Koh Lipe - Bye then Thailand and onto Malaysia

Once our parcel had been delivered we went straight to the tour office to book our boat south to Koh Lipe. We'd read a lot about this island being a tiny paradise and despite the many reviews saying that there were too many tourist for such a small island we chose to book two nights stay there. This also meant we could break the trip over to Malaysia which would have been 7 hours in a small speed boat if we'd have gone there directly.

We left for the boat at 7am and waited by the pier for our speed boat to arrive. The amount of people waiting with us was a little overwhelming and we weren't sure how we would all fit! We did though and off we set - full throttle for Koh Lipe:

Once we arrived to Koh Lipe, all a little rattled from the VERY bumpy journey our first impression of the place was that the reviews were right and that this place was way too packed with tourist. The beautiful white sandy beach was over run with travellers queuing to pay their entry fee for coming onto the island. The fee was compulsory and was said to be charged due to this area being a national park. However after only a couple of hours there it was clear that there was nothing preserved or protected on Koh Lipe itself, the whole place was a wash with resorts and restaurants, bars and backpacker hostels.

The stunningly beautiful shores of Koh Lipe (before you get close enough to set the sea of crowds)

We has chosen to stay in a 10 bed dormitory hostel to save some money but quickly regretted our decision. The room was sweltering hot and full of mosquito's and our beds were capsule beds - the best way i can describe these capsule beds is they are like over sized coffins stacked on top of one another with a curtain on one end for privacy - like this:

 The resturants and bars were also superly over priced here and after one night of very little sleep (due to cooking in our coffins) and the worst free breakfast ever (stale white bread and the worlds most sugary jam) we went out in search of some snorkelling spots, unfortunatly the waters around the island were swamped with jelly fish and therefore inaccessible.

We decided enough was enough and made the decision to check out a day early, lose our money for the 2nd nights accommodation and book a boat to Malaysia!

We rushed back to the hostel, packed our bags and we were ready to board the afternoon ferry boat to Langkawi. Because we would be crossing into a new country and crossing a boarder we were required to hand over our passports to customs (a little tini hut on the beach) so that they could process us and book us out of the country. It felt strange just handed over my passport but everyone else who was due to board the boat was doing it so we just went along.

Sat waiting for the boat to arrive

2 hours later we were off again speeding across the waters to our next destination...............

BYE THEN THAILAND!!