Thailand - Koh Lipe - first stop on our island tour

Arriving into Koh Lipe is an experience as you can only get there (like the majority of the Thai islands) by boat.

I'm on a beach!

As the boat slowed, the islands came into view and as we stepped onto the pontoon, we were instantly struck by the striking clear turquoise waters and bright white sandy beach in front of us.

Our ferry

We moored up at a pontoon just off shore and then were transferred by long tail - a wooden boat with a large decorative bow and an engine connected to the propeller via a long pole. The longtail chugged to the shore and washed onto the beach - we were in Thailand!

... but not quite yet.

Technically even though we were on the beach we had not gone though immigration. So after being re-united with our passports we lined up on the beach in front of a small tin shack (immigration) to see if we were to indeed get the 30 day VISA or the 15 day VISA and have to figure out a VISA run. True to all the advice we had had, apart from the boat company owner who said we would get 15 days, we got it! See our blog on getting to Koh Lipe from Langkawi for more info.

One of the nicest immigration offices in the world

Koh lipe is the smallest 'popular' Thai island which can be traversed in about 15 minutes. We were staying at Shanti Hostel; half way across just off the main 'Walking Street'; the main centre for shops, bars and restaurants. The hostel was good - clean 4 bed dorm with fan and our first dorm, made better by having good Italian room mates. 

You can't miss it!

Lovely swimming waters

There are three main beaches on the island - Sunrise, Sunset and Pattaya, the latter of which where we had arrived. Sunrise Beach is generally considered the best beach and is where we spent most of our time, even though Pattaya had silker sand. This was mainly due to the number of tourists - and there were a lot - and long tail boats which moored up in lines along ropes that strung out into the waters, leaving little space to swim! Sunset Beach had grittier sands and we found was only really worth going to for the sunsets and cheap Mojito's from the pop up bar on the beach. 

Sunrise beach

Koh Lipe is a really popular island and we found it to be very busy. There must have been over 100 resorts of all types and sadly much of the island has been concreted over, thus making it very commercial and full of tourists! But this did have its benefits, offering a great range of restaurants to savour our first tastes of Thailand, including pancakes from the Thai Lady Pancake stall and Chris having his first Pad Thai! 

Walking Street... and lots of buildings

Even though there is a native sea Gypsy population, the island has lost a lot of its charm over the last 10-20 years from what we have read. It feels like a big resort, and is considerably more expensive than other places in SE Asia - hence the dorm!

None the less the beaches are stunning  - especially the small secluded cove by Serendipity Resort, where we spent our time on the beach. It was our own little piece of paradise, away from the crowds and boats, making it a great spot to sit back and relax. 
Koh Lipe is one of several islands in the area, but the only one allowed to be inhabited (apart from the royal family who have a holiday residence on Koh Adang) and there are some fantastic diving and snorkeling spots. 

Our secret beach

The snorkeling of the beach was okay, with reef fish and some plain hard and soft corals, but there was much more abundance of colour when exploring the wider marine national park and the number of islands that surround Koh Lipe. So we booked ourselves onto a day snorkeling trip around the National Park. 

A long tail

The trip was run by Daya Travel (we got a discount from the hostel) and cost THB 600 pp, which for a full day including lunch, long tail and snorkeling isn't that bad. 

The snorkeling was just fantastic with each spot slightly different from the others. A great full day out!

Stop 1 - Koh Hin Sorn - Interesting rock formations, and we saw a huge blue sea snake.

 Koh Hin Sorn

Stop 2 - Koh Lugoi - Unique beautiful hard corals and stacks of reef fish including Clown fish (Nemo!)

Koh Lugoi - ... did someone shout NEMO?

Stop 3 - Koh Dong - Lunch stop with homecooked Thai rice and melon. This was a nice secluded bay with beautiful waters, and a thieving melon monkey!

Monkey ate our lunch... grrrr

Stop 4 - Monkey Island - Beautiful beach with, you've guessed it Monkeys and again fantastic snorkling in the shallows - corals of all shapes and colours, tons of reef fish!

Hello!

... more fish!

Stop 5 - Koh Pung - a small island with a few fan corals, fish and a very strong current.

Look at those corals

Chilling out under water

Stop 6 - Koh Bulu - small island with beach which had lovely views, grounded the boat (whoops)

All this beach is mine!

Breath in!

Stop 7 - Koh Hin Nam - Island made from smoothly polished black stones (pebbles) which if taken from the beach can bring bad luck (the National Park receives lots of these stones posted back to them every year as people find things start taking a turn for the worse! 

Its a pebble beach...

Stop 8 - Jabang - Soft corals in bright oranges and reds which cover a pinnacle just below the surface and very strong current!

Underwater

Hello again... fancy seeing you here

Our final day was chilling out and battling with the ATM machines, as we needed money for the rest of the islands as there were no further ATMs on any of the islands we were intending to visit. Sadly the ATMs did not accept our Halifax cards (even though other people's worked fine!) so we had to resort to using our alternative Nationwide and Metro cards which meant it cost us a lot more money due to bank charges in the UK. Metro worked once and then stopped and Nationwide worked throughout, but is more expensive. Top tip: The ATMs charge 200 THB (£4) to take money out so get loads of MYRs before you arrive and go to a money exchange as you will get a better rate than the ATMs.

Beautiful blue water

As we headed off by speedboat to our next stop we reflected on this tiny island as it slowly disappeared from view. Koh Lipe has some of the most beautiful beaches and waters we have seen in all our travels, and if you can find your own little spot on Sunset Beach like we did, this island will give you paradise with enough home comforts and variety to consider staying longer!

Next stop...Koh Bulone Leh and we were excited to see how different this would be...