An evening in April, we hopped on a hired van heading to Satul. It's about 10 hours overnight on the van. Morning sunshine greeted us brightly on the clear blue sky at Pak Bara Pier. Bandhaya Speed Boat will be departed in another 2 hours so we had breakfast at a local food diner nearby. I loved their Thai Milk Tea. It tastes originally and smells great. After checked-in for the boat and grabbed some snacks and drinks from 7-Eleven (feels like it's kind of being a part of our life, visiting 7-Eleven), we headed into the pier. However, the pier fee is excluded from our boat fee and it costs 20 Baht each.
The Original Thai Milk Tea
Hot Thai Milk Tea
Delicious "Mataba"
The boat trip will take about 2 hours to Koh Lipe which will stop twice at Koh Tarutao (depends on weather and water level) and Koh Khai. Koh Tarutao was a prison camp to imprison the political prisoners. Meanwhile, it has natural abundance. After a long history, it becomes Tarutao National Park, opened up for tourists and local people to visit. We did not entered the park since we had little time there. Our next stop is Koh Khai where a stone arch standing, reaching out into the clear blue sea. Many couple used to visit on Valentine's Day. The beach covered with fine, white sand. The sea is as clear as glass. The sun shines so bright. Just a little while later, we head back to the boat and continue to our destination.
About another hour of wave riding, the island is just ahead of us. I wish I was already on the island at that moment. Being on a boat for a long time is quite tiring and I felt hungry since we're already late for lunch. Suddenly, the boat moored in the middle of the sea not too far from the island. I was wondering what we are doing here. We had to get on a large pontoon to pay the island's entrance fee and wait for a local long-tailed boat to take us to the island. There is a long line but not sure whether waiting to pay or waiting for long-tailed boat. I do understand that they managed it locally but not yet well-prepared to served large group of travelers at the same time. However, I'm sure they will find a way very soon. For me, I find it difficult to move our belonging from a speed boat to pontoon, from pontoon to another smaller boat, and from the boat to the beach even though the local were lending hand and gave us a warm welcome. I recommend a backpack instead of a big luggage. This process took about another hour to Harmony, our hotel room.
Koh Tarutao
Koh Khai
At first, we planed to have only one night on the island. Unfortunately, the hotel gave us a bad news that we will have to stay another night on the island because they can't reserved an afternoon boat for us all back to the mainland. Otherwise, we will have to leave early in another morning which means we came a long way just to have a night on the island and not get a chance to go snorkeling at all. A tough decision because we all have to work the other day. However, we agreed to have 2 nights on the island, will leave the other day morning and make it an absence which we have to thanks our manager for this allowance.
After everything is solved, we put our belonging to our rooms and quickly left for a little lunch in which it is already late afternoon. Then we threw ourselves into the sea of Sunrise Beach till the sun went out of service. We came back to shower and head to dinner in the walking street. There are lots of seafood restaurants, bars, massage, and other local shops. I sent one of the postcard to my brother and it took about a month or so from Koh Lipe to Bangkok. We randomly pick a seafood restaurant, order many kind of seafood, and all were great. Also, we didn't forget Roti, Mataba, and Thai Milk Tea as a dessert. It's like a gimmick to me that every time I think of the Southern food, I used to think of this 2 things. It has been more than 15 hours from Bangkok to our hotel. It's now time to recharge ourselves after a little chill out in our room.
Seafood Restaurant
Roti - Thai Milk Tea Shop
Banana Roti
Grilled Corns
Good morning, Lipe. We are going to snorkel today. We decided that we need to have breakfast before leaving. The hotel car will sent us to our private long-tail boat for the snorkeling trip which operated by Bandhaya Resort. I didn't take much photo except on the boat and another 2 islands.
Iced Chocolate
American Breakfast
Waiting for the boat at Bandhaya Resort
My most remarkable islands are Koh Hin Ngam and Adang-Rawi. Koh Hin Ngam beach is covered with beautiful rocks. People used to pile it up and make a wish. Adang-Rawi, our last visited island, has a very beautiful underwater environment. Many kind of beautiful sea anemones, corals, fishes and lots of black urchin can be seen. It was like swimming in a large fish tank when I turned around to call my friend, I accidentally kicked the long-spine urchin. That was foot ache though. I quickly swam back to the beach to see how bad it is. Our boatman told me to use stone to break the spine inside my foot. Otherwise, pee on it or use lime juice or vinegar. Well, I definitely choose the last suggestion. Luckily, it was just a scratch but still can fill a tip of it inside my toe and a bit hurt when pressed. I still went back into the water after that. The farther I go, the more beautiful it is. However, I do feel sorry for breaking one of its spine.
Koh Hin Ngam
The boat dropped us on Sunset Beach at Koh Lipe. We hang around to see the sunset. Some went kayaking but I preferred chilling on the beach with some cocktails. This is where I got lime juice to cure my toe ache. I think it helped somehow. Sitting down to watch the beautiful sunset to the other side of the island was a delightful moment. Tourists were taking photos. Kids were playing in the white sand while their parents were having sun bath. I really enjoyed this relaxing moment.
Chill out at Bandhaya on Sunset Beach
Waiting for sunset
Playing on Sunset Beach
Sunset
After the sun left the sky, we went back to our hotel to shower before dinner and found out that our bathroom was broken. The hotel opened up a room for us to use the bathroom but not fast enough, we are cold and hungry. I and my friend decided to take a quick shower outside and will do it again later after dinner. We decided to chill out at a bar on Sunset Beach so we had easy dinner, Pad Thai, near our hotel instead. Also, today we found out that the island is not that big. Our hotel faced Sunrise Beach and Bandhaya faced Sunset Beach. The two beaches is connected by the walking street.
Pad Thai
The walking street is very colorful in the evening. Many foreigners and tourists chilling, shopping, having dinner, and walking on the street. We were at a bar on the exit of the walking street to the Sunset Beach. The sea breeze blew. Soft music were played. We ordered some drinks and had a little rest. It was a little late we came back, most of the shops were closed. Mostly, bars were still opened. I still feel that this island is quiet even though there are many bars. We still chill out in our room quite late since it was our last night on the island.
Pooh's Restaurant
Massage
We left the island in another morning. Back to Pak Bara Pier almost noon. We had lunch and had a long way straight home. It was about 12 hours in the van but traveling is worth to be tired for.
Nothing is memorable if you never get a chance to do it yourself.
