Happy Feet

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Ko Lipe isn't the place you'd want to arrive without money. Banks or ATMs haven't arrived yet and the moneychangers aren't generous. With that in mind we ended Langkawi with a mad evening rush round trying to find a moneychanger and repeatedly being thwarted by minutes, including a failed dash to the airport before it closed following the last flight in. Not a problem, we discovered a bank with a moneychanger would be open at Telaga Harbour the following morning, from where our speedboat would be leaving.


After three customers in the morning the bank had run out of Thai Baht. Tom was in line with our money fourth. If I was the sort of person who went round telling banks how to do their jobs I'd put forward the crazy idea to carry a little more of the currency everyone using the place is going to want. If something needs doing we should just get on with it is the slightly expensive lesson learned, or at least I hope we've learned this time, I thought we had after the visa mess.


So, the island. A school, a church and a village and an increasing number of resorts mostly along the beaches for the increasing number of tourists. No roads, not much anything else really. It's fantastic. Hopefully it'll stay that way, for the moment it is just right.


A highlight of the five days was a snorkelling trip. By longtail boat we spent the day at five different stops at various different islands of Ko Taratou National Park, seeing all sorts of fish and colours amongst the coral. Even swimming off the beaches of Ko Lipe with goggles the views were pretty special.


After Ko Lipe we travelled to Ko Lanta. It's not going to get its own entry because we did so little while we were there. We got lucky with accomodation, staying in the budget huts at a fancy resort with a pool. Three days were lost at the pool before moving on to Ko Phi Phi.


I'm pretty much done with hitting my feet into things now, still occuring a bit but down to a sustainable level.


I'm sure other things happened too but my mind is drawing a blank at the moment. I'm not going to do the next update with a hangover, it's just not working.


Yet again, there are more photos to add. But it seems the better the beach the worse the internet connection so it might be a little while.

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Photos

Sunset
From Sunrise Beach, hence all the trees in the way

Comments

[johnson]

snapping
I've stopped worrying that I may not have taught you all I know about sunrise and sunset pictures, Paul! Brilliant!

[Jackie]

where to stay koh lipe
where do you reccommend

[swampgoi]

where to stay
We stayed on Sunrise Beach at Taratou Cabana first and later moved to Asia Resort 5 mins away because it was much cheaper. Both were fine. Depends on your budget and whether you book ahead, we just had to take the first place with a space when we arrived. Mountain Resort on the tip of Sunrise Beach looked pretty good for a few more Baht, huts perched on the edge of a hill next to the sand. I'm not sure there are any bad places, it's a great island.