Koh Lanta - Not much to write about here as we took the 4 nights we spent in Koh Lanta to recharge our batteries and because Zo was still struggling with her stomach a bit we decided to book ourselves into some nice accommodation. We stayed in a bungalow the first night that was next to a fairly noisy building site so the following morning we said thanks but no thanks and went to find something better. We found a resort on Long Beach that was ideal, it had AC, a fridge, lovely bathroom, TV, a three poster bed (for some reason on the 4th corner the frame was attached to the wall) and a hammock on our balcony/porch. Over the 3 days and nights along with relaxing in our bungalow we also went to the beach for a couple of meals at sunset. It was worth doing though as we had been traveling for about 2 months so needed some rest to restore our enthusiasm to get out and do things!

Koh Lipe - We caught a speed boat down to Koh Lipe which took about 3 hours. It was a fairly rough ride down so this wasn't ideal for a sick feeling Zo. We dropped others off at other islands on the way down and they all looked like paradise, we were quite jealous of each of those who would get off on each island. That was until we arrived at Koh Lipe. The place looked like the type of paradise Thailand Island we had hoped for from the start of the trip. We were dropped off on one of the island's 3 beaches. There was no pier, we were dropped off a few metres from the shore and had to walk through the water. After, the Thai blokes on the boat carried our bags from the boat to the shore over their heads. We grabbed a bite to eat at the closest restaurant while we decided where to walk to find some accommodation. We decided on Sun Rise Beach. There was one concrete path (Lipe walking street) that connected 2 of the beaches, all the rest were sand. We eventually found a bungalow on the beach and although the room was not ideal, it was ok and had a great view and location. We settled in and went to find some food on the walking street. Since Zo wasn't feeling good, we decided to go to the clinic. Here the nurse/doctor examined her and threw around some words like salmonella and cholera. However she gave her some antibiotics, hopefully these will work.

The following morning we spent on the beach that was right on our back door. The sea was the best we have seen, the colour was the same as the sky and when up to our shoulders in water we could still see our feet clear as day! There seemed to be about 6 people on the beach. With the sun being so hot we would often take dips into the sea to cool off. With this being sun rise beach, the sun disappeared behind the tall palm trees on its edge in the early afternoon. When this happened we took a walk back to the walking street, this was the main place where there were any shops, bars or restaurants. We also decided to change accommodation, we found somewhere on the walking street that was far cheaper and cleaner. We watched the sunset on Pataya Beach (the main beach), it was beautiful and created some gorgeous colours in the sky. There was a bar that showed a film every night on a big screen so we ended up here. There is no party scene at all on Koh Lipe.

Since we were actually staying on sunrise beach we thought that we should actually get up to watch it, so that's what we did. It was slightly cloudy but all the same it was worth getting up for. We went back to bed for a few more hours, sunrise was at about 6:15am. We spent the whole day on Patatya beach again, just chilling out, reading our books in-between dips in the sea. We decided here to go up to sunset beach to watch the sunset. It was at this point I decided I would pop the question to Zo that evening. I was constantly worried that Zo could see the square shaped bulge from my shorts pocket on the way to the beach that evening but she has told me since that she couldn't. Once there I dragged her to a quiet part of the beach where we were on our own and got down on one knee. I'm afraid I'm not saying what I said to her, that's between me and Zo. As most will know by now she said YES. To celebrate we had a nice meal at a restaurant that was serving barbequed fish that had been caught that day. We both had barracuda steaks. The following day was spent entirely on the beach. We went back to Pataya beach and at times felt like we were the only people on it, very peaceful. Treated ourselves to sticky rice, mango and ice cream…I'm really going to miss the food in South East Asia! We are catching a boat tomorrow to Langkawi, crossing the border in to Malaysia. We were sad to leave the paradise island of Lipe and wish we could stay longer!