We were headed for Ko Lipe, way down south close to the Malaysian border, and it took us a long time to get there. Ko Lipe is a small island about 65km off the southern coast of Thailand (not shown on the map below - Turatao is the closest I can get) and we got there by a combination of overnight train, minibus, ferry then a long-tail boat.
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We had stopped in Trang to catch a mini bus to the ferry pier and eaten some of the best steamed port buns and drunk some of the best coffee in an old Hokkein (Chinese) coffee house with coffee so strong the spoon almost stood upright. Only elderly Chinese men were in there when we arrived and when Euan left to go buy another cap (his one flew off his head honing along in an open jeep in the Serengeti) I felt very much the odd one out!
The ferry to Ko Lipe ran on one engine (we didn’t know at the time) and was super slow but it was a nice trip as we passed by a few islands in the Turatao National Park. We had to disembark from the ferry off the beach and transfer to long-tail boats that ferried us to wherever we wanted to go on the island. Good balance was essential and there were a few madly waving arms and legs as people tried to navigate their way around a scooter parked on the back of the ferry and onto the raft – all while the sea swell kept things moving nicely and the scooter handlebars and wing-mirrors did their best to snag backpack straps! Very entertaining to watch.
We were disappointed with Ko Lipe or, more appropriately, with what has been allowed to happen to it. It is such a small island and is now overrun with resorts and guesthouses, restaurants. Euan made the comment that it was too developed to be a place to get away but not developed enough to be comfortable. There were clearly no controls on the boats (I think the ferries had only recently started dropping people offshore) and the main beach was more like a harbour with the boat traffic continuous and very noisy. Thankfully it was still the off-season so there weren’t too many people (Euan successfully bargained for cheap accommodation) and the island was pretty quiet and the beaches clean & lovely. This was the beach where we were staying.
The evening we arrived we watched part of the sunset
before walking through the bush to the other side of the island and caught more sunset colours but by this stage it was nearly dark and we got lost walking back. It is a small island but the bush in the middle was dense and neither of us were keen to go venturing into the bush in jandals!
That night there was a thunder and lightning storm that equalled the one we experienced in Madrid earlier this year. The difference was that in Madrid we were in a sturdy concrete building, here we were in a beach hut made of some flax stuff and I was genuinely scared. The thunder and lightning were simultaneous, so virtually right above us and was loud enough for me to cover my ears. Needless to say the rain was torrential so the sound of big fat rain slapping the ground filled the gaps left by the thunderclaps.
You could walk around the island in less than an hour and find some quiet spots where there were people still living right by the beach. Dogs were the only animals we saw on the island and everything else seemed to come across by boat.
It was nice to relax but we’d gone to Ko Lipe taking a chance that there was a boat running to Langkawi in Malaysia (no one we spoke to on the mainland could give us a straight answer) and had decided to island hop as far south as we could. Thankfully the boat was running (they stop service during the wet season) and we cut our Ko Lipe visit short to head into Malaysia mainly for the reason that we weren’t happy staying on an island that was being ruined and wanted no part of it.
The border control was a hut on the beach
and was a very relaxed affair – the boat situation less so. Two boats were going and we were among a group of about 18 being piled onto a small speed boat where the other boat had 9. I flatly refused to get on and told the organiser the boat was overloaded, dangerous and we were not going on it. We had a much more comfortable trip as a result (at times it pays not to do as you’re told.....!!).
View Larger Map
We had stopped in Trang to catch a mini bus to the ferry pier and eaten some of the best steamed port buns and drunk some of the best coffee in an old Hokkein (Chinese) coffee house with coffee so strong the spoon almost stood upright. Only elderly Chinese men were in there when we arrived and when Euan left to go buy another cap (his one flew off his head honing along in an open jeep in the Serengeti) I felt very much the odd one out!
The ferry to Ko Lipe ran on one engine (we didn’t know at the time) and was super slow but it was a nice trip as we passed by a few islands in the Turatao National Park. We had to disembark from the ferry off the beach and transfer to long-tail boats that ferried us to wherever we wanted to go on the island. Good balance was essential and there were a few madly waving arms and legs as people tried to navigate their way around a scooter parked on the back of the ferry and onto the raft – all while the sea swell kept things moving nicely and the scooter handlebars and wing-mirrors did their best to snag backpack straps! Very entertaining to watch.
We were disappointed with Ko Lipe or, more appropriately, with what has been allowed to happen to it. It is such a small island and is now overrun with resorts and guesthouses, restaurants. Euan made the comment that it was too developed to be a place to get away but not developed enough to be comfortable. There were clearly no controls on the boats (I think the ferries had only recently started dropping people offshore) and the main beach was more like a harbour with the boat traffic continuous and very noisy. Thankfully it was still the off-season so there weren’t too many people (Euan successfully bargained for cheap accommodation) and the island was pretty quiet and the beaches clean & lovely. This was the beach where we were staying.
The evening we arrived we watched part of the sunset
before walking through the bush to the other side of the island and caught more sunset colours but by this stage it was nearly dark and we got lost walking back. It is a small island but the bush in the middle was dense and neither of us were keen to go venturing into the bush in jandals!
That night there was a thunder and lightning storm that equalled the one we experienced in Madrid earlier this year. The difference was that in Madrid we were in a sturdy concrete building, here we were in a beach hut made of some flax stuff and I was genuinely scared. The thunder and lightning were simultaneous, so virtually right above us and was loud enough for me to cover my ears. Needless to say the rain was torrential so the sound of big fat rain slapping the ground filled the gaps left by the thunderclaps.
You could walk around the island in less than an hour and find some quiet spots where there were people still living right by the beach. Dogs were the only animals we saw on the island and everything else seemed to come across by boat.
It was nice to relax but we’d gone to Ko Lipe taking a chance that there was a boat running to Langkawi in Malaysia (no one we spoke to on the mainland could give us a straight answer) and had decided to island hop as far south as we could. Thankfully the boat was running (they stop service during the wet season) and we cut our Ko Lipe visit short to head into Malaysia mainly for the reason that we weren’t happy staying on an island that was being ruined and wanted no part of it.
The border control was a hut on the beach
and was a very relaxed affair – the boat situation less so. Two boats were going and we were among a group of about 18 being piled onto a small speed boat where the other boat had 9. I flatly refused to get on and told the organiser the boat was overloaded, dangerous and we were not going on it. We had a much more comfortable trip as a result (at times it pays not to do as you’re told.....!!).
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