Date: November 2015
Type: Family vacation, luxury
Duration: 4D3N

Maldives of Thailand

Percutian ke Koh Lipe, Thailand.
I have always seen this place being featured in the social media and dubbed as The Maldives of Thailand. The location itself is very intriguing. Koh Lipe is situated off coast Thailand and very near to Langkawi.

There are 2 methods you can use to visit this island.
Method 1: Took a flight to Langkawi and board a fast ferry to Koh Lipe
Method 2: Took a flight to Hat Yai, travel by road to Pak Bara and board a speedboat to Koh Lipe

Since I am going with my family, we opt for Method 1. Personally, I think method 1 is the most reliable and safest. We took an Air Asia flight to Langkawi. We planned to stay 2 nights in Langkawi and 1 night in Koh Lipe.

For Langkawi, we stayed in the new Adya Hotel in Kuah and for Koh Lipe, we stayed at Bundhaya Resort located on Pattaya Beach. When we reached Langkawi, we checke in to the Hotel and went for dinner. We then went to the Cenang, so that I can buy a cotton beach pants to wear for Koh Lipe trip. We left our luggage at the hotel and only bring a small gym bag to Koh Lipe.

The ferry from Koh Lipe cost us RM 220 for return journey from Telaga terminal. The tickets can be bought online. The ferry depart at 8.30 am and we reached there by 8 am. First, we fill forms and then check in at the ferry operator counter where they collect your passport. We then walked to the Immigration office next door, wait for our names to be called and go though immigration processing.

We board the ferry and go for our destination which took 1 hours and 30 minutes. Since we picked the seats at the bottom, we get a bit seasick. Transfering from the boat via a small boat, we then play the waiting game at the Immigration office near the beach. Wait for our names to be called again to get our passport back. the total time spent at the immigration is 2 hours. We were transferred to our hotel by a truck.

The ferry to Koh Lipe

The most pristine water

jakun tak pernah naik belakang truck. jalan di Koh Lipe ni kecik belaka. So, memang thrill la masing2.

Nervous la tu.

Koh Lipe consist of several beaches. We choose to stay at Pattaya beach because they have proper resort, near to the ferry station and close to Walking Street which hosts the infinite restaurants and shops.

Sayangnya, terlalu banyak sangat anjing kat Koh Lipe ni. Masuk restoran, hotel lobby. Nak makan pun geli sebenarnya. Nak mandi pantai apatah lagi geli.

We had our lunch at Bung Roon Restaurant on Pattaya Beach which serves halal food. We ate seafood fried rice which is really good.We checked in, before heading to our snorkeling adventure. We paid around RM50 for a snorkeling trip using long tail. Our boat man does not speak Malay nor English which makes it even harder. We dropped to our 1st site where they were plenty of corals and fishes around. It was pretty.

Bung Roon Restaurant

We went to the second snorkeling site called Jabang. When I descend, I notice the current was very strong. My boat man did not tell us anything. I looked over that people use the mooring line to move themselves, so me and my cousin followed them. It was pitched black underwater, until we reached the end of the line.

Jabang Pinnacle

Then I saw this colourful reef pinnacle. So beautiful, rising from the sea bed. It was ashame that we were there on the evening and the current was strong. If we were there in the morning, the sunlight will bring out the beauty of this pinnacle. Me and my cousin had a hard time swimming back to the boat. The current was too strong that we don't even move an inch. Our parents were frantic because they felt that this is not a legitimate boat man and it started to rain. We decided to go back to Koh Lipe.

We decide to try Roti Mina restaurant - a halal place that offered delicious crepes! I ate the nutella crepe and mango sticky rice. One of the transportation available is a taxi - a three wheel motorbike. I took the motorbike to go to Adang Diver diveshop to sort out my diving arrangements. I was scared because the road at Koh Lipe is narrow and steep.

Nutella Banana Crepe

My favourite Mango Sticky rice

Our Deluxe Chalet at Bundhaya Resort

We then had a walk down the beach for sunset. they say if you want to see sunset, go to Sunset Beach but I can tell you the sunset at Pattaya Beach is heavenly as well. We even got to see some rainbow. The walking Street is full of restaurants and souvenir shop and even massage parlours. Just look out for the tuk-tuk or taxi trying to navigate through the street while you're walking.

Beautiful sunset in Koh Lipe

The trademark of Lipe

Our resort

Walking Street with a taxi stand

We had dinner at Bung Roon eating Thai food accompanied by an amazing live band. We then went to Roti Mina so we can have those delicious crepe again. And I even tapao a mango sticky rice. We spent the night in a drizzle. We bought some magnets and tshirts as souvenirs before heading back to the hotel.