So here I was again staring at sand, beach and sea - Ko Lipe, Thailand. It is the southern most island in the Andaman Sea. I took a 5 day breather (not long enough) from Kuala Lumpur to come here for mental R&R from the madness around the parents. Compared to Central America it was pricier to get here from KUL than it was to get from Managua to the Corn Islands - air and sea. I was in the Corn Islands at the wrong season - during its peak wet and stormy period, December - otherwise it would have been as nice as Lipe. Between Nov to April each year the Telaga Harbour in Langkawi runs a fastboat (1 hour) to Ko Lipe twice a day 0930 and 1430. This fast boat is a speedy comfortable boat not like the wooden panga I took between Big and Little Corn islands in the Nicaraguan Caribbean. The flight from KL to Langkawi took just under an hour. I arrived around 11am which left me quite a bit of time to get to the harbour from the airport. I hadn't been to Langkawi in many years not since I was a teenager and visited here when I was in Malaysia when my father was working on the island at the power plant. Those days, there was no fancy harbour for yachts to dock at, but a single road around the island where one could see out to sea when there were no resorts and over development of tourism then. Those days when someone's cow died in the middle of the road, you waited with your car until the situation and cow were cleared up. Today it is fast taxis shuttling visitors between airport and Muah town and airport and harbour or to any of the resorts on the island. Anyway today's blog is about Ko Lipe. The boat ride wasn't exactly smooth sailing. Stupidly I had sat in the front, second row - where I felt every wave crash as the boat sped across the seas. About 20 minutes into the ride, a loud cry came- a tourist female had hurt her back and was in excruciating pain. The boat stopped in mid water for awhile while she got situated out back and the first 2 rows were told to move to the back- the least rough felt part of the boat- this I should have known after riding the panga but nevertheless was very glad to be able to move out back. In the end we got to Lipe about 30 minutes behind schedule. At Lipe, we got picked up by longtail boats to be brought ashore since the big boat couldn't go into shallow waters. Once on land, we proceeded to the immigration hut. Annoyingly we were told that immigration would hold onto our passports overnight since the immigration officer wasn't in. Annoyed, I caught a taxi boat to my lodgings on Sunrise Beach from Pattaya Beach where we landed. Overall I had a good rest time and picked up some sunburn from my second day. The waters are amazingly clear when you stand in it up to neck level you can see clearly all the way down to your feet and the sand ripples below. With this as an assumption, I did scuba diving thinking of the excellent visibility I would be getting. WRONG! The visibility was disappointing and was not more that 5 meters. The PADI instructor discount for a single dive was about US$20 more than what was offered to me on Small Corn. Anyway after not great diving equipment, an awful mask, and poor viz on one dive I decided to do just that one. Least I did my due diligence and checked out the scenery below the sea. One thing that struck me was the number of stray dogs wandering around- the same problem there was in San Juan del Sur when I was living in Nicaragua. Walking Street was walking street, nothing exciting - it's the main drag where eateries, grocers, salons, massage parlours, travel agencies, dive shops all congregate. I didn't meet too many backpackers on Lipe more so Euro families or visitors on their vacation. One other thing that struck me funny was that as pointed out by another blogger, you would find yourself one of the 9.5 foreigners on the fastboat. Lol, then I was the 0.5 local on the fast boat. HaHaHa.
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