Ko Lipe

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  Ko Lipe, Thailand
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Ko Lipe is a small island located just over the Thailand/Malaysia border.  Part of the Taratoa National Park, it is one of many islands that make up the archipelago.  Some of you may remember one of the Survivor seasons was filmed on Taratoa island.  Based on the "Survivor hype," you would think that venemous snakes and centipedes lurk around every corner and this is a dangerous jungle where you would only be a link on the food chain.  That was definitely a bunch of crap.   This would be the easiest place I've ever seen to camp out for a month.  Taratoa is the biggest island in the chain while Ko Lipe is much smaller and acts as an international desitination for many European travellers. 

Our goal here was to do as little as possible.  "Productive day" took on a new meaning in that in meant we snorkeled or walked across the island.  We settled into our bugalow (they are about eight U.S. dollars a night) and did as little as possible.  We did want to take advantage of the incredible reefs in the area so we chartered a long boat for the day to snorkle and do some fishing.  The local transport is long tail boats.  These are long wooden boats which are propelled and steered using the prop which extends about eight feet off the stern (hence the name).  They sound like Harley's and are a step down from a Volkswagon engine in sophistication. (We seem to be going backwards!)  We  hired our long tail boat from the Mit Family resort, a family-run local operation that seemed to be the group who enjoyed their work the most.  Setting out one morning, we visited three of the islands and their respective reefs.  Snorkeling here is phenominal and I imagine the scuba diving is even better.  This would be a great spot to vacation and get certified as a PADI cert.

a Beach Bar!

runs about $350 U.S.  Our guide went and caught half a dozen fish (black fin tuna) while we snorkeled, and then roasted them on a fire for our lunch.  I'm sure they do this for all the tourists, but it was still pretty cool.  Our leftovers from lunch were then presented to a very large monitor lizard lurking in the jungle.  Laura caught the world's smallest orange fish (Nemo- don't tell her I said that!) which was destined to be bait for our guide until he realized it couldn't swim straight (it really was Nemo) and threw it back.  

During the day, Ko Lipe is the classic white sand beach with the tri-colored bay.  The sand is just like flour.  At night, the beach takes on a completely different feel.  The beach bars put out candles and mats, and the local restaraunts move all their tables onto the sand.  Every night is a fish barbeque where you select your fish from the day's catch and it is grilled to order.  The Mit Family restaraunt was our favorite.  Staffed by the entire family seven days a week, they always presented at least five fish choices, usually with Tuna, Mackrel, Marlin, Baracuda and Jack fish.  Giant (really giant) prawns and fresh squid were available nightly as well. In addition to the fish bbq, there was the full range of Thai dishes to accompany whatever fish was selected.  Each day was the same, beers at the beach bar at sunset and fresh seafood for dinner. 

Our second to last day, we decided to explore the rest of the island.  Our beach was only one of three.  The other beaches were also very nice, the Sunset beach overlooked by the Porn Resort (I lauged, but it means "blessings" in Thai) looks like a post card with slightly darker sand and the jungle encroaching right up to the water, while Sunlight beach is larger, but not quite as pristine as it has the local village as a neighbor.  Sunlight beach is a tsunami hazard zone, which is a little unnerving, complete with evacuation route signs directing you to higher ground.   Our exploration of the island took us through the locals' villages and through the jungle. The locals live fairly well capitalizing on the tourist industry.  It was a little disturbing seeing how they deal with trash.  Being a developing island, Ko Lipe does not have sewage treatment faclities.  It encourages recycling and shipping recycleables to the mainland and many of the resorts practice this.  Unfortunately, many of the locals choose to burn their trash and plastic and use of non-biodegradable products is 100%.  I hope some efforts are made to change this as over a decade or so, the run off from these practices will kill their reef.  That would be very sad as the coastal areas are a paradise! .

b Beach Bar at Dusk

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c Pick Your Fish	d Long Tail boat	e Black Rock Beach	f Lunchtime Fish Grill
g Snorkeling off of Ko Lipe	h Boat Guide	i Speed Boat on Sunset Beach	j Low Tide at Ko Lipe
k Our Beach Bungalow	l Hanging Out on the Rocks

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