2 blogs in one day.......we are on fire!!!!!

So as we said at the end of the last blog, next on the agenda was Koh Lipe, a tiny island just on the edge of the Malaysian border and the last of the populated west thai islands. In order to get to Lipe we of course had to get a boat, now as you may know by now from previous blogs the transport in thailand is not the best organised or reliable, none the less we were looking forward to a relatively short journey of only 4 hours. So the first stage was a 45 minute speed boat ride to a small port which housed a very small village with only one tiny shop and a solo resturant. We were told we would have to wait for around an hour for our ferry which would take us the rest of the way to Lipe. So we ordered some rice to take with us for later on in the evening and sure enough just over an hour later we boarded the ferry. We had only been on the water for ten minutes when we saw alot of black smoke coming from one of the boat's engines and then we heard the silence! Yep the engine had gone bye bye!!!!!! so we bobed around on the sea for around half an hour until they got the boat back to the port (all of this happened just after we had commented on the massive rain clouds that had appeared behind us as we left the port!!!!!) So anyway we arrived back at the rainy port and were told that we would have to wait for another hour "maybe" (this was whispered!) whilst they tried to fix the problem. After two hours had passed everyone was starting to feel a little anxious, another hour passed and still no working boat!!! Luckily we met two lovely couples, one from Essex and the other from Oz so we had a few beers and got to know each other. After yet another half an hour people were starting to get anxious and many very angry as they had been waiting around too long, once we were told that the boat was unfixable and that we would have to sleep on the restuarant floor all hell seemed to break loose!!! We didnt really mind too much as it could have been fun but many people were tourists who had paid alot of money for hotels which come with Thailands brilliant "no refunds policy!"

This was when the pushing of reece started as we were in need of a hero!!! After much persuasion he decided to try and lend a hand to see if anything could in fact be done. Although the crew spoke not a word of English, he managed to make his way into the engine room. Although they said that they had it under control reece said that there was not a part of the room that was not completely covered in oil, including the crew!!!!!! Turns out that despite the mess, they really did have it under control and had managed to get a spare part (god knows where from though!).

So after many cheers we re-boarded the boat just as the sun was setting and finally made our way towards the island. This however was not the last of the bad luck the boat brought.....just as we left the port a group of americans realised that they had left two of there friends behind!There bags and money were all on the boat with us, the skipper refused to go back after all the delays and one of the lost peoples girlfriend was on board!!!! (sounds like a good idea haha) So all the way there was the drama of that. Of course we did find it a little funny but also felt really sorry for the guys as there really was nothing at the port and certainly nowhere to sleep! The thing was the couple we met from essex, who were lovely found it really funny and we all told them that karma would catch up with them for being so mean!!!

So after three hours travelling on sea in the pitch black (this was great fun however due to the fact that we stocked up on beer before we left port), we finally arrived at Lipe and after a short longtail ride we arrived on the beach both us and the Ozzie couple having nowhere booked to stay.

Even at night we could see that this was yet another beautiful island! So after finding ourselves the cheapest beach hut we went for a walk long the sand to find some grub. This was when we met up again with the Ozzie couple who proceeded to tell us that the other couple had gone to there booked 5 star luxury hotel (which they playfully bragged about during the whole boat trip) had turned up and there hotel hadnt even been built!!!!! Of course we all found this hilarious as this was the warned about karma coming to bite them in the bums!!!!!

So after a long day an early night was in need! It actually turned out tho that we happened to book the worst room on the island!! There were bugs huge moths and mozzies everywhere (thats where the mozzy net comes in) The shower water was also usefully obtained from the toilet water supply! After we survived the evening without a shower we went to explore the next place where we would be resting our heads, this turned out to be a tent on the beach!! This was really cool and we had such a good nites sleep! Also a added bonus was the shower facilities not bein connected to the toilet. Although the shower consisted of a hosepipe in a shed we had great fun with a massive water fight between us! although we did feel slightly bad as the soaked room was actually the owners family bathroom they had kindly shared with us! The hole in the ground toilet was not so much fun tho especially seein that kays digestive system is about as predictable as the english weather! (which i think is always quite bad!) We had gotten used to squat toilets as these are the norm in thailand but this was something else!

Anyway moving on swiftly........upon exploring the island it quickly became our second best place. as usual the sand and the water were gorgeous but the thing we liked the most was how remote it is. we could walk from one side of the island to the other in 10 minutes, there was no internet, phones or ATMs and the eletricity was only turned on after 6pm. The locals seemed oblivious to the rest of the world and were simply interested in chillin all day long! funniest sight had to be seeing many of the skippers jumping around their boats in their tiny skats first thing in the morning like something out of the village people really without a care in the world!

During the day we simply wondered around the island and snorkelled in the sea, yet again more fantastic fish (other than one physco white fish that seemed to follow us everywhere we went and trying to attack us even tho he was the size of a large goldfish!)

Due to the remotlessness of the island the main thing on the menu at night was the locally caught fish, cooked on bbqs on the beach front, arrgh so romantic, just you and a man with a bbq under the stars with the water at your feet!!! hehe. On the second night we decided to give it a go. Now not being huge fish eaters we simply chose the largest fish and told the man at the bbq to cook it however he liked. The fish turned out to be white snapper and was also the nicest meal we reckon we have ever had! It was bloody gorgeous! He doused it in garlic and fresh lime juice and rapped it in a banana leaf. It was so moist and fresh......soooooo good, we were literally so hungry for more even though the man said the fish was too big for us as it was large enough for four people!!!!opps!!! As it only cost around 1.20 we went back for more and more each night!!!!

In the evening there was not to much to do as everything has shut by 10pm, apart from two great relaxed bars where you can just lay out on huge cushions and either watch men playing digereedoos (?) (which reece had a go at to no avail) or watch fire shows, whilst having a few socials! This filled or evenings most nights with the two couples we met for company.

On this very very small island there are more dogs than you would see in woodside and they were all very protective of the bar they chose to lay infront of. One particular dog that approached us one day was a huge rotwieller who looked really scary and had eyes only for the ball we were playing with. This empthasized by the fact it had all the other dogs barking at it and running up to it for being in their territory and the huge dog did not take any notice of them!!!! we certainly did tho! we were actually really frightened of this huge thing jumping around trying to get our ball from our hands. This was until the crazy portuguese guy who had been playing footy with reece (yes more footy) jumped on top of it and started wrestling it to the ground!!!! As it turns out the dog was soft as hell just wanted to play, not that we would have wanted to test him to find out!!!! So we ended up playing with the dog for hours and i think it is the first time either of us have ever called a rotweiller cute!!!!!!

So after 4 days in lovely lipe or time in Thialand was over :( we were really sad to leave as we really did love every single day we spent there. It is a brilliant place and no one could fail to fall in love with it....we will 100 percent go back sometime.

So onwards and downwards to Malaysia and Langkawi.

x x x x x x