Luke and I left KL this morning and flew to Langkawi, a one hour flight, and caught a taxi to Telaga Harbour where we had a speed boat booked to travel to Koh Lipe, a tiny Thailand island about 1.5hours from Langkawi. We had to leave our passports at the boat booking office so they could be put through Malaysia immigration and we were told we would get them back at the Immigration Hut(!) on Koh Lipe. I wasn't overly thrilled with that as I hate to let my passport out of my sight even for a moment but I was assured by the staff that this was the way it was done.
The speedboat ride was truly the most horrendous boat trip I have ever been on. I was grateful that we had taken motion sickness tablets in advance! The sea was so rough I spent more time airborne OUT of my seat than sitting on it. At first I thought I was going to die, then I got over that and thought I was simply going to be dumped in the sea and all I could think was 'I am going to lose the bags that contain my entire life, and most importantly my hard drive with all my photos!' When Koh Lipe finally appeared on the horizon I was able to relax slightly.
There is no pier at Koh Lipe so the boat stopped a little way out from the shore and from there was met by a long-tail boat that took us to shore, for another 50baht. The boat took us directly to our hotel, Idyllic Concept Resort (remember that name if ever you find yourself on Koh Lipe and DON'T BOOK IT). Of course when we got there it turned out no one knew where our passports where and they definitely weren't at Immigration. The resort manager made a phone call and told us our passports were back in Langkawi, someone had forgotten them, but that the speedboat would take us back to get them. There was no way in hell we were going to Langkawi and back again on that boat so we managed to arrange for someone to go and get them for us. Luke and I had booked the resort back in December and it was quite pricey but we figured it would be a lovely getaway for the week he was with me and it looked to be the nicest on the island. And don't get me wrong, it DID look lovely.
But unfortunately it has failed miserably to live up to the price tag, 'free' wifi that cost 100baht for 40 minutes, linen changed weekly, an included American breakfast that has two pieces of toast, 9 baked beans (yes,I counted), a slice of fried potato that is the size of a 50 cent piece and two 'soft boiled' eggs so soft the yolk and white oozed all over the plate as soon as I cracked them, I wonder if they had even seen the inside of a saucepan? So breakfast certainly requires supplementing, unless you want to lose ALOT of weight FAST. There are so many other things but the most important is that the air conditioning doesn't work and its over 35C each day. It probably sounds like a bit of a whinge but we really had expected better facilities and service for the cost. We complained about the air con and were repeatedly told it was being fixed but it never happened. In the end the manager said she would upgrade us to the swanky suite instead so this morning we packed all our stuff up and went to get the key, only to be told they now had a booking for the suite so they were putting us in a different room instead. We went to that room, not only was it a massive downgrade but the air con didn't work there either! In the end we just went back to the room we started in and decided that we would just have to stop our whinging and make the most of it. And spend the day in the sea cooling off.
The ocean is absolutely stunning here, sparkling turquoise waters and not a hint of pollution in sight. In our few days here I think I have seen about 20 tourists in total so its very relaxed and chilled out. Koh Lipe is only about 2km around so its easy to get everywhere and the only way to get to the (only) street is to walk up the beach, a bit tricky at high tide.Koh Lipe is part of Tarutao the Tarutao National Marine Park which consists of a group of 51 islands in the Southern part of the Andaman Sea, near the Thai - Malay border. 2 clusters of islands lay in between 20 and 70 kilometres from the mainland.
The History of the Tarutao Marine Park goes back to 1939 when a prison was constructed on Tarutao Island. During the Second World War, due to lack of supplies, both prisoners and guards became a much feared group of pirates. After the war the British Naval Troops restored order and the Corrections Department closed down the prison. Villagers from nearby provinces settled on Tarutao Island to cultivate rice, fruit and rubber. In 1972 the National Park was declared, and most settlers were relocated. Sea gypsies where the original inhabitants of the waters in the Andaman Sea, moving from beach to beach depending on season and the availability of food. Today most Sea Gypsies have permanently settled down, and a small Group lives here on Koh Lipe.
All in all I am getting a great deal of relaxing in, which is something I haven't done in quite some time and just enjoying being able to hang out with Luke again.
