Advertisement
Published: February 22nd 2007
Journey to Paradise
Speedboat to Ko Lipe... would have been quick if it was nt for the army of Chinese/Thai families wanting to get off and take photos of every island we passed. There were 102...Well, we both had big smiles on our faces when we arrived in Lipe, we found our paradise!!!
The longed for white beaches, clear green waters, and Thai hospitality which we so loved last time we were here, were evident minutes after crossing the border from Malaysia...
An ill James, and an eager to leave Karen got the minibus from Penang - Malaysia, across the border to a hub city called Hat Yai, where we changed and journeyed on an open back taxi, followed by 3 hours worth of local buses, followed by another open back taxi to a port town called Pak Barra, where we overnighted before a 2.5 hour speedboat to our final destination - Ko Lipe.
Quite a mission, but it went unbelievably smoothly. It was as though they knew we were coming and lined up in wait for our arrival! Very civil.
Ko Lipe is a small, relatively undeveloped island in the Tarutaoa National Park, right down on the west side of the border with Malaysia. Settled by 500 sea gypsies ( and it seems about the same amount of Lady Boys have settled here aswell!!! We cant figure it out... ) who
Ko Lipe
View down to the beach outside our bungalow shack... horrible place to stay!! live by fishing the waters around the islands, and now more pradominantly through tourism, the island is simply stunning. No roads, walkable from one end t'other in 10 minutes, with limited electricity and water (electric from 5.30pm to about 6am, which is great). Its now showing signs of the burgeoning tourism, ie lots of Thai style bars on the beach, many resorts etc but still no way near the levels of commercialism on some of the other islands we have been to(Ko Pi Pi, Ko Samui, Phuket etc). So needless to say, we liked it alot.
We stayed for 2 weeks. We did what you do on a tropical paradise island. Sun bathing, snorkelling, swimming, eating, drinking, reading (Karen is now on her 4th book of the trip!! Good for her!!! I am on my 30th)... we also did a few things which are not quite the norm.
Being as our trip overlapped Valentines Day, we thought it would be nice to make each other cards, as there was n't a Clintons nearby... ah how sweet! We also planned to go out for a nice Valentines meal, which was somewhat ruined by Karen being violently sick...
Also,
Ko Lipe
View from our bungalow shack - we had to complain. We asked for a sea view, there were trees in the way!!! starved of adventure as we have been for a while... we thought we might have a crack at doing our PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Certification. 4 days spent reading, revising, diving with our typically highly strung french instructor Antouin, who Karen got on with like a house on fire (ahem)... So, now we are fully qualified Scuba Divers... how cool is that?
Had a great time, saw some cool fish, colourful hard and soft coral, a few Moray Eels, and even a Devil Ray... not bad. Dived to a maximum depth of 23 meters, but are now able to go as far as 30 meters. Cant wait to go quarry diving somewhere cold in gloomy england...
Said goodbye to our little shack of a home for 2 weeks, and the numerous cats, dogs and puppies which Karen had befriended over the period and headed back to the mainland, for an overnight train to take us up to the Central Plains of Thailand, where we are gonna go a bit cultural, and historical, with a visit to the Bridge over the River Kwai, which might be a bit emotional... see you soon!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 68; dbt: 0.0433s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mit
non-member comment
Open Water
Only lets you go to 18m mate!!! Advanced Open Water is 30m