Koh Lipe: Best Island in Thailand
for pork skewers
In our entire trip, Koh Lipe is the hardest to reach, accessible only via a three hour speed boat ride. It is completely worth it.
Our journey to the island is remarkably smooth, and before we know it, we’re walking down the floating plastic dock that leads directly onto the beach. We get a ride to our hotel, which is at the end of sunrise beach, on a little rocky cove. Kathalee beach resort has its own tiny beautiful beach and is right next to two much more expensive resorts. Our simple room is up the hill and has an amazing view of Ko Usen island just off the beach. We feel like we’ve finally escaped and found our little slice of paradise, with snorkeling right outside our doorstep. We find lots of tiny convict fish, but more amazingly, we see eels poking their heads out of the sand!
At night, we catch our hotel’s shuttle (back of a pickup truck) to the nighttime walking street. The walking street is a pedestrian lane that cuts through the middle of the island connecting sunrise beach (our side) with the main beach where all the boats come in. Immediately we walk out to the main beach to watch the sunset. Small fire dance shows dot the beach in front of the large restaurants and bars that illuminate the sand with Christmas lights and lit-up trees.
The walking street itself is small and quant but also extremely lively. The night is filled with the smell of grilled meat and the sound of hawkers selling coconut snacks (10 baht, 10 baht). We eat some excellent gelato and have a dinner of roti and coconut and skewers. We even arrange for a private longtail to take us on “circuit A”, a tour of the surrounding islands for tomorrow.
The next day after a gorgeous sunrise from our room, we enjoy our hotel breakfast in front of the beach and then get picked up by our longtail boat. Baby Bear loves standing on the bow of the boat. We pass by some beautiful islands and hit our first snorkel spot, immediately recognizable by the dozens of boats surrounding a tiny patch of water. It’s horrible fighting the crowds while swimming, and not in the least bit relaxing. But I dive down to witness the famous pink coral that everyone is here to see, catching glimpses of the vibrant coral gardens amid the flurry of knees and ankles.
The rest of the trip was much better. We hit some amazing snorkeling spots. It’s quiet, the water is clear, and there are beautiful corals, fun christmas tree worms (that hide away when approached), and giant fluorescent clams.
We then visit a “beach” formed entirely from smooth black stones (like a beach in France). The rocks are nice to warm up on, and when wet, the black stones transform into beautiful gems with colorful stripes.
Afterwards we do more snorkeling and hit a beach to eat our packed lunch. We feed watermelon seeds to the fish and then more snorkeling. It’s a wonderful day. Afterwards, we’re all beat!
Miraculously, we do all this while still working. But it’s still a beautiful place to work.
The next day we borrow the hotel’s kayak and decide to try to get to, not Ko Usen next door, but to Kla island which is supposed to have a nice beach and snorkeling. It’s a tiring 15 minute kayak through some choppy waters, but we’re rewarded for our hard work. The island really feels like an oasis, far from the boats just across the water on sunrise beach. And the snorkeling is truly amazing.
We discover pink garibaldis that come right up to our faces to challenge us before running away. We find a beautiful banded sea snake gliding through the water. There are several very large barracuda even. In the deeper areas, there are some amazingly large coral formations as well. On the beach, baby bear discovers tiny baby hermit crabs! We snorkel the area twice and then vow to return.
We reward our hard work (and that tough kayak back) with a visit to the fancy restaurant two resorts over with the “best view on Koh Lipe”. This is the life.
We eat every night at the walking street night market. My absolute favorite food are the pork skewers (marinated in coconut milk) from this one street vendor. We get several skewers every night we are there. She likes us so much that she even gives us a free pork skewer and takes a picture with us. We discover that we can stay later at the night walking street if we walk home. It’s a pretty short walk if we walk along the sunrise beach to our hotel, and there’s another reason we want to walk along the desolate sunrise beach at night.
Someone we met on the island told us about something truly special (and unmentioned in any books or blogs about koh lipe) that we want to try to see. Apparently bioluminescent plankton can cluster onto bits of sand and wash up on the shore around 9pm at night. We walk the beach, seeing nothing, until… THERE. A wave slides up the sandy beach and we see a dot of glowing blue sand!
Soon we are seeing them everywhere. We rush to pick up the sand with our fingers, cradling the glowing lights in our palms. Touching the blue sand smears the glow, like paint, it spreads onto anything it touches. We walk along the beach, hunting for blue sand, collecting what we can in a tub to take home. Will the plankton recharge and be able to glow again tomorrow night? We also find tons of hermit crabs running along the beach. Baby Bear is in heaven.
The next day we hire a boat for the 3 minute trip back out to Kla island (no more kayaking for us). This allows us to bring some pool floaties. Again, the snorkeling is amazing, and we enjoy a nice afternoon on the beach. Baby Bear even manages to catch a leaf fish floating in the shallows. By the time we return to our hotel, the waves get super large. We use the pool floaties to have a rather exciting adventure on the beach.
At night we go to the night market and play with the blue sand again. We had kept a bucket of some of it in our room to see if we could reactivate it after a day of rest and recharging. Sure enough, it works (slightly). We are able to get a little blue glow by shaking the water around.
Our last morning in Koh Lipe, we go for one last snorkel in front of our hotel. The fish are super active, and I even get bit by a triggerfish! It really hurt. Then we go to the ferry dock where we give our passports to the agents there. After all, this boat is going to Malaysia. Next stop, the resort island of Langkawi!
