Living in the prosperous capital city of
Kuala Lumpur, Danny and I love to escape from in during weekends. Last year, we
have planned to make a visit at “Thailand’s
Maldives” - Koh Lipe early this year. We were lucky to earn a zero point
redemption of AirAsia air tickets for 2 from KL to Langkawi last year and we
have finally visited this beautiful island in March this year. Here we have our
3D2N vacation.
Koh Lipe
Koh Lipe is also known as the Maldives of
Thailand. It is claimed to have crystal clear water and shiny white sand beach.
Besides, it is one of the nearest island of Thailand to Malaysia; which only
needs 2-hour ferry ride from Langkawi.
There are three beaches in Koh Lipe: the
most popular Pattaya Beach, the most beautiful Sunrise Beach and the most
natural Sunset Beach. As Pattaya Beach is the most popular, the jetty is set
here. Further, there is Walking Street located at Pattaya Beach, where visitors
can shop, eat and relax. However, almost all shops close at 12am. Hence, you
may return to your temporary home and rest latest by 12am. Else, you may
consider sitting on the beach and chit-chat with your travel companion.
Walking till the end of the Walking
Street, you will instantly feel the “zen” mode is on. Here is the moment which
you find yourself at Sunrise Beach. It is totally different from Pattaya Beach.
Everyone here is super relaxing, sitting on the beach. Some were doing nothing,
but just laying on the beach; while some were playing on the beach bank. Not
forget to mention, if you would like to catch the amazing sunrise scene, this
is the beach you should go to in the early early morning.
Couldn’t
get up so early? You may consider to watch the sunset at Sunset Beach. We were
told that Sunset Beach is the furthest beach. However, for us, it is near. Even
though we were staying at Pattaya Beach, there is a shortcut at the back of our
resort.
Best Time to Visit
Peak season: November till end of April
Non-peak season: May till end of October
Koh Lipe opens 365 in a year. However,
during non-peak season, most hotels and shops close. At the same time, ferry to
Koh Lipe is also dramatically decreasing. If you wish to visit during non-peak
season, do check in advance where you can take your ferry ride.
Note: You may consider visitting Koh Lipe
during May to avoid the crowd. Price is cheaper and all shops and hotels are
still opening. On the other hand, December is claimed to be the most peak
season among the other months. All accommodations are super costly!
How To Get There?
By ferry
The only way to go to Koh Lipe is by
ferry. There are several jetties which provide ferry service; meanwhile, the
nearest for Malaysian is from Langkawi. Hence, find your own way to reach
Langkawi. As said, we were taking flight from KL.
You may depart from either Telaga Habour
or Kuah Jetty in Langkawi. We recommend you to purchase your ferry tickets
online to secure your ride.
Alternatively, you may search
"Langkawi Koh Lipe Ferry” to purchase your tickets online.
FYI, there are a lot of ferry providers
at Kuah Jetty. If you didn’t purchase ticket
in advance, you may go there and ask the counter. We chose Tropical Charters
because the price is cheaper than Telaga Harbour which TC is RM200 return
ticket per person while TH is RM248 return ticket per person.
The departure time for both ferry
provider is same.
LKW - KLP: 9.30am & 2.30pm
KLP - LKW: 10.30am & 4.30pm
It takes 2-hour ride from Langkawi to Koh
Lipe. You will need to undergo an interchange in order to reach Pattaya Beach
by Thailand’s
long-tailed boat. Hence, you are recommended to wear short and slipper for your
convenience. We also recommend you to bring backpack instead of wheel luggage
because the wheels might be spoiled by the sand.
Note: Thailand time is one hour behind
Malaysia time.
Do remember you are now in Thailand; hence, proceed to immigration is a must! DO NOT skip it before check-in at your hotel.
Transport On The Island
The only transport you can find in Koh Lipe
is the three-wheeled motorcycle. You can’t rent any of
them, but it is the island taxi. If you are tired of walking, you may bump into
it. Fee depends on your destination.
Currency & Spending
The currency is Thai Baht (THB).
Basically, you will spend your money on food and drinks, snorkeling package and
some souvenirs. Of course, you may do some shopping here too; however, it is
limited. Unless you are going to buy tons of bikini here?!
Below are our spendings for your
reference:
Air tickets, ferry tickets &
accommodation = approx. RM515/pax
Food & drinks = approx. RM330/2 pax
Other expenses = approx. RM400/2 pax
Total: approx. RM880/pax
Telecommunication & Network
You may choose to use the expensive
roaming service of your local telco. Else, you may purchase Thailand telco.
According to friend, DTAC has fair coverage on the island; while TrueMove has
totally zero coverage! Yet, the shop there is still selling TrueMove though. Do
keep an eye on this when purchasing.
Nonetheless, we didn’t
purchase any. We only use public wifi at the hotel or restaurants we went.
Since you are escaping from the busy life, and most of the time you will be
having island hoping, why do you need a roaming/ purchase a sim card for this
short getaway?
Food &
Beverages
Some hotels provide breakfast. Else, you
may easily find restaurants and hawker stalls at Walking Street. The food
choice isn’t
only limited to Thai food, but also fast food, western food, dessert, etc. Just
walk along the Walkig Street to discover yourself. Danny and I had seafood
sensation as dinner, which included fish, veggie, tom yum kong and rice. It
costed less than 1000THB.
Accommodation
There are countless hotels, resorts,
homestay in Koh Lipe. The price range can start from hundreds till few thousands
THB per night. Determine your own budget and find your own. FYI, most
accommodations at Sunrise Beach and Sunset Beach are more expensive than
Pattaya Beach. However, they are less crowded and more relaxing.
To be honest, choosing the accommodation
is the most difficult part! We have filtered rounds and rounds and eventually
chose Bella Vista Beach Resort at Pattaya Beach. It is slightly further, it
requires a 10-minute walking distance from the jetty. Seriously, we are not
kidding! Walking on the beach at 12 noon was so crazy! Imagine you are burning
under the sun but you can’t do anything but
keep walking, especially when you have no idea when you will see your hotel
because you have not seen it before. Anyway, the hotel is great.
Activities
Islang hoping for sure! You don’t
have to purchase any package in advance. You can easily find the shop which
sells island hoping packages at Walking Street. There are 3 packages: Package A
(550THB), Package B (650THB), Night Tour (800THB).
A lot is saying Package A is not worthy,
who also recommends to take Package B. However, we personally compared the
packages, we found that the only difference between these two packages is the
monkey feeding tour in Package B which doesn’t
exist in Package A. Thus, we chose Package A.
Note: Our snorkeling package included 4
times snorkeling experience and lunch with fruits. We departed from 10am and
returned at 3pm.
Besides island hoping, the activities on
the island include visit the Walking Street, watch sunrise and sunset on the
beach.
Tips
1. Bring you sun protection care!
2. Waterproof bag is a must!
3 You may bring your own snorkel set. Or
you may rent/buy it there.
4. We spent 3 hours to walk across
the entire Koh Lipe! (Clap for us please~) You may plan your walking tour. It
is great experience~
5. There are a lot of stray dogs on
the island. Don’t
be afraid of them. They are cute and friendly.
Overall, it was a wonderful escape for
us. Even we visited Koh Lipe during peak season, we still find it is a peaceful
and relaxing place to stay. Is it a fun place? Well, it depends. If you love
partying at night, you will probably find this place boring; yet, if you need a
rest from a busy life, Koh Lipe is near and good enough.
Meanwhile, ending this write-up with our
vacation video.
Camera: Fujifilm X-A2 & GoPro Hero 4
Black
Do leave your comment below or email/PM me if you have any question about travelling in Koh Lipe.
Labels: island hoping, koh lipe, Thailand, travel, vacation
