Liparadise

Koh Lipe is a tiny, tiny island located at the southern end of Thailand. Thailand is huge, and this is about as far a corner as you can find. Observe:

I don't know if Koh Lipe is the smallest Thai beach island, but it certainly feels that way. The place is just a fraction of some of the more popular large islands like Phuket and Koh Samui. I think it is a mere 3 miles across or so, and even less in width. 

Koh Lipe

There is one main "walking street" which you can see on the map is lined with restaurants and shops. There is even a 7-11 which is new to the island and brings "modernity" a la Lipe's first ATM. The place is also open 24/7 and, of course, sports industrial aircon that I'm sure draws half the island's power. 

7-11. 

Walking street

Out little slice of this island is potentially the bougeiest place available. Sawan Resort is identified on the Lipe map above with the blue arrow on the left. It's "far" from the walking street (10 minute walk?) and away from the hustle and bustle. It's adjacent to sunset beach, a place only popular from approximately 5pm-7pm, before and after which it is pretty much deserted. But for those two hours, you get some of the most spectacular sunsets you can imagine. Of course, this is the period when the folks on this side of the island can cash in, so the bars on this beach are pretty crowded for those 120 minutes. There is even a pop up bar run by a Spaniard who just throws towels down on the beach and sells mojitos for 100 baht from a makeshift bar on a folding table. It's all very Thai. 

Sunset beach panorama:

OK so I will cut to the chase with the key gems that Koh Lipe has to offer: 

Sunsets

From aptly named sunset beach we witnessed some breathtaking visuals. We had the luxury of being directly next to this beach and took advantage every evening. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This isn't Jordan and I in a romantic moment but let's pretend it is. 

Food

Lipe's offerings don't top at sunsets. They actually have good food, too. But we shouldn't give it too much credit because this is Thailand, after all. All the food is good. 

There were a couple things that made this island stand out food-wise, though. First is Burmese food. The island is practically run by Burmese immigrants, both legal and illegal, but no one is really here to police anything so who knows. The "restaurant" that comes to mind is called Forever Restaurant (we are trip advisor slaves and we admittedly found it thanks to its favorable ranking). The quotes are necessary because this clearly wasn't a proper restaurant - it was more like a house with covered picnic tables on its front porch to serve the 2 diners at a time that come by. We ate there at least twice and both times were the only ones at the place. The other reason this isn't a restaurant is because it is run by a woman and her husband and is literally a house. When we would roll up on the place we would disturb them from whatever newscast or soccer match they were watching, while the wife would go prepare everything from scratch and the husband would wait on us farang (white people). The food tasted as special as they made it felt - the curries were delicious, the vegetables were unlike anything we had ever tasted, and the overall experience was delicious. 

Mustard greens, pork curry, another vegetable with fermented fish paste (not my favorite, actually), and others. 

Then there was the more straight-forward seafood the island is better known for. The walking street is lined with restaurants that show you your food before you eat it, in true Asia-style. 

Hmm....

I'll take that one, please! 

And this is what it looks like post-prep. 

And then there's the traditional Thai stuff like larb moo and papaya salad.

It makes me go oOoOoOh!

Perhaps our most memorable food experience on the island was the food that the Sawan staff made for us. They saw us walking past one day and asked us if we like "spicy." To us, this sounded like a challenge. They had thrown down the spicy gauntlet. We obviously couldn't back down and invited all they had. 

This was a poor life decision. The seafood noodle salad they were casually eating was the hottest thing that has ever touched our mouths. You can't see flames coming from the dish, but believe me, they're there. 

The next day we passed the staff and they all started laughing and asked us "how is your stomach today?!?"

Beaches

Obviously the main draw here is the beach. Thailand is the best place for a beach getaway in the world if you ask me. Lipe's beaches don't disappoint! Jordan's shirt says it all. 

From the water

Beach selfies

Longtail Boat Rides!

We took a whole day and went to the "outer islands" for exploration and snorkeling. Our boat generally avoided crowds and showed us some decent snorkeling areas, but none really blew us away. The boat ride is always a pleasing thing for me though. 

It was a choppy day, you can see from the whitecaps. 

The scenery was worth the near-seasickness 

A blurry but effective video at showing the exciting journey. 

Still image of islands seen in the video:

Happy as a clam. Or a sea urchin. 

I spent much of the boat ride trying to find monkeys in the trees. 

I had no idea what I was in for when we stopped for lunch. They were literally everywhere, and were way more interested in our food than us. I somehow didn't get many pictures, but here are some where's waldos:

Most of my time with the monkeys was spent being pissed that the Chinese tourists felt the need to feed the monkeys human food. The environmentalist guilt in me raged. 

Unfortunately, I can't find my underwater fish pictures so those will have to be added later. 

Actual Culture

Thai islands aren't known for their overwhelming cultural experiences, and Lipe isn't too different, but it does have some bright spots. I referred to the Burmese people that run the island. They have their little villages here and had at least two major parties/festivals while we were on the island. One of them, which might actually be a Thai festival with Thai rituals, involved sending burning candles out to sea. I believe this was honoring their ancestors. 

Here are some of the lanterns at sea. They are hard to see. 

Here they are preparing the floating lanterns. 

Our hotel actually provided us with one of these floaters. It was quite pretty! It came equipped with incense and all. 

Here's a blurry shot of Jordan putting his out to sea. 

Part of the festival was a parade with some sort of float. The key part to this was that the float was carried by a bunch of drunk 12 year olds. I'm kinda not joking. 

One thing I like about Thailand is their commitment to their culture. It is very strong in Bangkok and elsewhere we have been on the mainland, but it was also very refreshing to see it here on this distant island as well. 

Lipe was great and just what we needed after the mad rush of Tokyo where our FOMO severely hampered our ability to relax. We were sad to leave, obviously. It really hit the spot!

Epilogue

I wasn't sure if I would tarnish this post with spidey's appearance, but I would be remiss if I didn't share this terrifying experience with you. It comes with the territory of paradise-islands. Especially when your hotel room has outdoor bathrooms. 

This little critter, or as I like to call him, the largest f@#%$ing spider I have ever seen, was waiting for us one evening when we returned from the bars and massages of the walking street. It was about 1 AM and I would like to apologize here to the poor souls I awoke that evening with my wails. 

Without further adieu, I introduce would like to introduce spidey:

 

Imagine if I hadn't looked before I sat??? He (or she) could have eaten me entirely! Like, in one gulp.The spidey incident happened on the first or second night we were in Lipe. You can imagine my hesitation to sit for the rest of the week. This made for an interesting bathroom schedule.