Koh Lipe - it was brief-e

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I set my alarm for 6.45am so me and oli could catch a boat to Krabi. At 7.20am, 5 minutes before the boat was due to leave, I was just waking up. Luckily there was anoher boat at 1pm so we aimed to catch that one. After my last experience of Krabi I wasnt keen on going back, so after flicking through the lonely planet i decided on ko lipe.

I made my way into town only to be told the boat was fully booked for the next 2 days! I really didnt want to stay in ko lanta any longer and eventually the woman said that seeing as i was only one extra person, they could fit me on. Arriving at the boat it seemed that i wasnt the only person they had agreed to 'fit' on, the small speed boat was jammed full of sweaty bodies. People even had to sit on the floor. I had a 20 stone whale sitting at my feet, who rolled onto my toes every time the boat bobbed over a wave.

Four hours later the 'two hour' boat ride came to an end as we arrived on ko lipe. Much like Hat Tonsai, it was a small strip of beach with shacks and huts running along the length of it. It was so peaceful, the complete opposite of phiphi and lanta. I walked along the beach looking for somewhere to stay. The sand was like caster sugar, it was so fine and perfectly white.

At the other end of the beach I found the cheapest huts on the island, which werent so cheap at all! The owner showed me to my hut, a small shack on stilts with walls made from woven bamboo. Inside was a matress on the floor and a screen in the corner hiding the shower and toilet. There were used bottles of water laying around and the bed had clearly been slept in, but i had no choice but to stay. It wasnt dissimilar to the hut i stayed in on tonsai, but having come from a hotel, it took a bit of getting used to again! The next day I saw a rat on the top beam, so was glad not to be sleeping there another night!

Ko Lipe has no ATMs or shops, it is literally just huts to sleep and restaurants. It feels very isolated and cut off from everything. So it wasnt the best place to have to deal with losing my debit card! I had realised it was missing just before getting on the boat, so cashed all my travellers cheques and decided id cancel my card when i arrived on lipe. This wasnt a good idea as i had no signal on my mobile phone. Instead i had to use the phone at one of the huts which was 120 Baht per minute, to give you an idea of how expensive that is - calls everywhere else are 9 Baht a minute!

Trying to leave Lipe was a nightmare. I was told there was 1 boat at 9am, but by then it was 12pm. I walked along the beach with all my bags and asked anyone sitting in a long-tail boat if they could take me to the mainland. Eventually i found someone who agreed. 5 minutes later we were out at sea and had stopped by a fishing boat, the man told me to get on. So I was on my way to Pak Bara with 5 thai fishermen feeling slightly apprehensive, but for the first time i actually felt like i was travelling, not being herded around with all the other tourists.

We arrived at Pak Bara a few hours later. I found that all the boats and buses had finished for the day so i tried to find somewhere to stay. It was a tiny little village with barely anyone around. A thai lady came running down the street and said i could stay with her. It was like a guest house, but at night i found that the family were all sleeping on the floor in the front room. I expect that when no one is staying, they use the bedrooms.

The next day I got up early and found somewhere to eat. I ordered a banana pancake which seemed to have just as much hair mixed into the batter as banana. I caught the bus to Trang where I got talking to a backpacker who was on his way to krabi to go to court. He had been caught with two joints on one of the islands and had to stay in prison for a few days! he said rather than cells, it was one huge room with about 150 beds.

In Trang I changed to a minibus to Surrathani. It was full of thai people, one of which was sitting directly infront of me was sick several times! I had to sit at he very back on raised seats which had literally no leg room. the seat infront was against the front of my seat. I had to keep my legs up on the seat for 3 hours!

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