Dave in Thailand Koh Lipe Day 2 - Around the Island |
- the map again, just for orientation of our trip .... the projected route is down along Sunlight Beach, then across the path to Pattaya Beach, then back to Sundown Beach and back to Mountain Resort. Something like that, depending on what we encouter along the way - I always like to have a plan, but try to keep it flexible to allow for things happening, as things usually do. You never know just from looking at a map like this what you are going to actually encounter, so you need to keep things loose - we had a few small surprises along the way - |
Well, you can see from the map that there is a path of some sort running right back through the Mountain Resort to connect with other parts of the island - and this is it, from a couple hundred yards on, looking back towards the resort - actually, this is at the first intersection, where we are about to turn east to head for the village and Sunlight Beach - |
- and the two of us on the same path - |
- and here is a pic of some kids we met on the path, very happy and carefree - |
- and another couple of hundred yards on we enter the village - not really anything much to see, just your basic rural or fishing village as you see everywhere in Thailand when you get away from the tourist places, houses, many on small stilts, mostly wood and thatch and cement - 'chaolay' just means something like 'sea gypsy', which most of the fishermen around the Andaman are called, although they are not really 'gypsies' in the sense of having no permanent home, it seems - |
- and a bit on through the village we emerge on the seaside at a place called Forra Diving (on the left), which is a dive shop with bungalows - there are quite a few dive shops on the island, as there are all around the southern Thai islands. The large island in the background is Adang, and just walking along the beach in that direction will get us back to Mountain Resort in maybe 20 minutes or so, not pushing it ... |
- one of the Forra bungalows just a few yards from the beach - about 900 baht, I think ($30 Cdn) - we thought about changing, as one like this was available, but the Mountain one was ok, and we didn't want to take the time to make the move. Only a few bungalows were 'beachfront' like this, most were in a couple of rows stretching back from the beach, with only a few right on the beach like this one - just a matter of space, you can only get so many bungalows in a few tens of yards of beachfront, which is all most of the bungalow operations have - but they are all still pretty good. |
- and here is the end of the Sunlight Beach, just behind this small beach is a place called Viewpoint Bungalows, some bungalows built into the side of the small rocky mountain here, quite secluded and quiet, another place we considered moving to - |
- and this little island is right out in front of Viewpoint beach a few hundred yards - and the dark stuff you can see under the water is coral (the clear, light green areas are sandy bottom), which we snorkelled a bit the next day up further towards Forra, some really good stuff - not many places have this kind of great coral with associated life etc right off the beach |
- and here we are taking a small rest in the shade after having a boo at the Viewpoint Bungalows - this was around noon, and it was REALLY hot and bright walking along the sand - there were very few other people around, actually, in this amazing place - only mad dogs and Englishmen, etc (and Dave, I could almost hear Ann thinking...) |
- and after negotiating the fairly short path from Sunlight Beach, we emerged on the best known Lipe beach, called Pattaya Beach, beside one of the more upscale bungalow operations, Varin Resort, and the Ocean Pro dive shop, where I stopped to chat with a nice young lady about snorkelling things - the first picture is looking north, if you go over that smallish mountain you will, if your mountain-climbing and pathfinding skills are good, wind up around Viewpoint Bungalows, but it's more normal and safer and easier to use the path - |
- and looking south - there are bungalows or restaurants or dive shops under the trees all along here, but as you can see it is not 'busy' - and of course, as noted above, it is very, very hot at this time of day, and only mad dogs etc .. also, all along this beach, a short walk or paddle out from shore, there is supposed to be very good coral, although I did not get a chance to check it out personally (one reason I plan to return soon) - |
- one of the bungalow operations along here, the Daya Resort - nice bungalows maybe 50 yards from the water; another place along here worth checking if you go was the Lipe Resort, which is one of the very few open all year long, as from June to October or so the water is often too rough for the ferry to get out or the longtails to take you snorkelling |
- there was a bit of activity along the beach under the trees, such as this batik artist - |
- but there was not really much going on beyond seeing what there was to see (of which Ann was really feeling the heat and had seen about enough) so, after a stop for some lunch and a rest at a little restaurant, we hit the trail again, leaving Pattaya Beach just before the Daya Resort, heading back through the jungle to eventually get to Mountain Resort - as you can see, this trail is quite quiet, compared to the previous one from Sunlight which had a sort of commercial strip along it (which I cleverly forgot to get any pics of), with various little open shops selling everything from Thai massages to a table of books to a mini-mini mart - but very few people - |
- and here we have taken a shortcut down to the Porn Bungalows, which has many bungalows all along under the trees here (and 'porn' does not have its normal English meaning here, it is a common Thai name) - the staff here were quite friendly, and even though there are many bungalows, there are only two rows, so they all have very close access to the beach here, and it is quite secluded compared to the other two main beaches - |
- and just around the rocky corner, or over the small rocky hill, from Porn Bungalows, is the Fisheries Bungalows (a government fisheries office is beside Porn, but these bungalows are not part of it) - secluded and nice view - |
- these Fisheries Bungalows don't really have much of a beach though, although the Porn beach is nearby - and just around the corner, and up some stairs (or up the hill before the corner) is Mountain Resort once again, she thinks longingly .... |
- another amazing sunset, before walking on down for some food .... |