We woke up after 9am and laid in bed until 10am, when we finally decided that paradise was calling and our tummies were rumbling. Food, we need food. We got up, got dressed and all made our way down to Walking Street, at least the 15 minute walk was along the beach, so that in itself made for a delightful outing.

We wondered around for a while, looking for a pizza place and then stumbled upon an Italian joint (that was actually open and functioning) that had a special on: Margarita Pizza for 200Baht. Not the most exciting pizza in the world, but it had cheese on it, and western amounts of cheese, not 3 slivers of a grated corner. We ordered 2 pizza's and Cip ordered a Cafe Latte - Edd and I drank the water we'd brought with; 75 Baht for a cool drink was extortion (they're normally between 15 and 25 Baht each). We ate the delicious pizza and then made our way back to our bungalows; it was already quite late and we wanted to go for our first snorkel in the coral reefs.

Cip sat on his balcony and Edd and I grabbed our gear and walked up the rocks on the right hand side to find a good place to get in. A British guy had suggested we go this route as the route from the beach was quite shallow and potentially not a good idea. The rocks were slippery and Edd went first, helping me down from the high rocks to the low ones; at one point he was about to tell me not to stand on a flat rock as it was too slippery, it was too late though, I stepped on it and landed on my bum, hitting my head against a rock, with my snorkelling taking most of the impact. Cuts on my toes, a scraped and bruised upper right arm and sore bottom, but nothing serious.

Edd went ahead to map out a route into the water; I sat on the rocks, nursing my scratches and watching him try and figure out the best way to get in. He came back to fetch me and insisted I put my flippers on; his exact words were: 'whatever you do, don't put your feet down, there are sea urchins with spines as long as rulers!' Oh freaking fantastic. He didn't have flippers and we hadn't found any swimming shoes that fitted him up to that point, so by the time he got back, he'd cut his feet to bits on sharp rocks. I did as I was told and followed him out sea.

We swam for a while over the reef and spotted an array of tropical fish darting in and out of their natural habitat. We hadn't brought the camera out with us and both wished we had; the water was calm and crystal clear, the coral reefs were alive with fish of all shapes and sizes, the kind I'd only ever seen on the National Geographic channel or in pet shops; watching them in their natural environment, I realised how cruel it was to keep them in small tanks, but I did suddenly realise why people wanted to: they were beautiful, to say the least. We kept a close eye on the urchins that lined the reefs and the sea floor, carefully readjusting our masks in places where there were no reefs. At one point my snorkel somehow unattached itself as I was fixing my mask and sank to the bottom of the sea floor, luckily it was only 2 metres deep and Edd dove down to fetch it, helping me to reattach it to my mask without getting my hair tangled. Our first snorkel session lasted an hour; Edd was concerned we'd get too tired if we stayed out longer, so we made our way back to shore via the beach: the rocks idea had been good in theory, but we were going to risk it by beaching ourselves instead to get back.

We hit a point in the coral where the sea urchins ended, so although the water was shallow, we could rest assured we weren't needing to dodge the fingers of Satan. We washed up on the beach like 2 whales, I took my flippers off and we walked up to our bungalow we rinsed off our stuff with the outside bum gun and dried off with our tea towel sarongs. It had been the most amazing experience; I wanted to go again.

Instead I sat and blogged a bit, being quite far behind and Edd sat and read the news. About an hour later, the British guy that had suggested we take the rocky route out, then asked us if we wanted to go out again, I immediately agreed and went and grabbed our stuff along with the camera, this time we were getting some pics.

Edd and I insisted this time we go out via the beach; his feet had been turned into chop suey from the rocks and he'd prefer to keep at least a few toes this time. The turquoise sea water was still crystal clear and calm and the British guy suggested we swim between 2 rocks that were quite far out, to see what was there. (It turned out he was an experienced snorkeller and was disappointed with the tropical fish the surrounded Koh Lipe, he wanted to see Barracuda fish and other 'more exciting' sea life). Normally I'd have flat out refused to swim that far out, but with a mask that enabled me to see and flippers that meant I could swim quite fast, I whole heartedly agreed to swim 100 metres off the coast and look for sea life. Insane maybe, but eager.

The 3 off us dodged the fingers of Satan successfully and made our way out to sea. Edd stopped at one point on a shallow, sandy patch to sort out his mask again and I watched tropical fish swim up to us and weave between our legs, quite curious as to what these big oaf's were. We got to the 2 rocks and the British guy showed off by free diving 12 metres to the bottom of the sea bed. I was more interested in the clown fish I'd found again that had little babies they were protecting. Edd took the camera from me and dove down 2 metres to get a better picture, as it turned out, they were not interested in a photo shoot and swam out of their hiding place to 'attack' the camera; he backed off a bit and zoomed in on them instead. One of the most amazing things I've ever experienced in my life.

I got the camera back from him and took videos and photos of the wonder we were floating in. I followed an angel fish that was feeding on the coral reef for a while and then realised the British guy was back on shore and Edd was close behind him: I should probably do the same, we'd been out for another hour and I wasn't used to swimming for 2 hours a day, muscular pain would definitely be felt in the morning.

We immediately got the laptop out and uploaded the photos and videos to see what we'd managed to capture on film; it was quite difficult taking pictures under water as the fish often blended in with their surroundings, so you weren't sure if they'd managed to swim past the frame or not. I continued to blog, finishing up what I'd started earlier in the day and then we got ready for dinner.

We'd been having serious issues with kamikaze mosquitos in Koh Lipe that thought Edd was delightfully tasty, which was unusual: they normally only ever ate me. They attacked him with full force and I had to spray him with bug spray while 3 of them attacked his left arm simultaneously. The mosquito coils were a must in these parts, clearly.

We walked along the beach to Walking Street and Edd spotted a restaurant on the beach, just before we got to the 'main road' that looked quite busy. I went up to check out the menu and we decided it looked like a good place to eat, the food was well priced and a busy restaurant was always a good sign.

We ordered a Thai green curry with seafood to share between the 3 of us and we ate every last drop. It was the most amazing food we'd had on the island thus far, and were definitely coming back for dinner again. The portions of food were enormous, with loads of seafood that was both tasty and tender, that other restaurant had a lot to learn.

The boys finished their beers and we walked back to our bungalows, Edd and I pretty exhausted from all the snorkelling. We put our heads on our pillows and were asleep almost immediately, excited for what the next day had to bring.