sarong with that!
At last a happy blog! (except for CJ). Lovely to see you both looking so well and happy.