Island Life and back to Bangkok

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After a great last day in Chiang Mai with the elephants we set off early the next morning to head down south to a tiny island in the Andaman Sea. I chose Koh Lipe because it was small and not a party island, but still has electricity and enought bars/restaurants to give us variety if we wanted to leave our hotel area for a bit. It is a long journey to get there though. First we took a flight to Bangkok, then another to Hat Yai (there are direct flights from Chiang Mai to Hat Yai but they were too late in the day). Once we got to Hat Yai we took a 2 hour minibus ride to Pak Bera and then an hour and a half boat ride to the island. It was totally worth the trip. The sand is like white powder and the water is clear and warm. We chose to stay on Sunrise beach at Lipe Beach Resort in a beachfront wooden hut. It was very rustic. We basically spent 3 full days just laying around the beach. I did a lot of swimming and Graham did a lot of snorkeling. I kept thinking about snorkeling, but was a little freaked out by the idea of sea snakes. They are apparently very tiny and won't bother you unless you mess with them but the thought just gave me the heebie jeebies. Graham saw some and seemed unfazed by them. I stuck to swimming in the area before the reef. There wasn't anything creepy in the water there! The resort has a bunch of very funny dogs, but the most amusing was a American Staffordshire terrier. He was the funniest dog. He loved to go in the water and he would actually walk around on his hind legs in the water. I've never seen anything like it. He was just hysterical. We debated having a massage on the beach - it was $10 for an hour massage - but Graham got a little sunburned and we figured it probably wouldn't be that enjoyable. I watched them giving many massages over the 3 days and I'm not sure it would be all that enjoyable either way. They seemed very intent on trying to pull each limb off their clients. The last night we decided we needed a change of scenery so we went up to the walking street in the middle of the island and had Indian food. It was amazing!

Yesterday we did the trip back to Bangkok. After several unsuccessful attempts to book something through Airbnb we finally decided last week to just book a room at the Grand Eastin Sathorn which is a fancy hotel in Bangkok. We decided to be practical and just get the standard room, even though I really wanted the super fancy executive deluxe room with the giant tub next to the glass wall overlooking Bangkok. When we got here the lady gave a great sales pitch about how we would have access to the executive lounge with all these benefits including a party to watch the fireworks for the king's birthday and we were sold. So now I am in a super fancy pants hotel room and I really would love to lounge around it all day! Lol. But, Bangkok beckons, so we are off to explore it! After I take a bath in the super fancy bathtub of course! 😊

Till next time!

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