LA_FadeAway's Malaysia, Thailand, & Cambodia Trip Report (finally!)
Jun 1st, 2006, 09:19 PM
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LA_FadeAway's Malaysia, Thailand, & Cambodia Trip Report (finally!)
Okay, so I'm finally recovering from the shock of returning home, so I figure it's time to start that trip report. I'll be posting it in pieces within this thread as I write it over the next week or so. I apologize in advance for the length, because I know I get wordy.
Part 1
Background: We are a 35 year-old couple celebrating the recent completion of my MBA. I longed to visit the beaches of Thailand ever since I saw pictures of those beautiful limestone formations and the awesome blue water many years ago. I planned the trip through the help of many people on the Fodors and Lonely Planet Thorntree travel forums, so here goes our report:
April 16, 2006 (Easter Sunday)
We flew out of LAX around 1:00 AM. It really hit me that we were going somewhere far away and exciting when one of the airport employees came up to us in line and asked if we really meant to be in the Malaysia Airlines line. At that point, I looked around and realized we were two of only a handful of Caucasians in line. Way cool!
Malaysia Airlines provided excellent service considering we were in coach class. After about thirteen hours, we stopped in Taipei for an hour on the way to Kuala Lumpur, so Brad and I got off the plane to have a quick look around. Unfortunately, our gate was a long way from everything, so we didn’t get to see much more than one food stand and a handful of duty free shops. Oh well, it was still exciting to finally be in Asia. In another five hours we touched down in Kuala Lumpur. The international terminal at the airport has lots of restaurants, bars, shops, etc.; however, we found almost nothing in the domestic transfer terminal. After getting some conflicting information, we found that we could clear immigration in the transfer hall without having to gather our bags. They went straight to Langkawi, which was nice. There never was any real customs check at either airport, oddly enough.
April 17 - Langkawi
During hour layover, I found it fascinating how fashionable the Malaysian women were in regards to their head scarves. I had never been to a Muslim country before and had always envisioned them wearing similar scarves. Instead, they had a myriad of colors all matching their outfits perfectly and adorned with sequins and other embellishments. After our layover in Kuala Lumpur we boarded the flight to Langkawi. I found it funny that everybody boarded the plane at once when they called rows 40 and higher. There seemed to be no concept of actually waiting for your row to be called. The flight to Langkawi was only about an hour. I always say that you know you’ve landed somewhere cool when they have to wheel the stairs out to the plane. Ahhh, I was happy to see that applied in Langkawi too. Brad waited for our luggage while I went to arrange for a rental car. I ended up renting from Mahamas Travel. They were easy to deal with, reasonably priced, and brought the car right to the entrance of the airport. We exchanged some money and then headed toward our car. Uh oh!! Is that a driver from Casa del Mar holding our name on a sign? Oh no, it looks like they didn’t tell him that I had canceled our hotel transfer since we decided to rent a car. He didn’t look thrilled but was gracious and offered to let us follow him to the hotel. Sounds good, we’ll meet him at the exit to the main road.
Well, not so easy. We went to get in the car and the Mahamas representative informed us that the car had no gas in it and that we needed to go to the gas station in “town” immediately. Great, how do we get there? It turns out we have to go the other way from our hotel, through a roundabout and then into a little town. No big deal, except that Brad has never driven on the left side of the road or in a car with the steering wheel on the right before. That roundabout was quite a challenge coming right out of the airport all jet lagged and such. We also lost the hotel driver that we were supposed to be following because he didn’t realize we had to buy gas and took off driving the other way before we could tell him. We later found out that he just thought we were lost and clueless. The gas station was also an adventure since we had to prepay, which involved figuring out how much gas we’ll need for two days exploring an island and then converting gallons to liters and dollars to ringgits on very little sleep. Lucky for me, Brad was able to figure it out before my brain exploded!
So, off to Casa del Mar. What a beautiful and relaxing little resort. The manager, Andrew, makes a point of meeting all the guests and is very helpful. Our room was upstairs with a magnificent view of Pentang Cenai beach and the Andaman Sea. What a perfect place to decompress from the long flights! We went down to the pool for a quick swim and then a short downpour moved in. No problem, we just headed to the bar. It turned out to be happy hour. That means you get to spin a wheel and try to win a free drink each time you buy a drink. Brad and a little boy hanging with his mom were both pretty good at picking the right colors on the wheel, so we hung out and enjoyed several free drinks until happy hour ended. We also met several British couples and talked travel and world issues with them. Feeling good, we went back to the room and got cleaned up for dinner. We decided to walk down the street and see what we could find rather than driving anywhere given our happy hour state of mind.
It was kind of late, so we picked the German restaurant next door, since it still had a lot of people in it. It’s a nice setting with tables and chairs right in the sand. We enjoyed a decent meal and some cold beverages and then headed back to the hotel. The bar looked inviting, but we were really tired. Casa del Mar has complimentary Internet in the lobby, so I stopped for a minute to send the family a quick message letting them know we arrived safely. I was only on for about ten minutes when I noticed Brad had zonked out in a big comfortable chair next to me. Looks like we better get to bed!
April 18
We woke up in time to catch the ninth inning of the Atlanta Braves game on t.v. We are both avid Braves fans, so that was pretty cool. It was pretty strange watching last night’s game at 8:00 in the morning! We went downstairs for a nice breakfast overlooking the ocean in Casa del Mar’s restaurant. They have several items on the menu to choose from as well as unlimited breads and cereals on a mini-buffet. After breakfast, we got in the car and headed out to explore the island. Our first stop was at Telaga Harbor to confirm our seats on the ferry to Koh Lipe the next day. Hmm, after asking around a bit, we found the office and were told that they didn’t know if the boat from Thailand would really be coming on Wednesday that week or not. The fact that I had an e-mail confirmation of seats apparently meant nothing. They said they would try to call the boat company to find out if they were coming and then they would call our cell phone and let us know. Yeah, right. More on that later.
We continued on around the island to the cable car. We took it up to the top and took in the amazing view looking out over the Andaman Sea. There were more islands than I could have possibly imagined. We got lucky that the sky was pretty clear that morning. You could even see Koh Lipe 40 kilometers in the distance. After the cable car, we drove around the island to Tanjung Rhu beach, barely missing a four foot monitor lizard crossing the road. Wow! What a spectacular beach. It is one of the most beautiful bays I’ve ever seen. Absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, a storm was brewing, so we couldn’t stay long. We headed back to the car and a nice man working a vending both in the parking lot informed us that we had a flat tire.
Sure enough, that sucker was really flat! We checked the trunk and found a bald spare and a jack, but no lug wrench. The same nice man found another person with the same type of car and borrowed his lug wrench. Next thing you know, several local men and even a few tourists had gathered around the car and basically took over changing the tire for us. Even the men’s wives came out to watch. Everyone seemed to want in on the tire changing action. Before long, we were back on the road with our bald spare. About that time, the heavens opened up and it began to pour really hard . It was a pretty nerve wracking driving in that rain, especially when Brad wasn’t used to the left side thing really yet. As luck would have it, we just happened to drive right past a tire shop. We pulled up and showed them the nail in our tire. They didn’t speak any English but knew exactly what we wanted. The original tire was plugged and back on the car in less than five minutes. I think they charged us 10 Ringgit (about $2.75 U.S.).
We got back to Pentang Cenai safely, but it was still pouring, so we stopped off at an Irish bar just down and across the street from Casa del Mar and had lunch and a pitcher of bear. We went back to the hotel to catch happy hour, which was moved indoors due to the rain. It turns out that Andrew hosts a complimentary cocktail hour on Tuesdays, so all the hotel guests were gathered, sipping drinks, and chatting. Andrew even gave a little welcome speech to everyone. That was a really nice touch. We went up to the room, called the Telaga Harbor people to find out that they never heard back from the Thailand boat people, and then nodded off rather early. I think the jet lag had finally caught up with us. We woke up hungry around 9:30 pm and ordered room service. My fish was pretty good, but Brad’s hamburger was the worst he’s ever eaten. That was surprising given how good the breakfast was. Oh well, live, learn, and don’t order a hamburger on Langkawi.
April 18 – Journey to Koh Lipe
We woke up and called Telaga Harbor one more time hoping that they had heard if the boat was coming. They explained that the boat on Wednesdays comes from Thailand, so they have no control over it. However, they do run their own boat from Malaysia on Friday and Saturday, so those would go for sure. Well, that doesn’t help us much. I guess we’re taking the long way to Koh Lipe, bummer. We checked out early, skipped breakfast and hit the road to Kuah to catch the ferry to Satun, Thailand. We called Mahamas (the car rental people) and told them about our change of plans. They said to find their representative by the pier and return the car. That sounds easier than it really is! After several near death incidents trying to drive through the busy town, we finally found a place to park near the pier. So, where do we find the Mahamas guy? We wondered around aimlessly for a while asking people who had no idea. Finally, out of nowhere we find a guy that takes us right to the man we were looking for. The Mahamas representative even had the original $10 key deposit we had given the other Mahamas representative two days earlier.
Perfect, all we have to do now is get on the ferry. First, we get in the immigration line not realizing we had to get tickets outside first. We figured that out and ventured into the ticket line. Holy crap, that thing takes forever and you are left to swelter in the sun with absolutely no shade. The ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30AM. It took us over an hour to get our tickets, so we thought we had missed the ferry, but somehow we still managed to get on it around 10:15. Woohoo, we’re on the way to Thailand!
After taking our seats on the ferry, the strangest thing happened. A group of teenagers was trying to find seats and asked if we could move down one. Okay, we move down to let one person into the last seat on the row. Then the guy asks if he can have the seat closer to the inside. Okay, we get up to let him in and then his girlfriend jumps in with him leaving us with only one seat! We told them that we still wanted our two seats and they just started laughing and acting like they didn’t understand us. After an awkward minute or two, Brad gave up and found an empty seat two rows up. Next thing you know, they are trying to get me to move so their other friend can have my seat. What is with these people? They started causing a lot of commotion over it, so I moved, what the hell. Finally, they ended up booting the last solo person out of that row, so yet another friend could join them. They kept laughing and being really rude about it all too. Oh well, at least it wasn’t too long of a ferry ride. I managed to doze off for at least half of it.
Upon arrival in Satun, we exchanged some money, filled out some forms and got in the immigration line. While waiting in line a woman came in and asked where we were going and offered to sell us tickets on the ferry to Koh Lipe and set us up with a taxi to the pier in Pak Bara. The price seemed reasonable, so we went ahead and made the arrangements through her. Our “taxi” turned out to be a songthaew (pick up truck w/ benches in the back). Although not what we were expecting or hoping for, it turned out to be just fine. Good thing the ride only took about an hour or so. After arriving in Pak Bara, we had a delicious lunch, green curry for me and Pad Thai for Brad, at a little restaurant near the pier named Elephant Bar or something close to that. We head down to the pier and find out our boat has been delayed. We met a man from the States. who had been traveling since last October and was meeting his wife in Koh Lipe. Brad went into a small travel booth to check on the boat. They look at the tickets we bought in Satun and told him that boat wasn’t running today and switched them out for some different tickets. He brings them out and I noticed that they had a different date on them and got a little worried. Our new friend told us we may have been scammed and for Brad to go back. Brad went back and they insist that our tickets are fine and they were even getting a little insulted that we were questioning them. Okay, fine, we’ll just come back to them if we can’t get on the boat.
The ferry to Koh Lipe showed up about an hour late. Getting on the boat is a little tricky, since you have to get up on a stump type thing about three feet up and then balance across a very thin and wobbly board to get on the boat. There are people to help you, but it’s still a bit tricky with your bags and all. Of course, they didn’t check our tickets upon boarding, so we were still left wondering if they were even good. What if they weren’t? Would we just be thrown overboard?! A little while later a guy came by and collected them without incident. Strangely, two other people tried to collect out tickets later and didn’t even know who that guy was. Oh well, they didn’t throw us over or make us pay again, so that was good. Unfortunately, we were on the last ferry for the day, which also happens to be the slowest. It started to rain shortly before we stopped at Taratou to drop off and pick up some passengers. The rain kept up and before long it was raining inside the boat too. It was all we could do to keep ourselves and our bags dry. We met a man who lives on Koh Lipe named Jorge (he was originally from Mexico). He knew some people working on the boat and was able to hook Brad up with some warm beers from the cargo hold. I had to pass on the warm bear, but unfortunately still had to use the restroom at one point during the journey. I must say that the squat toilet in that little room on a rocking boat was a novel experience!
By the time we arrived at Koh Lipe it was around 7:00 PM, dark, and still raining. Our 40 km trip had turned into a 12 hour journey! The ferry anchors off shore and long tail boats pull up to it. We transferred to the longtail for them to take us ashore. Of course this involves a wet landing with our bags in the rain, so we are starting to get a bit soaked. Now, there is supposed to be another longtail that will take us to our hotel, Mountain Resort, but we’re informed that it’s not running due to the weather. Just great, now what. We are stranded at a beach that only has one hotel, named Porn Resort. They told us we could walk, but we were a little sketched out about being unfamiliar with the trails and the possibility of snakes (cobras) and other creepy crawlies we might run into. Not to mention the thought of lugging our bags across the island at night in the rain. So, I took a look at one of Porn’s rooms. It was very, very, basic, but would have been okay for a night if necessary. However, I also didn’t want Mountain Resort to give away our room if we didn’t show up for our reservation.
While Brad and I were contemplating our decision, we noticed a group of Thais that had been on our boat were gearing up to hike somewhere with flashlights. We asked them where they were going and they said they had someone guiding them to Mountain Resort. What luck! If they are all going to make the walk, then so can we. We jumped in line and followed them across the island. The trail (about 1 km) turned out to be real wide and clear, so the fear of creepy crawlies passed quickly. It was really quite easy except for the last half that was uphill, hence the name Mountain Resort. The hill wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t lugging our bags up it. Poor Brad got stuck with both our big ones, while I carried our smaller backpack. He was soaked in rain and sweat by the time we finally made it to the hotel. Lucky for us, they decided to check us in before the large group, so we were in our bungalow in no time.
Our bungalow was named VIP2 (I think it cost 1200B/nt) and it was basically the second best bungalow at the resort and possibly on the whole island. It is still quite basic, but it did have air conditioning and the most amazing view from the deck that you will ever see. For some reason, they put twin beds in the “VIP” rooms, so we got to sleep Cleaver style for a few nights. After getting settled in, I took a much needed shower and Brad passed out instantly. I went to the restaurant and had the Indian Curry with shrimp and a large Chang beer. It was one of the best curry dishes I’ve ever had. The restaurant prices were amazingly cheap too. Shortly after dinner I was out like a light.
coming soon: Part 2 - Koh Lipe
Part 1
Background: We are a 35 year-old couple celebrating the recent completion of my MBA. I longed to visit the beaches of Thailand ever since I saw pictures of those beautiful limestone formations and the awesome blue water many years ago. I planned the trip through the help of many people on the Fodors and Lonely Planet Thorntree travel forums, so here goes our report:
April 16, 2006 (Easter Sunday)
We flew out of LAX around 1:00 AM. It really hit me that we were going somewhere far away and exciting when one of the airport employees came up to us in line and asked if we really meant to be in the Malaysia Airlines line. At that point, I looked around and realized we were two of only a handful of Caucasians in line. Way cool!
Malaysia Airlines provided excellent service considering we were in coach class. After about thirteen hours, we stopped in Taipei for an hour on the way to Kuala Lumpur, so Brad and I got off the plane to have a quick look around. Unfortunately, our gate was a long way from everything, so we didn’t get to see much more than one food stand and a handful of duty free shops. Oh well, it was still exciting to finally be in Asia. In another five hours we touched down in Kuala Lumpur. The international terminal at the airport has lots of restaurants, bars, shops, etc.; however, we found almost nothing in the domestic transfer terminal. After getting some conflicting information, we found that we could clear immigration in the transfer hall without having to gather our bags. They went straight to Langkawi, which was nice. There never was any real customs check at either airport, oddly enough.
April 17 - Langkawi
During hour layover, I found it fascinating how fashionable the Malaysian women were in regards to their head scarves. I had never been to a Muslim country before and had always envisioned them wearing similar scarves. Instead, they had a myriad of colors all matching their outfits perfectly and adorned with sequins and other embellishments. After our layover in Kuala Lumpur we boarded the flight to Langkawi. I found it funny that everybody boarded the plane at once when they called rows 40 and higher. There seemed to be no concept of actually waiting for your row to be called. The flight to Langkawi was only about an hour. I always say that you know you’ve landed somewhere cool when they have to wheel the stairs out to the plane. Ahhh, I was happy to see that applied in Langkawi too. Brad waited for our luggage while I went to arrange for a rental car. I ended up renting from Mahamas Travel. They were easy to deal with, reasonably priced, and brought the car right to the entrance of the airport. We exchanged some money and then headed toward our car. Uh oh!! Is that a driver from Casa del Mar holding our name on a sign? Oh no, it looks like they didn’t tell him that I had canceled our hotel transfer since we decided to rent a car. He didn’t look thrilled but was gracious and offered to let us follow him to the hotel. Sounds good, we’ll meet him at the exit to the main road.
Well, not so easy. We went to get in the car and the Mahamas representative informed us that the car had no gas in it and that we needed to go to the gas station in “town” immediately. Great, how do we get there? It turns out we have to go the other way from our hotel, through a roundabout and then into a little town. No big deal, except that Brad has never driven on the left side of the road or in a car with the steering wheel on the right before. That roundabout was quite a challenge coming right out of the airport all jet lagged and such. We also lost the hotel driver that we were supposed to be following because he didn’t realize we had to buy gas and took off driving the other way before we could tell him. We later found out that he just thought we were lost and clueless. The gas station was also an adventure since we had to prepay, which involved figuring out how much gas we’ll need for two days exploring an island and then converting gallons to liters and dollars to ringgits on very little sleep. Lucky for me, Brad was able to figure it out before my brain exploded!
So, off to Casa del Mar. What a beautiful and relaxing little resort. The manager, Andrew, makes a point of meeting all the guests and is very helpful. Our room was upstairs with a magnificent view of Pentang Cenai beach and the Andaman Sea. What a perfect place to decompress from the long flights! We went down to the pool for a quick swim and then a short downpour moved in. No problem, we just headed to the bar. It turned out to be happy hour. That means you get to spin a wheel and try to win a free drink each time you buy a drink. Brad and a little boy hanging with his mom were both pretty good at picking the right colors on the wheel, so we hung out and enjoyed several free drinks until happy hour ended. We also met several British couples and talked travel and world issues with them. Feeling good, we went back to the room and got cleaned up for dinner. We decided to walk down the street and see what we could find rather than driving anywhere given our happy hour state of mind.
It was kind of late, so we picked the German restaurant next door, since it still had a lot of people in it. It’s a nice setting with tables and chairs right in the sand. We enjoyed a decent meal and some cold beverages and then headed back to the hotel. The bar looked inviting, but we were really tired. Casa del Mar has complimentary Internet in the lobby, so I stopped for a minute to send the family a quick message letting them know we arrived safely. I was only on for about ten minutes when I noticed Brad had zonked out in a big comfortable chair next to me. Looks like we better get to bed!
April 18
We woke up in time to catch the ninth inning of the Atlanta Braves game on t.v. We are both avid Braves fans, so that was pretty cool. It was pretty strange watching last night’s game at 8:00 in the morning! We went downstairs for a nice breakfast overlooking the ocean in Casa del Mar’s restaurant. They have several items on the menu to choose from as well as unlimited breads and cereals on a mini-buffet. After breakfast, we got in the car and headed out to explore the island. Our first stop was at Telaga Harbor to confirm our seats on the ferry to Koh Lipe the next day. Hmm, after asking around a bit, we found the office and were told that they didn’t know if the boat from Thailand would really be coming on Wednesday that week or not. The fact that I had an e-mail confirmation of seats apparently meant nothing. They said they would try to call the boat company to find out if they were coming and then they would call our cell phone and let us know. Yeah, right. More on that later.
We continued on around the island to the cable car. We took it up to the top and took in the amazing view looking out over the Andaman Sea. There were more islands than I could have possibly imagined. We got lucky that the sky was pretty clear that morning. You could even see Koh Lipe 40 kilometers in the distance. After the cable car, we drove around the island to Tanjung Rhu beach, barely missing a four foot monitor lizard crossing the road. Wow! What a spectacular beach. It is one of the most beautiful bays I’ve ever seen. Absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, a storm was brewing, so we couldn’t stay long. We headed back to the car and a nice man working a vending both in the parking lot informed us that we had a flat tire.
Sure enough, that sucker was really flat! We checked the trunk and found a bald spare and a jack, but no lug wrench. The same nice man found another person with the same type of car and borrowed his lug wrench. Next thing you know, several local men and even a few tourists had gathered around the car and basically took over changing the tire for us. Even the men’s wives came out to watch. Everyone seemed to want in on the tire changing action. Before long, we were back on the road with our bald spare. About that time, the heavens opened up and it began to pour really hard . It was a pretty nerve wracking driving in that rain, especially when Brad wasn’t used to the left side thing really yet. As luck would have it, we just happened to drive right past a tire shop. We pulled up and showed them the nail in our tire. They didn’t speak any English but knew exactly what we wanted. The original tire was plugged and back on the car in less than five minutes. I think they charged us 10 Ringgit (about $2.75 U.S.).
We got back to Pentang Cenai safely, but it was still pouring, so we stopped off at an Irish bar just down and across the street from Casa del Mar and had lunch and a pitcher of bear. We went back to the hotel to catch happy hour, which was moved indoors due to the rain. It turns out that Andrew hosts a complimentary cocktail hour on Tuesdays, so all the hotel guests were gathered, sipping drinks, and chatting. Andrew even gave a little welcome speech to everyone. That was a really nice touch. We went up to the room, called the Telaga Harbor people to find out that they never heard back from the Thailand boat people, and then nodded off rather early. I think the jet lag had finally caught up with us. We woke up hungry around 9:30 pm and ordered room service. My fish was pretty good, but Brad’s hamburger was the worst he’s ever eaten. That was surprising given how good the breakfast was. Oh well, live, learn, and don’t order a hamburger on Langkawi.
April 18 – Journey to Koh Lipe
We woke up and called Telaga Harbor one more time hoping that they had heard if the boat was coming. They explained that the boat on Wednesdays comes from Thailand, so they have no control over it. However, they do run their own boat from Malaysia on Friday and Saturday, so those would go for sure. Well, that doesn’t help us much. I guess we’re taking the long way to Koh Lipe, bummer. We checked out early, skipped breakfast and hit the road to Kuah to catch the ferry to Satun, Thailand. We called Mahamas (the car rental people) and told them about our change of plans. They said to find their representative by the pier and return the car. That sounds easier than it really is! After several near death incidents trying to drive through the busy town, we finally found a place to park near the pier. So, where do we find the Mahamas guy? We wondered around aimlessly for a while asking people who had no idea. Finally, out of nowhere we find a guy that takes us right to the man we were looking for. The Mahamas representative even had the original $10 key deposit we had given the other Mahamas representative two days earlier.
Perfect, all we have to do now is get on the ferry. First, we get in the immigration line not realizing we had to get tickets outside first. We figured that out and ventured into the ticket line. Holy crap, that thing takes forever and you are left to swelter in the sun with absolutely no shade. The ferry was supposed to leave at 9:30AM. It took us over an hour to get our tickets, so we thought we had missed the ferry, but somehow we still managed to get on it around 10:15. Woohoo, we’re on the way to Thailand!
After taking our seats on the ferry, the strangest thing happened. A group of teenagers was trying to find seats and asked if we could move down one. Okay, we move down to let one person into the last seat on the row. Then the guy asks if he can have the seat closer to the inside. Okay, we get up to let him in and then his girlfriend jumps in with him leaving us with only one seat! We told them that we still wanted our two seats and they just started laughing and acting like they didn’t understand us. After an awkward minute or two, Brad gave up and found an empty seat two rows up. Next thing you know, they are trying to get me to move so their other friend can have my seat. What is with these people? They started causing a lot of commotion over it, so I moved, what the hell. Finally, they ended up booting the last solo person out of that row, so yet another friend could join them. They kept laughing and being really rude about it all too. Oh well, at least it wasn’t too long of a ferry ride. I managed to doze off for at least half of it.
Upon arrival in Satun, we exchanged some money, filled out some forms and got in the immigration line. While waiting in line a woman came in and asked where we were going and offered to sell us tickets on the ferry to Koh Lipe and set us up with a taxi to the pier in Pak Bara. The price seemed reasonable, so we went ahead and made the arrangements through her. Our “taxi” turned out to be a songthaew (pick up truck w/ benches in the back). Although not what we were expecting or hoping for, it turned out to be just fine. Good thing the ride only took about an hour or so. After arriving in Pak Bara, we had a delicious lunch, green curry for me and Pad Thai for Brad, at a little restaurant near the pier named Elephant Bar or something close to that. We head down to the pier and find out our boat has been delayed. We met a man from the States. who had been traveling since last October and was meeting his wife in Koh Lipe. Brad went into a small travel booth to check on the boat. They look at the tickets we bought in Satun and told him that boat wasn’t running today and switched them out for some different tickets. He brings them out and I noticed that they had a different date on them and got a little worried. Our new friend told us we may have been scammed and for Brad to go back. Brad went back and they insist that our tickets are fine and they were even getting a little insulted that we were questioning them. Okay, fine, we’ll just come back to them if we can’t get on the boat.
The ferry to Koh Lipe showed up about an hour late. Getting on the boat is a little tricky, since you have to get up on a stump type thing about three feet up and then balance across a very thin and wobbly board to get on the boat. There are people to help you, but it’s still a bit tricky with your bags and all. Of course, they didn’t check our tickets upon boarding, so we were still left wondering if they were even good. What if they weren’t? Would we just be thrown overboard?! A little while later a guy came by and collected them without incident. Strangely, two other people tried to collect out tickets later and didn’t even know who that guy was. Oh well, they didn’t throw us over or make us pay again, so that was good. Unfortunately, we were on the last ferry for the day, which also happens to be the slowest. It started to rain shortly before we stopped at Taratou to drop off and pick up some passengers. The rain kept up and before long it was raining inside the boat too. It was all we could do to keep ourselves and our bags dry. We met a man who lives on Koh Lipe named Jorge (he was originally from Mexico). He knew some people working on the boat and was able to hook Brad up with some warm beers from the cargo hold. I had to pass on the warm bear, but unfortunately still had to use the restroom at one point during the journey. I must say that the squat toilet in that little room on a rocking boat was a novel experience!
By the time we arrived at Koh Lipe it was around 7:00 PM, dark, and still raining. Our 40 km trip had turned into a 12 hour journey! The ferry anchors off shore and long tail boats pull up to it. We transferred to the longtail for them to take us ashore. Of course this involves a wet landing with our bags in the rain, so we are starting to get a bit soaked. Now, there is supposed to be another longtail that will take us to our hotel, Mountain Resort, but we’re informed that it’s not running due to the weather. Just great, now what. We are stranded at a beach that only has one hotel, named Porn Resort. They told us we could walk, but we were a little sketched out about being unfamiliar with the trails and the possibility of snakes (cobras) and other creepy crawlies we might run into. Not to mention the thought of lugging our bags across the island at night in the rain. So, I took a look at one of Porn’s rooms. It was very, very, basic, but would have been okay for a night if necessary. However, I also didn’t want Mountain Resort to give away our room if we didn’t show up for our reservation.
While Brad and I were contemplating our decision, we noticed a group of Thais that had been on our boat were gearing up to hike somewhere with flashlights. We asked them where they were going and they said they had someone guiding them to Mountain Resort. What luck! If they are all going to make the walk, then so can we. We jumped in line and followed them across the island. The trail (about 1 km) turned out to be real wide and clear, so the fear of creepy crawlies passed quickly. It was really quite easy except for the last half that was uphill, hence the name Mountain Resort. The hill wouldn’t be so bad if we weren’t lugging our bags up it. Poor Brad got stuck with both our big ones, while I carried our smaller backpack. He was soaked in rain and sweat by the time we finally made it to the hotel. Lucky for us, they decided to check us in before the large group, so we were in our bungalow in no time.
Our bungalow was named VIP2 (I think it cost 1200B/nt) and it was basically the second best bungalow at the resort and possibly on the whole island. It is still quite basic, but it did have air conditioning and the most amazing view from the deck that you will ever see. For some reason, they put twin beds in the “VIP” rooms, so we got to sleep Cleaver style for a few nights. After getting settled in, I took a much needed shower and Brad passed out instantly. I went to the restaurant and had the Indian Curry with shrimp and a large Chang beer. It was one of the best curry dishes I’ve ever had. The restaurant prices were amazingly cheap too. Shortly after dinner I was out like a light.
coming soon: Part 2 - Koh Lipe
Jun 2nd, 2006, 12:01 AM
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Loving it !
Already you have created so many memories and those ups and downs are what make it that way !
I think you feeling down once back at work was because it was such a contrast to what you had experienced on the trips, even just these first few days I fell you really deeply enjoyed.
Looking forward to the rest.
Already you have created so many memories and those ups and downs are what make it that way !
I think you feeling down once back at work was because it was such a contrast to what you had experienced on the trips, even just these first few days I fell you really deeply enjoyed.
Looking forward to the rest.
Jun 2nd, 2006, 05:11 AM
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What an adventure! Enjoying it!
Taipei was odd wasn't it? It almost seemed like noone works there, only flight crew and duty shop employees.On our way to Bkk we had a 3 hr layover, we arrive and couldn't find our gate. Not posted on screen, noone to ask only duty shop employees. It was quite odd. As time passed more flights started showing. There were ton of duty shops and smoke lounges everywhere. It was pretty gross walking past the smoke lounge, all you could see in there was white smoke. I got a headache just walking past. On our way back it was better. very clean and we had an average meal at the airport, however expensive.
Taipei was odd wasn't it? It almost seemed like noone works there, only flight crew and duty shop employees.On our way to Bkk we had a 3 hr layover, we arrive and couldn't find our gate. Not posted on screen, noone to ask only duty shop employees. It was quite odd. As time passed more flights started showing. There were ton of duty shops and smoke lounges everywhere. It was pretty gross walking past the smoke lounge, all you could see in there was white smoke. I got a headache just walking past. On our way back it was better. very clean and we had an average meal at the airport, however expensive.
Jun 2nd, 2006, 07:07 AM
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Ah, yes, these are the experiences that will make you a seasoned traveler!
I had to laugh at Brad ordering a hamburger. Americans seem to think that hamburgers are standard fare (you can't ruin it) but in foreign countries, it is, of course foreign food, and as chancey as asking for a Thai dish on a mid-western room service menu in the US.
Great report - keep it coming!
I had to laugh at Brad ordering a hamburger. Americans seem to think that hamburgers are standard fare (you can't ruin it) but in foreign countries, it is, of course foreign food, and as chancey as asking for a Thai dish on a mid-western room service menu in the US.
Great report - keep it coming!
Jun 2nd, 2006, 11:46 AM
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yes, BELLE0516, I got the same feeling about that Taipei airport. It seemed like only duty shop employees worked there. Very strange!
Kathie, you're so right about ordering a burger. He learned his lesson quick and stuck with local foods for the rest of the trip!
JamesA, I think you're right too. I always struggle with returning to normal life after a great trip and this one was especially good so returning home was even harder.
I'm getting ready to leave town for the night, so I'll try to post part 2 tomorrow. Thanks for reading it everyone!!
Kathie, you're so right about ordering a burger. He learned his lesson quick and stuck with local foods for the rest of the trip!
JamesA, I think you're right too. I always struggle with returning to normal life after a great trip and this one was especially good so returning home was even harder.
I'm getting ready to leave town for the night, so I'll try to post part 2 tomorrow. Thanks for reading it everyone!!
Jun 2nd, 2006, 04:19 PM
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Braves Fans? Oh well, I guess they did begin life as the Boston Braves. It's hard to get a good hamburger here in the US. I NEVER order one in anothet country. You report is enormously engaging. Looking forward to Koh Lipe.
Jun 2nd, 2006, 05:04 PM
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One more foreign hamburger story...we were at beach restaurant in the Bahamas many years ago..woman orders hamburger and when she tastes it shouts"waiter, this tastes like horsemeat". Waiter, "Of course, Madame." We do not order hamburgers on our travels. You are very adventureous. I think you did not realize how daring your plans were. But more fun!
Jun 3rd, 2006, 01:51 PM
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That's right GPanda, Braves fan!! I lived in Atlanta for over 20 years, so I can't help it 
Elainee, believe it or not, we pretty much knew what I was getting in to. We love seeing at least some of the less popular areas, so I know it can get a little crazy at times. This was my first trip to SEA, but I've traveled Central America quite a bit and know how to take the good with the bad.
Koh Lipe still coming soon!
Elainee, believe it or not, we pretty much knew what I was getting in to. We love seeing at least some of the less popular areas, so I know it can get a little crazy at times. This was my first trip to SEA, but I've traveled Central America quite a bit and know how to take the good with the bad.
Koh Lipe still coming soon!
Jun 5th, 2006, 12:07 AM
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Part 2
Thursday, April 20 – Koh Lipe
About 4 AM Thrusday morning, I woke up to use the restroom. Luckily, I had grabbed a flashlight so that I wouldn’t step on any scorpions or other biting creaturs. On the way back into bed, I still had the light on and noticed something strange on my pillow. I shrieked and turned on the light to discover a three inch long red millipede looking thing right in the middle of my pillow! Brad jumped up to see what the fuss was about. He set the thing free outside and politely reminded me that I had probably been snuggling with it for hours. Thanks Brad, I didn’t realize that.
A few hours later, we woke up and stepped outside to the most amazing view ever. I can’t even describe how beautiful the view of the ocean, beach, and other islands was from Mountain Resort. The water is a magnificent blue and the beach forms a little crescent in front of the resort. Koh Adang rises out of the sea just a couple hundred meters away and you can see the gorgeous deserted beaches fringing the island. We basically couldn’t stop staring out there for the whole four days we stayed on Koh Lipe. It is truly breathtaking.
We went to the restaurant for breakfast and took in the view. The breakfasts each morning were quite good and very cheap. The only frustration is that they kept running out of things and they weren’t replacing them since they were getting ready to shut down for low season. We pretty much had to make due with whatever was still in stock. Even then, the food at Mountain Resort was some of the best we had in Thailand and also the most reasonably priced.
After breakfast, we headed down to the beach at Mountain Resort to take a swim. The beach and water are just amazing, although we were somewhat disappointed to see that there was a lot of garbage strewn all over the beach. We later found out that a lot of it is washing on shore from other places, but it also seems that there just isn’t anybody designated to take care of that part of the beach and lots of people are leaving their trash behind. It just makes no sense at all. There is quite a bit of broken glass so I would recommend wearing water shoes to be safe. We swam and walked the beach a bit. The tide started moving in kind of quick and I saw a pretty big jellyfish, so decided to get out of the water. I was thirsty anyway, so we walked over to Karma Bar.
Karma Bar is set just below Mountain Resort on the beach looking out over that incredible view. We sat down at the bar and were a little bummed to find that they were closed for the season and packing up to head home for six months. Karma bar is run by an American/Canadian couple named Jeff and Fiona. They were getting ready to spend the summer in Kansas with Jeff’s family. Jeff had actually made our reservation at Mountain Resort for us, so we got to talking a bit. It turns out they had two big Chang beers left, so we drank those and a couple bottles of water. The beach and bar are both located down a brutal staircase from the resort and restaurant. Packing up the bar and lugging everything up those stairs looked rough; although, I’d do it no problem if I got to spend six months a year gazing out over that beach! We discussed the trash situation and they explained that they do their best to keep the beach around the bar clean, but that the island really has no disposal system, so a lot of it just gets burned or left unattended.
After climbing back up to our room, we decided to explore the island a bit and try to find Pattaya Beach (not the Pattaya you’re probably thinking of). Pattaya is the biggest beach and the main tourist hangout on the island. We had a “map” which showed a village on the way. Brad suggested that maybe we get lunch in the village and pick up some beers and snacks, they must have a store, right?! I told him that I thought it was a sea gypsy village and I wasn’t so sure what they would have. He didn’t really know what a sea gypsy was and was picturing hippies or something like that. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that Koh Lipe has no roads, just sand and dirt paths. There are a few motorbikes used to haul supplies around, but that’s it for motorized vehicles.
So, we were off to find the village. We walk down the path and come to a fork. The “map” doesn’t show a fork, so we just went left because we had seen some other people head there on a motorbike. It turns out, of course, that left was the wrong way. We found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the sea gypsy village with no clue which way to go. There were all these little shanty huts with paths running every which way between them and dogs and chickens everywhere. Many of the residents were sitting outside sipping some something and having a good laugh at our apparent bewilderment. Many of them said hello or sawadee or some other greeting to us and they seemed quite friendly. If we weren’t so startled, hungry, and confused, maybe we would have sat down and tried to chat with them. It was interesting to see how the people lived in the village. They apparently ate a lot of fish and lived quite simply.
We found our way back to where we had made the wrong turn and decided that we were too hungry to keep wandering without some real direction, so we walked back up the path to Jack’s Jungle Bar. Jack’s is located in the center of the island on the main path that connects one end to the other. From conversations we had with others around the island, it seems Jack’s is the nightly hangout amongst the expats living on Koh Lipe. It’s centrally located and open late, so it’s apparently the place to go. Several people we met had invited us to hang with them there each night, but we never found the energy to head down there after dinner. Not to mention that hill coming back would have been a doozy after too many drinks!
At Jack’s, Brad had the spicy chicken curry and I had the vegetarian Indian curry. Both were quite good, although they were soupier than we had expected. We ended up finding that most of the curries in Thailand were a lot soupier than we were used to in the States. While finishing our beers, we noticed a lady who worked there spraying bug spray all over the freshly washed silverware. Okay, the flies and mosquitoes were quite bad, but spraying big killer directly on the silverware is frightening. To her credit, she did wipe them off one at a time with a cloth, but the fact that they weren’t washed, or even rinsed, after being sprayed freaked us out a bit. Nonetheless, this is one of the most popular restaurants on the island and I guess people weren’t getting sick from it, I know we didn’t.
After lunch, we headed back up the hill to our room. The heat had taken a bit of a toll on me, so I went down for a nap. Brad went over to the restaurant, drank a couple beers, and watched the sun set over some islands in the distance. I woke up for the tail end of the sunset and watched it from our bungalow. All the sunsets on Koh Lipe were absolute perfection! After my nap, I took a shower and Brad and I headed to the restaurant for dinner. He wasn’t real hungry, probably due to the heat, so he had a couple big Changs while I ordered a Penang curry. It was quite good and extra spicy. Brad nibbled on it a bit too. After dinner, we went back to the room. Brad had brought some Chang beers to go from the restaurant. They were really cheap and you could take them back to the room, so we would usually stock up on bottled water and Changs each night. I went in the room to read my guidebook for a few minutes and next thing you know, Brad was sound asleep in the chair on our deck with a practically full Chang next to him. I woke him up and put him to bed. The next morning he didn’t even know how he had gotten to bed! Poor guy, I think the combination of Chang and heat was just too much for him that night.
Friday, April 21
We woke up Friday morning to a torrential downpour. It had been raining for hours with no apparent end in site. I started to get a little depressed and worried that maybe the rainy season had come early and that it was going to rain for the rest of the trip. We slept in rather late and before long the rain started to lighten up. What a relief! We ate breakfast and went back to the room. Brad started writing up some notes for this report and I took yet another nap! An hour or two later, we decided to get better directions and find Pattaya beach, it can’t be that far. Brad and I review the map again. He thinks we should take this path the starts around Jack’s Jungle Bar and heads down to the beach. I point out that the path leading past the Sea Gypsy village has bars and other establishments on it and is probably “more traveled”, meaning less jungleish. He argues that we tried that way and got lost already, so we ask one of the girls who works at the resort. She pointed to Brad’s path and said to go that way (why, I’ll never know). Okay, off we go.
We get just past Jack’s and see an unmarked trail. A guy happens to be walking by, so we ask him if it goes to Pattaya and he says, “yea, it’ll take about fifteen minutes”. No problem. It starts off nice and sandy, but turns quite jungely as I had suspected. Even worse, there were several small trails that forked off of it which, of course, were not on our “map”. At one point Brad was sure we should take a fork that goes right because he saw a beach. Once we got there, we realized that we were at the far end of Porn resort (the place we got dumped off the first night), oops wrong beach. Brad looks at the trail and says, “that can’t be right”, it just cuts back into the jungle. I looked at the map and confirmed that cutting into the jungle is what we were supposed to do. I generally don’t mind jungle walks, but for some reason I am just petrified of cobras, so this walk was a bit nerve wracking for me, especially after that long rain. Brad and I were looking up in the trees, down on the ground, and all around to make sure we didn’t run into a cobra or anything else venomous. After about fifteen minutes, just like the guy said, we arrived at one end of Pattaya beach, much to my relief.
We found the nearest chill looking bar and relaxed over a couple beers, relishing in the fact that we had not become cobra food. A nice dog hung out by our feet with us. On Lipe, it seems you always have your own designated dog no matter where you go. The dog population has gotten pretty bad, with very few people living there year round to take care of them. There is a charity on the island (Koh Lipe Animal Project) collecting money to bring veterinarians from the States to Koh Lipe this fall. They will be vaccinating, spaying, and neutering as many dogs and cats as they can. I really hope this helps, because every female dog we saw was either pregnant or nursing pups.
After our beers, we took a leisurely stroll to the other end of the beach and checked out the bungalows and bars. Many places were closed for low season already and many others were getting ready to close. I can’t imagine how quiet it must be when everyone is gone. The Sea Gypsies probably love the break from all the tourists and expats! The nicest bungalows we saw were the newer air-conditioned rooms at Lipe Resort (although we’ve heard the owners aren’t very pleasant) and the bungalows at Varin Resort (which I believe is owned by the same people as Mountain Resort). The only problem with Varin’s bungalows is that they are set back from the beach a bit, so most don’t have direct ocean views. When sitting on your deck, you’d be staring into your neighbor’s bungalow! Overall, we still feel that Mountain Resort was the right choice for us, even given it’s seclusion. The bungalows are comfortable, the restaurant is excellent, and the view can’t be beat. If we were able to spend more time on Koh Lipe, we might consider splitting our time between Pattaya beach and Mountain Resort, just so we can be around the “action” some of the time.
In front of Varin, we ran into our friend from Seattle. He had finally found his wife after reluctantly spending his first night at Porn resort. We chatted with them a bit and then headed up the path toward the village. By now, Brad was convinced that I was right and that we should be using the more well traveled path. Heading back was no problem, there were even some signs posted on trees pointing the way, what a novel concept! We stopped off at Pooh’s Bar. This turned out to be our favorite little hang out on the island. The bar had a nice vibe to it and a handful of friendly people to talk to. We also figured out that this was the bar where all the expats hung out during the day, before heading to Jack’s later. We met Bob, the scuba instructor, who spent afternoons chatting with bar guests while his students worked on written tests. He was a cool guy from Canada, who had been living on Koh Lipe for a while. We exchanged stories over a few drinks and also met a few others who lived and worked on the island. All very nice people who were all living their dream of doing jobs they enjoyed in paradise. Granted, living on such a small island would have it’s drawbacks (such as no hot water and visa runs), I couldn’t help but be jealous knowing that I would be returning to Los Angeles to keep doing taxes in a few weeks.
While chatting with Bob, a dogfight broke out right under our bar stools! We lifted our legs up to not get bit and Bob and some others grabbed the dogs and pulled them apart. Whoo, that was close! It started to get late and we wanted to catch the sunset, so we headed back to Mountain Resort. We stopped at the restaurant to watch the sunset and ordered some Changs. Next thing you know, we had been sitting there for a couple hours and the place was full of people having dinner, so we decided to go ahead and eat rather than going back to clean up first. Their Indian curry was so damn good the first night that Brad ordered it with shrimp and I ordered it with calamari. I’m not really sure why they call it Indian curry, when it reminded me more of a Thai curry, but it didn’t matter. It was so delicious that we wouldn’t have cared what they called it.
While we were eating, they started playing some music and four Thai girls came out and did some traditional Thai dances. They also lit some of those big paper lanterns and set them adrift. Very cool. Apparently, they do dancing on the weekends, because they did it Saturday night too. After dinner, we thought about heading down to Jack’s Jungle Bar, since Bob, Jeff, Fiona, and others had mentioned they would be there. As tempting as it was, we decided that sleep was even more appealing.
Saturday, April 22
We slept in rather late again and then ate breakfast. After breakfast we run into Jeff and discuss our options for getting to Krabi the next day. He and Fiona are heading the same direction and might be interested in splitting a mini-van, but they have a lot of bags so they may need more room. We’ll play it by ear in the morning. However, we did find out that there was a speedboat heading back to Pak Bara in the morning, so we went ahead and bought tickets for it. A speedboat sounded like a dream after that slow boat to Lipe we took getting there. We also inquired around about taking a longtail out to some snorkel spots and deserted islands, but we had slept too late and all the resort’s boats were gone for the morning. Jeff told us we could walk over to the sea gypsy village and hire a boat there if we want.
We head back to the room and contemplate our plan for the day. We had tried snorkeling by our resort the first day and didn’t see much. There was supposed to be a good snorkel spot nearby, but it looked a little choppy and we heard the current was strong. The weather was questionable, so we decided that hiring a boat and heading into the ocean may not be the best plan. Instead, I took a nap, again! Brad did some more journaling, while I snoozed. I woke up a couple hours later and we gathered up our snorkel gear and headed to Pattaya beach. We had heard there was good snorkeling way down at the end by the rocky cliff. We took the good path this time. Sure enough, the snorkeling turned out to be really good. Lots and lots of colorful fish, although the coral suffered from bleaching. We spent a good hour or so snorkeling and relaxing in the beautiful clear water. I accidentally scraped the top of my foot on a rock. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it left quite a cut. Luckily, I had my water shoes on, so it only made it about half way across the top of my foot. It didn’t hurt at all, but I still have a small scar from it. It seems I always come home with at least one scar from each of our longer trips.
After our snorkeling, we stopped off at Pooh’s again and had several drinks with our new found friends. Jeff and Fiona said their goodbyes to everyone since they were leaving in the morning. At least they knew they would be back in a few months; however, I wonder how many of the people they said by to would be back next season and how many new faces there would be. We hung out until it started to get dark and then headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. Once again we ate at the resort. I can’t remember what we ate that night, but I’m sure it was good. Once again, we contemplated heading down to Jack’s, but decided we were just too tired. It’s amazing what a toll the heat will take on you without you even realizing it’s happening! We had to get up early the next morning to catch that boat anyway.
As tough as it was getting there, Koh Lipe was absolutely beautiful and a great place to get away from it all. Even at the height of the busy season, I can’t imagine that it is very crowded. Our resort was sold out and the only time you could tell was at dinner when the restaurant would be crowded. We loved it there and could have easily spent another week relaxing on the island and absorbing that view. I really wish we had the time or made the effort to go out snorkeling on the reef. We heard it was amazing. I guess that gives us an excuse to go back. I just hope that Lipe stays like it is and doesn’t get overdeveloped like many of the other Thai islands. I think the distance and trouble getting there may help keep it tranquil for now, but that speedboat could spell trouble.
Next Up: Krabi (& getting there)
Thursday, April 20 – Koh Lipe
About 4 AM Thrusday morning, I woke up to use the restroom. Luckily, I had grabbed a flashlight so that I wouldn’t step on any scorpions or other biting creaturs. On the way back into bed, I still had the light on and noticed something strange on my pillow. I shrieked and turned on the light to discover a three inch long red millipede looking thing right in the middle of my pillow! Brad jumped up to see what the fuss was about. He set the thing free outside and politely reminded me that I had probably been snuggling with it for hours. Thanks Brad, I didn’t realize that.
A few hours later, we woke up and stepped outside to the most amazing view ever. I can’t even describe how beautiful the view of the ocean, beach, and other islands was from Mountain Resort. The water is a magnificent blue and the beach forms a little crescent in front of the resort. Koh Adang rises out of the sea just a couple hundred meters away and you can see the gorgeous deserted beaches fringing the island. We basically couldn’t stop staring out there for the whole four days we stayed on Koh Lipe. It is truly breathtaking.
We went to the restaurant for breakfast and took in the view. The breakfasts each morning were quite good and very cheap. The only frustration is that they kept running out of things and they weren’t replacing them since they were getting ready to shut down for low season. We pretty much had to make due with whatever was still in stock. Even then, the food at Mountain Resort was some of the best we had in Thailand and also the most reasonably priced.
After breakfast, we headed down to the beach at Mountain Resort to take a swim. The beach and water are just amazing, although we were somewhat disappointed to see that there was a lot of garbage strewn all over the beach. We later found out that a lot of it is washing on shore from other places, but it also seems that there just isn’t anybody designated to take care of that part of the beach and lots of people are leaving their trash behind. It just makes no sense at all. There is quite a bit of broken glass so I would recommend wearing water shoes to be safe. We swam and walked the beach a bit. The tide started moving in kind of quick and I saw a pretty big jellyfish, so decided to get out of the water. I was thirsty anyway, so we walked over to Karma Bar.
Karma Bar is set just below Mountain Resort on the beach looking out over that incredible view. We sat down at the bar and were a little bummed to find that they were closed for the season and packing up to head home for six months. Karma bar is run by an American/Canadian couple named Jeff and Fiona. They were getting ready to spend the summer in Kansas with Jeff’s family. Jeff had actually made our reservation at Mountain Resort for us, so we got to talking a bit. It turns out they had two big Chang beers left, so we drank those and a couple bottles of water. The beach and bar are both located down a brutal staircase from the resort and restaurant. Packing up the bar and lugging everything up those stairs looked rough; although, I’d do it no problem if I got to spend six months a year gazing out over that beach! We discussed the trash situation and they explained that they do their best to keep the beach around the bar clean, but that the island really has no disposal system, so a lot of it just gets burned or left unattended.
After climbing back up to our room, we decided to explore the island a bit and try to find Pattaya Beach (not the Pattaya you’re probably thinking of). Pattaya is the biggest beach and the main tourist hangout on the island. We had a “map” which showed a village on the way. Brad suggested that maybe we get lunch in the village and pick up some beers and snacks, they must have a store, right?! I told him that I thought it was a sea gypsy village and I wasn’t so sure what they would have. He didn’t really know what a sea gypsy was and was picturing hippies or something like that. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that Koh Lipe has no roads, just sand and dirt paths. There are a few motorbikes used to haul supplies around, but that’s it for motorized vehicles.
So, we were off to find the village. We walk down the path and come to a fork. The “map” doesn’t show a fork, so we just went left because we had seen some other people head there on a motorbike. It turns out, of course, that left was the wrong way. We found ourselves smack dab in the middle of the sea gypsy village with no clue which way to go. There were all these little shanty huts with paths running every which way between them and dogs and chickens everywhere. Many of the residents were sitting outside sipping some something and having a good laugh at our apparent bewilderment. Many of them said hello or sawadee or some other greeting to us and they seemed quite friendly. If we weren’t so startled, hungry, and confused, maybe we would have sat down and tried to chat with them. It was interesting to see how the people lived in the village. They apparently ate a lot of fish and lived quite simply.
We found our way back to where we had made the wrong turn and decided that we were too hungry to keep wandering without some real direction, so we walked back up the path to Jack’s Jungle Bar. Jack’s is located in the center of the island on the main path that connects one end to the other. From conversations we had with others around the island, it seems Jack’s is the nightly hangout amongst the expats living on Koh Lipe. It’s centrally located and open late, so it’s apparently the place to go. Several people we met had invited us to hang with them there each night, but we never found the energy to head down there after dinner. Not to mention that hill coming back would have been a doozy after too many drinks!
At Jack’s, Brad had the spicy chicken curry and I had the vegetarian Indian curry. Both were quite good, although they were soupier than we had expected. We ended up finding that most of the curries in Thailand were a lot soupier than we were used to in the States. While finishing our beers, we noticed a lady who worked there spraying bug spray all over the freshly washed silverware. Okay, the flies and mosquitoes were quite bad, but spraying big killer directly on the silverware is frightening. To her credit, she did wipe them off one at a time with a cloth, but the fact that they weren’t washed, or even rinsed, after being sprayed freaked us out a bit. Nonetheless, this is one of the most popular restaurants on the island and I guess people weren’t getting sick from it, I know we didn’t.
After lunch, we headed back up the hill to our room. The heat had taken a bit of a toll on me, so I went down for a nap. Brad went over to the restaurant, drank a couple beers, and watched the sun set over some islands in the distance. I woke up for the tail end of the sunset and watched it from our bungalow. All the sunsets on Koh Lipe were absolute perfection! After my nap, I took a shower and Brad and I headed to the restaurant for dinner. He wasn’t real hungry, probably due to the heat, so he had a couple big Changs while I ordered a Penang curry. It was quite good and extra spicy. Brad nibbled on it a bit too. After dinner, we went back to the room. Brad had brought some Chang beers to go from the restaurant. They were really cheap and you could take them back to the room, so we would usually stock up on bottled water and Changs each night. I went in the room to read my guidebook for a few minutes and next thing you know, Brad was sound asleep in the chair on our deck with a practically full Chang next to him. I woke him up and put him to bed. The next morning he didn’t even know how he had gotten to bed! Poor guy, I think the combination of Chang and heat was just too much for him that night.
Friday, April 21
We woke up Friday morning to a torrential downpour. It had been raining for hours with no apparent end in site. I started to get a little depressed and worried that maybe the rainy season had come early and that it was going to rain for the rest of the trip. We slept in rather late and before long the rain started to lighten up. What a relief! We ate breakfast and went back to the room. Brad started writing up some notes for this report and I took yet another nap! An hour or two later, we decided to get better directions and find Pattaya beach, it can’t be that far. Brad and I review the map again. He thinks we should take this path the starts around Jack’s Jungle Bar and heads down to the beach. I point out that the path leading past the Sea Gypsy village has bars and other establishments on it and is probably “more traveled”, meaning less jungleish. He argues that we tried that way and got lost already, so we ask one of the girls who works at the resort. She pointed to Brad’s path and said to go that way (why, I’ll never know). Okay, off we go.
We get just past Jack’s and see an unmarked trail. A guy happens to be walking by, so we ask him if it goes to Pattaya and he says, “yea, it’ll take about fifteen minutes”. No problem. It starts off nice and sandy, but turns quite jungely as I had suspected. Even worse, there were several small trails that forked off of it which, of course, were not on our “map”. At one point Brad was sure we should take a fork that goes right because he saw a beach. Once we got there, we realized that we were at the far end of Porn resort (the place we got dumped off the first night), oops wrong beach. Brad looks at the trail and says, “that can’t be right”, it just cuts back into the jungle. I looked at the map and confirmed that cutting into the jungle is what we were supposed to do. I generally don’t mind jungle walks, but for some reason I am just petrified of cobras, so this walk was a bit nerve wracking for me, especially after that long rain. Brad and I were looking up in the trees, down on the ground, and all around to make sure we didn’t run into a cobra or anything else venomous. After about fifteen minutes, just like the guy said, we arrived at one end of Pattaya beach, much to my relief.
We found the nearest chill looking bar and relaxed over a couple beers, relishing in the fact that we had not become cobra food. A nice dog hung out by our feet with us. On Lipe, it seems you always have your own designated dog no matter where you go. The dog population has gotten pretty bad, with very few people living there year round to take care of them. There is a charity on the island (Koh Lipe Animal Project) collecting money to bring veterinarians from the States to Koh Lipe this fall. They will be vaccinating, spaying, and neutering as many dogs and cats as they can. I really hope this helps, because every female dog we saw was either pregnant or nursing pups.
After our beers, we took a leisurely stroll to the other end of the beach and checked out the bungalows and bars. Many places were closed for low season already and many others were getting ready to close. I can’t imagine how quiet it must be when everyone is gone. The Sea Gypsies probably love the break from all the tourists and expats! The nicest bungalows we saw were the newer air-conditioned rooms at Lipe Resort (although we’ve heard the owners aren’t very pleasant) and the bungalows at Varin Resort (which I believe is owned by the same people as Mountain Resort). The only problem with Varin’s bungalows is that they are set back from the beach a bit, so most don’t have direct ocean views. When sitting on your deck, you’d be staring into your neighbor’s bungalow! Overall, we still feel that Mountain Resort was the right choice for us, even given it’s seclusion. The bungalows are comfortable, the restaurant is excellent, and the view can’t be beat. If we were able to spend more time on Koh Lipe, we might consider splitting our time between Pattaya beach and Mountain Resort, just so we can be around the “action” some of the time.
In front of Varin, we ran into our friend from Seattle. He had finally found his wife after reluctantly spending his first night at Porn resort. We chatted with them a bit and then headed up the path toward the village. By now, Brad was convinced that I was right and that we should be using the more well traveled path. Heading back was no problem, there were even some signs posted on trees pointing the way, what a novel concept! We stopped off at Pooh’s Bar. This turned out to be our favorite little hang out on the island. The bar had a nice vibe to it and a handful of friendly people to talk to. We also figured out that this was the bar where all the expats hung out during the day, before heading to Jack’s later. We met Bob, the scuba instructor, who spent afternoons chatting with bar guests while his students worked on written tests. He was a cool guy from Canada, who had been living on Koh Lipe for a while. We exchanged stories over a few drinks and also met a few others who lived and worked on the island. All very nice people who were all living their dream of doing jobs they enjoyed in paradise. Granted, living on such a small island would have it’s drawbacks (such as no hot water and visa runs), I couldn’t help but be jealous knowing that I would be returning to Los Angeles to keep doing taxes in a few weeks.
While chatting with Bob, a dogfight broke out right under our bar stools! We lifted our legs up to not get bit and Bob and some others grabbed the dogs and pulled them apart. Whoo, that was close! It started to get late and we wanted to catch the sunset, so we headed back to Mountain Resort. We stopped at the restaurant to watch the sunset and ordered some Changs. Next thing you know, we had been sitting there for a couple hours and the place was full of people having dinner, so we decided to go ahead and eat rather than going back to clean up first. Their Indian curry was so damn good the first night that Brad ordered it with shrimp and I ordered it with calamari. I’m not really sure why they call it Indian curry, when it reminded me more of a Thai curry, but it didn’t matter. It was so delicious that we wouldn’t have cared what they called it.
While we were eating, they started playing some music and four Thai girls came out and did some traditional Thai dances. They also lit some of those big paper lanterns and set them adrift. Very cool. Apparently, they do dancing on the weekends, because they did it Saturday night too. After dinner, we thought about heading down to Jack’s Jungle Bar, since Bob, Jeff, Fiona, and others had mentioned they would be there. As tempting as it was, we decided that sleep was even more appealing.
Saturday, April 22
We slept in rather late again and then ate breakfast. After breakfast we run into Jeff and discuss our options for getting to Krabi the next day. He and Fiona are heading the same direction and might be interested in splitting a mini-van, but they have a lot of bags so they may need more room. We’ll play it by ear in the morning. However, we did find out that there was a speedboat heading back to Pak Bara in the morning, so we went ahead and bought tickets for it. A speedboat sounded like a dream after that slow boat to Lipe we took getting there. We also inquired around about taking a longtail out to some snorkel spots and deserted islands, but we had slept too late and all the resort’s boats were gone for the morning. Jeff told us we could walk over to the sea gypsy village and hire a boat there if we want.
We head back to the room and contemplate our plan for the day. We had tried snorkeling by our resort the first day and didn’t see much. There was supposed to be a good snorkel spot nearby, but it looked a little choppy and we heard the current was strong. The weather was questionable, so we decided that hiring a boat and heading into the ocean may not be the best plan. Instead, I took a nap, again! Brad did some more journaling, while I snoozed. I woke up a couple hours later and we gathered up our snorkel gear and headed to Pattaya beach. We had heard there was good snorkeling way down at the end by the rocky cliff. We took the good path this time. Sure enough, the snorkeling turned out to be really good. Lots and lots of colorful fish, although the coral suffered from bleaching. We spent a good hour or so snorkeling and relaxing in the beautiful clear water. I accidentally scraped the top of my foot on a rock. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it left quite a cut. Luckily, I had my water shoes on, so it only made it about half way across the top of my foot. It didn’t hurt at all, but I still have a small scar from it. It seems I always come home with at least one scar from each of our longer trips.
After our snorkeling, we stopped off at Pooh’s again and had several drinks with our new found friends. Jeff and Fiona said their goodbyes to everyone since they were leaving in the morning. At least they knew they would be back in a few months; however, I wonder how many of the people they said by to would be back next season and how many new faces there would be. We hung out until it started to get dark and then headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. Once again we ate at the resort. I can’t remember what we ate that night, but I’m sure it was good. Once again, we contemplated heading down to Jack’s, but decided we were just too tired. It’s amazing what a toll the heat will take on you without you even realizing it’s happening! We had to get up early the next morning to catch that boat anyway.
As tough as it was getting there, Koh Lipe was absolutely beautiful and a great place to get away from it all. Even at the height of the busy season, I can’t imagine that it is very crowded. Our resort was sold out and the only time you could tell was at dinner when the restaurant would be crowded. We loved it there and could have easily spent another week relaxing on the island and absorbing that view. I really wish we had the time or made the effort to go out snorkeling on the reef. We heard it was amazing. I guess that gives us an excuse to go back. I just hope that Lipe stays like it is and doesn’t get overdeveloped like many of the other Thai islands. I think the distance and trouble getting there may help keep it tranquil for now, but that speedboat could spell trouble.
Next Up: Krabi (& getting there)
Jun 5th, 2006, 09:19 AM
#15
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Hey Bob, we did have a great time. The jungle path could be totally avoided, as it was for us after the first time we walked it. It's just a matter of learning your way around or asking the right people before heading out, which we failed to do.
The room at Mountain Resort did have air con, thank goodness. It would have been pretty brutal without it. About maybe a third of their bungalowas have it, so you need to ask for it and will pay a little extra. The three "VIP" rooms are a little bigger and have the best ocean views. We were in one of those. The only downside to those rooms is the twin beds. There were two other bungalow operations on the island that had some air con rooms too. I'm pretty sure nobody had hot water, but you didn't need it anyway. The "cold" water wasn't really cold and was quite refreshing given how hot it was. My only other real complaint is that they don't have real flush toilets either. They are western looking, but you still have to use the bucket of water or butt sprayer thing to flush it down, ick! Oh, and in classic Thai style, the shower is one of those that soaks the entire bathroom. No big deal there.
Even though the accomodations were a bit rustic, the beds were still comfortable and our little cabin kind of grew on us. I would have been content there for at least another week.
The room at Mountain Resort did have air con, thank goodness. It would have been pretty brutal without it. About maybe a third of their bungalowas have it, so you need to ask for it and will pay a little extra. The three "VIP" rooms are a little bigger and have the best ocean views. We were in one of those. The only downside to those rooms is the twin beds. There were two other bungalow operations on the island that had some air con rooms too. I'm pretty sure nobody had hot water, but you didn't need it anyway. The "cold" water wasn't really cold and was quite refreshing given how hot it was. My only other real complaint is that they don't have real flush toilets either. They are western looking, but you still have to use the bucket of water or butt sprayer thing to flush it down, ick! Oh, and in classic Thai style, the shower is one of those that soaks the entire bathroom. No big deal there.
Even though the accomodations were a bit rustic, the beds were still comfortable and our little cabin kind of grew on us. I would have been content there for at least another week.
Jun 5th, 2006, 01:10 PM
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I understand, it was nice to get to some more luxurious places after leaving Lipe, although I must say the rustic bungalows just add to the environment there. It's sort of like upstyle camping and very, very, beautiful. The island just wouldn't be the same with lots of hotel type resorts. It is very beautiful and worth the effort for anyone who doesn't mind being without luxuries for a few days. I must say that the view from Mountain Resort rivaled my memories of Tahiti and Moorea! It's definitely in the top five places I've ever been as far as scenic beauty is concerned.
Jun 5th, 2006, 04:20 PM
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LA
I'm sooo loving your informative report. Koh Lipe sounds absolutely wonderful (but I think I'm with Bob here, give me something a little more inhabited and with creature comforts minus the bugs and such)...
It's always possible to locate a bar and some cold beer! Now, that's civilized. Just one of the reasons Thailand is such a great travel destination.
Just curious... do you think Koh Lipe was affected by the tsunami? If I recall correctly, you said it was on the Andaman.
Do keep this report coming!
Carol
I'm sooo loving your informative report. Koh Lipe sounds absolutely wonderful (but I think I'm with Bob here, give me something a little more inhabited and with creature comforts minus the bugs and such)...
It's always possible to locate a bar and some cold beer! Now, that's civilized. Just one of the reasons Thailand is such a great travel destination.
Just curious... do you think Koh Lipe was affected by the tsunami? If I recall correctly, you said it was on the Andaman.
Do keep this report coming!
Carol
