Thursday, January 28, 2010

Travel: Koh Lipe, Thailand


I'm currently in between jobs and have taken about a week or so off before I start my new job on the 1st of Feb. So with some time to spare hubs and I decided to take a short trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand for our belated honeymoon. It's a beautiful island and I felt that it would not bring justice if I didn't brag a little about my trip :) 

We started from Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi by flight and then moved on to Telaga Harbour in Langkawi to take a speed boat to Koh Lipe. The website stated that the boat ride is estimated to be about 70 minutes but it actually took about 45 mins to an hour only to reach our destination. 


Koh Lipe is a very small island with three main beaches. It takes only about 15 to 20 mins to walk across from one end of the island to the other, that's how small it is. We arrived at Pattaya beach which is the main beach on the island. There is no jetty for the speed boat so you'll get a little wet trying to get to shore. The immigration is just a small hut by the beach side which also acts as the main office for the company providing the speed boat service.  


Once we had our passports sorted, we decided to take the taxi boat or long tail boat to our resort. You can opt to walk or take a motorbike as well but we kinda liked the taxi boat and decided to travel on water to our resort.

Hubs and I stayed at a fairly new and a very, very beautiful resort called Idyllic Concept Resort located on Sunrise Beach. Our room though indirectly facing the ocean still had an awesome view.
On the first day we arrived, we decided to chill by the beach. At night we walked out for dinner on the village stretch and had the best Tom Yum Goong ever at this restaurant called Konlae. The village road leads to Pattaya Beach which is the commercialized section of the island. There is a lot of food and small shops on the village road but if you're a shopping addict, Lipe Island is not for you. Though you should check out this shop on the Village stretch called Rainforest, it's my favourite shop on the island. 

 

We also enjoyed eating at a Thai Pancake Shop which had a delicious variety of deserts. It's one of the more popular spots to eat and hang out on the island. There is a variety of restaurants in Lipe with seafood buffets ranging from 100 baht and above but unfortunately we were not able to try out every restaurant seeing that we were there for only a short time. 

I absolutely love, love, love beach holidays but can you believe that I can't swim and I am terrified of the water? I normally waddle by the beach and never go deeper than below my shoulder line. Koh Lipe was different though, the water was so clear and beautiful that I managed to do a quick snorkelling exercise with hubs and we also went kayaking at the surrounding islands fronting our beach. It was just so beautiful. 

You should also check out the sunset. We were asked to go to Sunset Beach to catch the sunset but decided to take the long boat around the island instead. It's only about 300 baht to go around the island and trust me it's worth it. 

Hubs and I absolutely love Koh Lipe and we love the people there. The locals are really friendly and some of them can speak Malaysian (well with a strong Kedahan type accent). It's a popular spot for Europeans and hubs and I would play 'Guess which country they're from?' based on the language they spoke... :P

We enjoyed every second of the day at Koh Lipe and though we were there for four days and three nights, it just was not enough. Hopefully, we'll get to visit Koh Lipe again at the end of the year.

8 comments:

Jacques said...

Sound like you had a blast !
Looking very datin on the last pic ;)

Tales of Whimsy said...

Fantastic pictures :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Juju! :)

Martial said...

Hi. It's a long time without comment. For sure, in Thailand you may find a lot of paradise place. Mainly with paradise islands and beautiful beaches. I will try to find in your advice a good novel in english, maybe an historical one. I give you the link of something new and green here in Malaysia : http://www.lifestylegreensolutions.com. Cheers. Martial

Ms Wang said...

Hi Mdm. I will going to visit Koh Lipe in coming February 2011. I am confuse and would like to ask information from Mdm cause I have google for sometime and couldn't get through it. Just until I saw ur blog and found that Koh Lipe has no jetty. Does this meant that the speed boat will directly arrive at the Pattaya Beach? If we are staying along the Pattaya Beach is it v can directly walk on to the shore and get to our resort?
Hope Mdm can share ur info with me.
Appreciated!
Thanks alot and ur blog is very very nice and helpful!
Cheers,
Ms Wang

Unknown said...

Hi Ms Wang, yup there's no jetty on Koh Lipe. You will land at Pattaya beach so you can walk to your hotel. If you're staying at the other side of the island then you don't have to worry they have lots of long boats available for hire. Enjoy your trip there!

BackpackerThailand said...

Thank you for sharing those beautiful pictures.

Maybe a good suggestion. This year I’ve been to the island of Koh Lipe in Thailand. This island is located 70km off the Andaman (west) coast of Thailand's most southwestern province, Satun Province and shines out among some of Thailand's most beautiful, and unforgettable environments.

I had a great time on Lipe and there was a lot to do like snorkeling, shopping and eating in good quality restaurants and bars. I found my resort on Koh Lipe on http://www.welovekohlipe.com, where you can also check out more information about Koh Lipe and the surrounding areas. I can really recommend Koh Lipe for a nice relaxing holiday in paradise!

Lipe said...

I promise with myself to go back to Tarutao Natinal Marin Park again as soon as possible. There are so many more attractions where is didn’t visit yet. We also plan to visit the view point and visit all beaches on Lipe Island. We also want to vist Langkawi (Malaysia) next time for some shopping. We love Lipe and we will definitely go back there again next year.

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