Ko Lipe - a snorkelling paradise

The first Thai island on our travels was Ko Lipe. We chose this mainly because we weren't sure how long it would take to get through Thai immigration and didn't want to have the added pressure of getting onward travel somewhere else.

When boarding the boat at Langkawi, the officials took our passports off us for the journey. Upon arriving at Ko Lipe, we got a long boat to the shore as the shallow water didn’t allow the ferry to get close enough to dock. We walked to “immigration”, which was essentially a hut on the beach where we had to wait for an official to read out our names so we could collect our passports, get them stamped and then pay the national park entrance fee. The whole thing was a bit chaotic and it would have been very easy to smuggle someone over the border! It was also incredibly hot waiting to be let into the country.

Finally we completed immigration and made our way to our hostel, Bloom Cafe and Hostel in the middle of the island. Ko Lipe is tiny. You can literally walk from one side to the other in about ten minutes. However that doesn’t stop the island being overrun with taxis, essentially scooters with side cars that can sit about four people. Why people couldn’t just walk baffled us!

After cooling off in our room (we had booked a shared dorm but were able to upgrade to a private room due to a cancellation), we wandered over to Sunset Beach for, you guessed it, the sunset! There’s also another beach called Sunrise Beach on the other side, although we didn’t manage to make it there for sunrise.

For dinner, we wandered down Walking Street, the main street on the island which becomes pedestrianised between 6pm and midnight. A couple of girls in the hostel had recommended Tropical Cafe for dinner, and it did not disappoint, the food was incredibly tasty.

Our hostel had a common room on the ground floor so we made use of this by buying a couple of drinks from the 7-11 and listening to the music from the bar opposite. All was going well until James was nipped by a cat while trying to get some water (you can read more about this on his blog post). Ko Lipe is full of cats and dogs and it’s not clear whether they are owned or just strays, although they seemed pretty well looked after.

The next day we had booked on a snorkelling trip around the local islands. This was incredible and definitely worth doing. There were eight of us on our boat, a mixture of British, Italian, French and Japanese. We stopped at four snorkelling sites and an island for lunch. The water was a bit choppy on the way out and the long boat driver had to fight the waves to keep the boat on track which was a bit nerve-wracking, but by the time we made it to the first stop, the sea had calmed down a bit.

We saw a whole host of fish and coral. Highlights include a bright blue starfish, angel fish, shoals of inquisitive yellow fish swimming right in front of your face, huge parrot fish, bright blue and purple coral, clams and sea anemone. The water was extremely clear and the reefs were pretty large so you had a lot of space to swim around in. The only downside was the rather ridiculous sunburn we both got on our backs and legs - we should definitely have creamed up more! Unfortunately we couldn’t take any pictures of the fish as we didn’t have waterproof equipment, but the scenery above the water was pretty good too!

That night we went for an Indian meal, again recommended by the girls from the hostel, and again very tasty. The next morning we got up early to get the speedboat to our next island, Ko Lanta. This was an experience. Not only was the journey incredibly bumpy for the first 45 minutes (we had to sit on our life jackets for padding!), we stopped twice in the middle of the ocean, once because the engine failed, although they started it up again pretty quickly, and secondly to fill up the petrol tank from a barrel, while the staff smoked nearby! Luckily either the sea got calmer or we got used to the bouncing because the last hour and a half seemed less hair-raising!

We’re now on Ko Lanta, where we plan to spend three nights before continuing our journey north.