Relaxing on the Beaches in Koh Lipe, Thailand

I hope you’re up for some beach and sunset pictures because that’s mostly what you’re going to be seeing this time. After Laos, we spent about a week in the Andaman Sea on the island of Lipe (“Koh” means island in Thai). It is about as far south as you can get and not be in Malaysia, some of the islands in Malaysia were closer to us than mainland Thailand. Since we didn’t do a ton of sightseeing this will be more of an overview of what the island has to offer.

We had originally planned to become scuba certified this week which is why we picked Koh Lipe but I think we just needed time to just “be” instead of being a traveler or tourist. More and more, and especially in Laos, we had been seeing these singles or couples with backpacks just looking worn down, wondering if that will be us after awhile. We were also looking at the next few weeks of being in Japan and all the places we wanted to go, it was going to be a very busy 3 weeks and we hadn’t actually planned it all out, yet. So, we spent our time planning Japan, reading books, and taking walks to the various beaches on the island. And of course, eating tasty food.

Getting to Koh Lipe

We set up the flights for both Laos and Koh Lipe to be round trip from Don Mueang (DMK) airport in Bangkok. We stayed at the same hotel before Laos since it was so convenient to be able to walk to and from the airport and not worry about any taxis or trains. We came in later at night than expected due to a few hours’ delay and left early the next morning again for Hat Yai, the southern most international airport in Thailand. From there I had booked a transport to get us to the island, which started with a van with about 8 others for 2 hours to the coast and the town of Satun. They dropped us off at a travel office by the port where we got our tickets and instructions for the boat.

We had about an hour before our boat left, a speedboat that could carry about 60 people and their luggage, it was quite cozy. On the way out it was really calm but on the way back was much windier and the driver had to slow down more than once for bigger waves and sometimes we hit them pretty hard. The company we had used met us at the specific dock to get us back to the travel office and get into a van to the airport, this time with only 4 others.

On the island they had floating docks to account for the tide and the morning we left there were 3-4 other boats that seemed to be leaving all within about 30 minutes of our departure. Some were other companies back to the mainland, but some were ferries to other islands, including Malaysian, so they had passport control. Make sure you know the name of the boat you plan to go on so you don’t wait in the wrong line, saw several people get confused at this.

It was interesting though, we seemed to work through 3 different companies. I purchased the transfer through the Thailand Ferry Booking website. I was able to schedule round trip transfers, and was able to choose from several companies at a variety of times and prices and I could have picked two different companies if I wanted. I ended up going with Jolly Travel since they had good times and prices, it ended up being about $90 USD for both of us round trip, including van and boat. The boat itself was Baramee which seemed to be its own company. About half of our van seemed to be on other boats, while other people that we recognized waiting at the airport in other vans used a different travel company but were on the same boat.

Trifecta of Beaches

There are 3 main beaches on Koh Lipe. Sunset Beach, Sunrise Beach, and Pattaya Beach, not to be confused with the Pattaya Beach that is just south of Thailand.

Pattaya beach stretches on the southern coast and is both where our resort happened to be and where the ferries dock. You can see the sunset from here but there will be many others out and about. While we were trying to get a good picture, the man just to the right of the suns reflection by waters edge kept walking in front of the reflection. He walked back and forth, always staying close enough or directly in front of the reflection. I was getting a little annoyed, but until the couple in front of us was trying to get the same picture and the woman was getting very frustrated to the point I found it a bit funny, and so did the man with her. It was almost as if the guy knew he was in the way of others getting pictures.

Along this beach there are so many long tail boats, many are likely for tours you can book for snorkel or fishing, or for visiting some of the other closer islands for the day.

This beach is the busiest, but they do have several restaurants that put out tables in the evening and one even has a fire show. We got to see a little as we were walking back from dinner one night.

Sunrise Beach is on the East side, but stretches to the northern point of the island where you could also see the sunset. From Pattaya along the walking street it only takes about 15 minutes to walk to near the southern end of Sunrise beach. The sand is much less packed down and harder to walk on, even at low tide.

We walked here nearly every day we were here for drinks, snacks, or just to walk along the beach. One night we stopped at a bar near sunset by the northern point. Places that would have let you see the sunset were private and only allowed those staying at the resort to come to their bar, so we went to another that had cushions on the sand and had a few cocktails.

Sunset beach is the smallest but harder to get to from the main walking street and most resorts so it is the least crowded. It took a good 45 minutes to walk there from the walking street and is a little confusing at the end since you walk through a resort and down their stairs to get down to the water level, right through the bar, Happy Mojito.

There was quite a bit of seaweed in spots and rocks in others. We walked to the northern end and it was pretty nice to go in for a swim, but we were quite careful not to let ourselves get burned too bad. We saw plenty of red skin in the evenings and didn’t want that to be us.

The day we were there we spent the later afternoon sitting at Happy Mojito, a bar overlooking the water enjoying some 2 for 1 mojitos and sharing a dessert. It would be a great place to be at sunset, especially if you were staying on that side of the island.

Some Munchies

I made it third this time so you wouldn’t think me obsessed with food. We were definitely seeking comfort food and had our fair share of curries, green, Masaman and Panang, one of which at a vegetarian restaurant on the Sunrise beach called Benny’s. Pad Thai and cashew stir fry were had on the regular as well.

Two new favorites, neither of which I remembered to take a picture, were fried bananas and Roti. The banana fritters are probably familiar to you, but maybe it was because the bananas were more fresh but they were so delicious. We even found them more often than mango sticky rice, although we did have this once at the Sunset Beach with our mojitos.

Roti, known here as Thai pancakes, are a fried dough cooked on a hot griddle and sometimes are filled with chocolate or fruit. We tried to get them once but we hit the wrong timing on the walking street. However, we had access to the plain roti you could drizzle some fruit flavored sweetened condensed milk over as part of our buffet breakfast at our hotel, which is why we didn’t think to get a picture.

One of our favorite restaurants was right on Pattaya beach we went to twice, and really had delicious curry and stir fry, plus some refreshing beer!

Around the Island

Other than the beaches, the main attraction on the island is to visit the walking street. Restaurants and shops line the streets, including a few clinics, 7-elevens, and pharmacies. In the afternoon and evening, there are many carts setup to sell street food and the street becomes extremely crowded.

Once or twice I saw a tourist carrying a large fish down the walking street, I can only assume to get cooked at a restaurant after a successful fishing trip. If you didn’t go fishing yourself, in the afternoon several restaurants put out trays of ice with various seafood likely caught earlier that day you can pick out for them to cook for you.

There are also many diving and travel shops to plan a boat trip for fishing, snorkeling, or diving, including scuba certification.

The walking street is pretty narrow and its surprising just how many motorbikes and tuktuks come down. It is barely wide enough for 2 tuktuks to pass. Mostly we saw the tuktuks taking people from the pier to their hotel across the island since it was full of luggage.

When eating at a restaurant on the sunrise Beach we saw a yoga class start up at the hut nearby. Just about the only thing I couldn’t find was a cooking class to sign up for, which was probably what I was most looking forward to on this trip. I’ll have to add that to my list for the next trip to Thailand.

As we walked to sunset beach we had to walk along a road through a bit of trees and besides several dogs, we also found an art and craft studio, as well as a temple hidden in the woods.

Return to Japan

We had a nice relaxing and productive week while staying on Koh Lipe. We do want to go back as there are some interesting islands to visit around there but I would definitely take care to find a better hotel, we stayed at Verin Beach Resort and it wasn’t our favorite, way too big and busy with people for the few amenities. After making it back to Bangkok, we stayed in a hotel somewhat closer to Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) and were able to share one last dinner with Mr. Wander’s aunt and uncle before flying out the following day.

Sawasdee Kha!