Life's a beach!

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Today we arrived in paradise!

We made it! We took a flight to Krabi in Southern Thailand which went without a hitch and beat sitting on a bus. On the 14/11 we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi - a small island with no roads. It was a really nice island but over developed for its size. We managed to get ourselves a nice, if a little dilapidated, chalet with views over looking the crystal blue water and white sands. Due to a problem with our dilapidated chalet we were upgraded to the executive suit free of charge. Woo hoo! We only ended up spending three days on Phi Phi due to it being quite crowded and expensive. During that time we did a sunset boat trip around the various uninhabited islands and visited the area where the Beach was filmed and watched the sun set out at sea - how romantic!

We then moved on to Koh Lanta, staying in Jack Bay which is down south. Koh Lanta is much bigger and has roads. Ferries arrive at the north of the island so many people stay toward the north. This makes the south really quiet; it was really nice and peaceful. After speaking to a few locals about what we wanted, a quiet beach with beach bungalows they suggested we go to Koh Lipe as it is really undeveloped and a peaceful experience with excellent diving opportunities. Taking that on board we headed to Koh Lipe, right on the Thai/Malaysian border, which really is paradise! There are few developments on the island, it is pretty tiny, and therefore it doesn’t get too busy. There also isn’t any mains electricity so we only had electric in the evenings run off a generator. It is inhabited by Sea Gypsies who speak a different language to Thai; they are really friendly people - as most Thai people are. Helen did the 4 day PADI open water course whilst we were on Lipe - the underwater world is awesome. Mark explored the island on foot (didn’t take long it’s tiny) and did an island trip, also exploring the coral reef in the area. Lipe is on the edge of a national marine park so the marine life is abundant and amazing. Unfortunately Lipe is becoming more and more developed, in a few years it won’t offer the same tranquility. Unfortunately our time on the islands had to come to an end - maybe a bar job would have sufficed?!

Back to reality and back to the mainland! On the 24/11 we head back into Thailand to pick up a link to Malaysia.

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