Stampede Design
The trip to Koh Lipe, Thailand was my first trip out of Malaysia. It is a small island in the Southern part of the Andaman sea with white sandy beaches and crystal clear waters. Located only an hour from Langkawi and accessible via speedboat, this island is part of the Tarutao National Marine Park, a large group of over 70 islands.
With Telaga Terminal providing our shuttle service, we departed from Telaga Harbour Marina at 9 am and arrived at 10 pm local time. While still in the shuttle, my eyes caught fantastic view of the beach with light blue crystal clear waters and shining white sandy beach I’ve never set eyes on before. Since there is no jetty in Koh Lipe, we had to ride a small noisy boat that can load 10 person at a time to land on the beach.
Upon reaching the beach, first thing we did was to retrieve our passport at the immigration post. Shaiful and I were surprised because the post is just a simple wooden shelter. This is where they do most things like immigration check and setting up counter for selling shuttle tickets. We took a daytrip, so we didn’t need to retrieve our passport. What we needed to do at the shelter was to check-in for our evening shuttle back to Langkawi.
After checking-in, we took a walk along the beach in search of a good place for lunch. Fortunately, somebody at the Telaga Marina Harbour had suggested us to have lunch at “Bangroon Halal Food”. The restaurant also provided currency-exchange services. It took us 5-minutes walk to reach the restaurant and while eating, we met the owner – Bang Harun. He recommended a boat service for us to go snorkeling. After lunch, we were them all hyped-up to start the snorkeling excursion.
The snorkeling trip take 3 hours at 3 different spots on the other island. The first and second spots were quite disappointing because they were in the middle of the sea. The waters were dark and there was nothing much to see underwater. The sea current was also pretty strong and drifted us away from boat. Fortunate for us, the last spot was much better with clear waters and plenty of colorful fish swimming around. They were all hiding below the boat, away from sunlight. The fish seems to not be bothered by our presence, so we can easily touch them while snorkeling.
After 10 minutes of snorkeling at the last spot, I noticed a big group of shining anchovies surrounding me. It was such a fascinating view. Since last spot is near the shore and the waters is not too deep, we also had super views of the coral at the bottom of the sea.
On the way back to Koh Lipe, heavy rain and storm caught us in the middle of the sea. We were surely worried at the moment since the boat was small and the wave was high. While on the boat, I realized how fast weather could change. We managed to get to Koh Lipe at 3.30 pm.
While Shaiful went around looking for something sour to cure his sea sickness, I went to the immigration post to get info about our shuttle. They told me that the shuttle will only leave Koh Lipe at 4 pm. Since there was only half and hour before shuttle depart, we decided to stay near the immigration post waiting for the shuttle. 15 minutes gone by and the there was no sign of the shuttle departure. Only then, I realized that Thailand time is an hour later than Malaysia. Facepalm moment.
Since there was still 45 minutes from departure, Shaiful and I took a walk along the Koh Lipe main street. There was nothing much to see at the shops along the street. Most of them were either running cybercafe business or parlors for the famous Thai Massage. It took us 15 minutes to reach the end of the main street and we decided to go back to the beach. On the way back, I noticed a sign board that showing how far Koh Lipe was from big city such as Kuala Lumpur, London and Paris.
At 4.45 pm (3.45 pm Thailand time), the boarding collector asked us to get onboard the small boat that would take us to the departure platform. On the platform, we were to provide our boarding pass and take our seat on the shuttle. It was another 1 hour journey to Langkawi. We reached Langkawi Telaga Marina at 6 pm. Since that was a one day journey and part of Stampede project, I am already planning to go for a second and longer visit just for holiday.
