Year End Trip - Koh Lipe

After the tranquility of Koh Muk (not exactly super tranquil but it's alot smaller and less developed), I made my way down south to Koh Lipe! It wasn't meant to be but then again when you're in Thailand, it happens all the time that when they say 8, it's actually 830. So it happened that my ferry across Koh Muk to Mainland was delayed, which led to a delay in my transport back to Trang town which obviously caused a domino effect down to my ferry to Koh Lipe. Was supposed to depart 1130am and reach Lipe in time for lunch, ended up had to wait for the 330pm ferry to Lipe.

Anyway, made it through to Lipe (600B for van + ferry combo to Lipe from Trang), took about 3hours of travelling and went walking in search of a place to stay.

After walking from one end of the walking street to the other end, finally found a place to stay for only 2 nights for 600B each night. Still going to be stranded on NYE but then again, turned out I was not (more on that later).

Anyway, a very rude resort tout was kinda reprimanding me for saying his resort price was too expensive (900B he quoted). I quote 'You no find cheap stay here in Lipe. NO FIND!' And sounded rather angry. WTF! I found a 600B place! Still places are at least 600B on the island during this peak period.. So lucky me!

Spent the rest of the evening walking around trying to find a place to stay but couldnt manage to find something at least affordable. Anyhow, I managed to 'strike' a deal with Forra dive to sleep in their dive shop on NYE. Hey, who's going to sleep on NYE anyway...
Next day, begins the snorkelling adventure! The plan - Start right of Sunrise beach, swim out to the small rock island, swim across to Koh Kra and back to the left of Sunrise beach.

This is where my 1st stop is..

It really is terrible on a lovely island...

Snorkelling is crap around Lipe. Corals dead, not many variety of fish.

At least I saw a crab!

This is my destination!

After what seemed like an eternity but in fact probably 30-40mins, finally Koh Kra is in sight.

Secluded beach!

2 small stretch of beaches there and nobody was around when I arrived!

Life sucks on an island, relaxing in total isolation... Spent quite some time just relaxing on the small island and doing nothing, before I swam back to shore!Went for a walk to sunset beach for the sunrise. The walk there is very quiet and lights are very dim at night. Sunset beach is the most quiet, and chill out place as compared to Pattaya or Sunrise. Who knows what will happen in a couple of years!

I left my footprint on sunset beach

Apparently sunset is not nice at sunset beach (Surprise!). So I walked further down to another small beach for the sunset. A couple was taking some romantic shots there. GF holding a sarong, letting the wind blow while BF was happily clicking away. I almost wanted to run to help her lift the sarong as it wasn't exactly flying with the wind.

The next day was a day of diving! Met 3 Singaporeans who offered to house me in their bungalow! Yea I have a place to sleep now!

Diving was shit. 8-Mile Rock (called so as it's 8 nautical miles away from Koh Lipe) was supposed to be the highlight of dive sites in Lipe but it was shit! Visibility sucked, nothing was spotted, only a few lion fish. Most amazing thing was a huge school of trevalis and nothing else! So no photos here!

That's Anne, Me and Desiree's shadows!

After the dive, the highlight was the party to be happening in a few hours! We headed to pattaya beach where the party was and the place was packed at 8pm! Fireworks started at 8pm too! And tons of lanterns were lit into the sky!

After our dinner of BBQ fish, we went in search of a spot to sit and wait... At the strike of 12, fireworks started to go wild!!!!!

Love, Sex, Money - 3 most important things in life! Me, Desiree and Brad (our DM) at the party

A few Changs and buckets of Sang-Son (mixed with Thai red bull) down the tummy and everyone was pretty high!!!

Party ended like the next morning, where we returned to Sunrise beach in hopes of watching the sunrise but weather was crap (raining and cloudy and windy) so there was no sun! But perfect day to just sleep in and recover from the party!

1st jan went by pretty uneventful as the day started for me from late afternoon/evening. Even had to abort my plan to camp on Adang on 1st but was glad that I did!

On a side note, food on Lipe is not cheap cheap. As compared to Chiangmai or BKK, it is rather on the expensive side. Phad thai is about 80B along the walking street and food gets more expensive as you walk from Sunrise to Pattaya. You could get 60B noodles at the local food stalls nearer to Sunrise beach. Other than noodles, all other food are at least 100B onwards. I liked the food at Nee restaurant, at the end of walking street towards the right side if you're coming from Pattaya street. Cheap and good tasting. But of cos, at least you get more choices than at the national parks (i.e. Adang and Tarutao) where I'll be stationed for the rest of my trip...