After some plans with friends fell through at the last minute, we found ourselves in Thailand with no particular travel goals, and so decided to spend some time on and island neither of us had been to before and just relax for a bit. Koh Lanta is a laidback island with fewer tourists, and we were staying in a really nice bungalow 100 meters from the beach. We had a few conversations about what to do next but mostly we just enjoyed living in luxury in one of the cheapest places in the world to do so, with no need to be anywhere at any time.

We made ourselves at home in our resort, with our stuff is strewn across every surface of our little bungalow. We had a daily pool dip, timed perfectly for when the cleaners came and needed us to be elsewhere, and thankfully they were very speedy because it was too hot to be out for long. South East Asia was heading into rainy season and was getting very hot and humid, but our balcony was a great spot for watching the storms roll through in the evenings. The pool was directly in the sun every day until about 3pm, and so the water got very warm, and was not at all refreshing, but still much nicer than sweating on the sunbeds. We learnt which shops sold which drinks that we like, where to get the best burger, the best curry (weirdly it was from the Mexican place), and the best dumplings (7/11). Creed made a mango salsa with fresh ingredients from the local supermarket, and rewatched the entirety of Game of Thrones on our TV. He also saved a fish that was flopping around on the road after leaping from a crate headed for the fishmarket, and dielivered it safely back to the sea. One night we went to a beach barbecue and fire show, and it was so delicious that we asked when the next one would be, and were told ‘next year’ – it was the last one of the season! 

We kept in touch with Mel and Thomas, and they arrived in Koh Lanta about 10 days after we’d got there. They had decided to head back to work in Malaysia (Mel is a scuba instructor and Thomas is a freedive instructor), and planned to island hop on the way, from Koh Lanta to Koh Lipe in Thailand, across the border to Langkawi in Malaysia and then across to the Perhentian Islands. We had considered this route as our exit plan from Thailand, so we decided to join them for the next 10 days or so before continuing further south to Kuala Lumpur and flying to wherever we decided we wanted to fly to at that point.

We did 1 day of tourism around Koh Lanta after Mel and Thomas arrived, renting bikes to drive around the fairly undeveloped sections of the island. We stopped off at a quaint port village with old Chinese architecture, and found a hidden beach with a pirate themed café where we enjoyed a mango smoothie. That was about it!

On Wednesday we headed to Koh Lipe, a tiny island in the very south of Thailand, right by the Malaysian border. It has a very backpackery feel, with a walking street full of hostels, bars, restaurants and dive shops. It’s not super built up, with many hotels offering simple bungalows right by the beach, but it’s surprisingly busy. It almost feels like stepping back in time to some of the more touristy places before they got too huge, like discovering a perfect spot before the rest of the world knows about it. I hope Koh Lipe doesn’t get too huge, I hope the beaches remain pristine and not overrun with developments, but it’s already incredibly popular. We’re heading into low season now, so prices are dropping and restaurants are reducing their opening hours, but it’s still possibly the most expensive place in Thailand that I’ve been to. I can’t imagine what it’s like in high season with 5x the people and 4x the prices, and I’m very glad to have visited now. We didn’t get up to all that much on our first couple of days. Thomas has been quite sick most of the week, and I’m still suffering from whatever bug or infection I picked up a couple of weeks ago, though it’s not unmanageable. We had a little beach time, a sunset mojito, some delicious ice cream. We also met Jan, a French guy that Mel and Thomas had met when heading into Thailand in October last year, who has been on Koh Lipe this entire time and was able to give us recommendations for where to eat and who to dive with.

To make up for being lazy the first couple of days, we had two very busy days at the weekend. On Saturday we went on a snorkelling trip to some of the top spots around Koh Lipe. Jan organised for one of the sea gypsies that he was friends with to take us out for the day. These are an interesting ethnic group that were nomads for much of history but were finally welcomed and gifted this island by the Thai king almost 100 years ago.  We followed one of the normal snorkelling tour routes, but on our own schedule with our own plan. The water here is so warm, and so clear, and so blue. The corals are so colourful, and there are so many fish. Hitting the spots with no other tourists around was wonderful, and we had a great day.

On Sunday we were back in the water but this time SCUBA diving. It had been almost 6 months since Creed and I dived, last time was in the Maldives in November, so it was great to go again – and in such a spectacular location. We visited the two most famous and most popular dive sites on the island, and they did not disappoint. We saw clown fish, trumpet fish, barracuda, groupers, scorpion fish, puffer fish, box fish, moray eels and a couple of fish known as the ‘Indian walkman’, an extremely weird looking creature that I had never seen before. We saw some of the most vivid corals I’ve ever come across, in a large field of purple, pink, orange and white formations as far as the eye could see. But the main achievement was the sighting of a guitar shark. These are extremely rare, and everyone including the staff were super excited to see it. I’d never seen one outside of an aquarium, and it was awesome to come across one in the wild. A fantastic experience for our last day in the country.

Our last morning in Koh Lipe started off with an enormous included breakfast at a table on the beach with the waves lapping our feet. A luxurious end to our time in Thailand! In the afternoon we took the ferry to Langkawi, Malaysia.

Thanks for following along on my crazy adventures!

 Ros ♥

If you’re interested in how I got here, or where I went next, check out the rest of the story!