Our best buds, Donatello, Nemo and the Gibbons

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Since our last blog we have managed to travel half the country from South to North. We're now sitting here in our super posh overnight bus to Chiang Mai and type this (over due) blog. Before we recap our last 10 days or so, we just want to mention how incredibly amazing these long haul buses are! We took a 9 hour bus from Surat Thani to Bangkok today (500BHT each). They fed us snacks/drinks..put on 2 movies, had AC, seats reclinced almost all the way to a flat position, annnd we had free neck pillows! Fantastic. We then hopped on another bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai for another 9 hours. This bus has 2 levels and we chose the bottom as there are only 5 seats and we're the only ones down here. Our seats have 3 different back massage options, we already got a snack and a juice within 10 minutes of departing, we have a blanket, foot stool, fully reclining seat and flat screen with shows/movies. All for 600BHT each, or $20!!! AMAZING!

OK so back to our adventures. We left off arriving in Koh Lipe. Lipe is a small island in the most Southern part of the Andaman Sea before Malaysia. We were warned that it would be quite crowded as it's a bit less secluded than Kradan (meaning there are mini marts, restaurants/bars etc) but low and behold, we arrived in Lipe with our travel companions (whove become dear friends of ours, "the Brits") and absolutely LOVED IT! Sure it's a small and sort of crowded island but we now had options. Food options, sleep options (or so we thought), drink options and more importatly...dive options!

Our ferry from Kradan was 3 hours late due to choppy seas and so we arrived in Lipe at around 7pm. We also checked out a particular resorts' web site from Kradan and it specifically said that they had 15 bungalows available for our arrival dates. We didn't bother booking online from Kradan thinking we'd try to bargain a little considering we were a party of four. We got there...and they say "oh we no look at website for long time already..no room, beach full!"

Hmmmm....OK no problem, we send our 'gentlemanly' men to scour the beach for basically anything at this point. They come back and say there's nothing...not a family room, not a budget room, nothing. Then it clicked in. The next day was Chinese New Year and the island was just overloaded with Chinese tourists on vacation. So we walk some more and find one room on the whole entire beach for 3000BHT ($100) a night! Not very backpacker friendly. We also came across a pretty budget bungalow operation right on the beach and the lovely Thai man said "nothing tonight but come tomorrow at 9, I have bungalow on beach. You come at 10, I have nothing". Sounds good but we still need a bed for the night! We decide to walk inland to the walking street and sit and ponder over us possibly sleeping on the beach with a nice cold Chang. At this point, screw the shilvary it's time for the women to take charge! So we left the boys and went searching.

We found 2 rooms above a mini mart (beggers can't be choosers at this stage of the game) and went to grab the guys to look at it and found them with cold beers waiting. This was one of the nicest rooms we've stayed at so far! Huge comfy king bed, AC, hot shower, TV, fridge with free water..for 1500BHT. Slightly over our nightly budget but oh well. We all agreed that we will return to the nice Thai man at 8am just to be safe.

Sure enough there were a few other people wanting a room just a few minutes after we arrived! And so..we got our amazingly beautiful bungalows on the beach for 1000BHT a night! The beach was magnificent and we were all so happy there we booked it for a week.

Our time in Lipe consisted of basically this for a week:

Get up, walk into town for breakfast..walk around a bit, go to the beach, walk back for lunch, back to the beach, home to shower, hammock, sunset on the beach, walk to town for dinner, drinks/cards on our deck, sleep. We would also alternate between the most beautiful sandbar/beach which was a 10min walk from our bungalow and our beach right infront of our bungalow...it was a tough week!

Dave and I have been trying to find a good spot to dive together for the first time. We felt that Lipe was IT. We asked around a few dive shops and it seemed that all the prices were the same. Some shops however offered free lunch, bigger boat, less people etc. We ended up choosing Lipe Dive Shop on the main walking street. They did not disappoint! We were greeted with super friendly/helpful staff, they had clean organized equipment, brand new huge dive boat with only a 12 person group and tasty lunch. We booked 2 dives each at 2500BHT per person ($85). We left at 9am and got to our first dive site called Koh Yang. We had a group of 3 plus our guide, and there were 3 other groups like our as well.

This was such a great experience to do together. The site was so beautiful with very healthy coral all around us and lots of colourful schools of fish. Since my first breathe through a regulator all I've wanted to see was a turtle. Not a huge shark or a manta ray like Dave wants..just a turtle, any turtle...as we're coasting along on our dive, our guide would occassionally show different hand signals to point out all the marine life to us. I saw him put his hands together and do the signal for TURTLE! My regulator nearly fell out of my mouth and Dave almost lost his arm, as I glanced over his shoulder and saw the coolest thing I've yet to see under water. A huge (ok fine not HUGE but pretty big..) green turtle about 3 metres under us. Donatello was calmly chomping on some soft coral, and it was just breathtaking! We watched him for about 10mins just cruising the bottom of the ocean, eating away. So cool! Along with Donatello we also saw a few eels, NEMOS' lots and lots of Nemos', some lion fish, angelfish, triggerfish etc etc.

Our second dive was at a site called Stone Henge and it was also really cool. Rocks formed a few rising pinnacles that resembled Stone Henge. We had a bit of a current on this dive so it was interesting to maneuver with a slight pull as you dive. I still have a bit of a buoyancy problem and every so often I rise up or sink without proper control. I got the hang of it after a minute or so but definitely something to work on! On this dive we saw 2 yellow seahorses and apparently it's quite rare to see them in pairs. Again, very cool! The whole day was really nice and we had an absolute blast finally being under water together.

Our time in Lipe was coming to a bittersweet end. We booked a ferry+mini bus combo back to Krabi. We stayed in Krabi town for one night and took advantage of the hotels' free bus to the night market and all it had to offer. The next morning we had breakfast and a swim in our garden set infinity pool before saying goodbye to our friends "the Brits". Our whole day was a bit off because of it, that's for sure. Both Dave and I dreaded it and wished we could continue to travel with them but alas our mini bus to Khao Sok National Park was already booked.

Khao Sok is a man made lake that's surrounded with huge limestone formations and thick jungle. It used to be a village that Communists hid in and around between the late 70's and early 80's. A dam was built and the area was flooded in 1984 (not sure if because of the Commis or for other reasons, we are yet to research it). This was going to be one of the highlights of our trip.

And again, it did not disappoint. The scenery is dramatic and serene all at once. We stayed at the entrance to the park at Art's Riverview Lodge. Through Art's we booked our 1 night 2 day package to go stay on the floating rafrhouses on the lake and do some trekking, boating kayaking and caving. We got to our rafthouse and although it was quite on the 'ghetto-er' side, even for us backpackers. However, we couldn't ignore all the natural beauty that surrounded this place. Our guide Pu (pronounced "Poo") took us on a small 2 hour trek and we went inside a small cave that had 4 entrances. Was a nice relaxing trek through the jungle and back. In the evening we went on an evening safari on a longtail boat and we saw many hornbills arriving at their favourite bamboo tree to rest for the night. Incredible sight. Later that night we decided, along with an Austrian couple we befriended, to take kayaks out around the rafthouse. This was a little spooky but exhilirating at the same time. We didn't see any wildlife only a bunch of loud frogs on the banks. Next morning after a horrible sleep on a very uncomfortable mattress on a slanted rafthouse...we awoke to the sounds of Gibbons all around us. They make a really cool sounding "howl" that's just surreal to wake up to! We got up at 6:30AM and went on a morning boat safari. We saw many of the Gibbons waking up and jumping about the trees. Incredible to watch! We then got back and got ready for our 3 hour trek through the jungle+hiking through a cave with waist deep water! The cave was quite impressive. We walked in the dark with just our headlamps and saw hundreds of bats hanging on the ceiling above our heads. We also saw some frightengly huge spiders and few weird water snakes swimming about. We then jumped in that same water and walked about until we had to climb through some openings to continue the cave trek. Dave was surprised at how calm I was through this experience. We enjoyed it immensly.

Our time at the rafthouses came to an end after the trek and some lunch. We were taken back to Art's for one more night before we headed to Surat Thani.

So now after starting this blog on the bus to Chiang Mai, we are finishing it in our comfy room at the Chiang Mai Thai House in the Old City (400BHT a night). After 20 hours of travel, we feel suprisingly refreshed and may go walk around a bit to see what Chiang Mai has to offer. We also got tickets to see a Muay Thai fight tonight so that should be super exciting!

Love,

D&A

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