Ko Lipe - Ko Lanta: Island hopping in Thailand

To get to our first destination in Thailand, we have to cross the border at sea! This picture was taken pretty much around the border line... Behind us the Island of Langkawi, Malaysia.

Although we left Malaysia under the rain, we reach Thailand under a nice blue sky to the heaven-like tiny island of Lipe (about 3 km long, but surrounded by only beautiful beaches).


Following the advice of our bible, we make our way to the other side of the island (20 minutes walk with the backpacks) to the small "sunset beach".

Don't pay attention to the name of the resort... it's the best place we've ever been!

It's a perfect small beach with white sand and great views to the next Island.

Our wooden hut is just 5 m from the beach!

Ok, it's not the most comfortable place, but it has all the basic
(i.e water and mosquito net) and is clean!

On the way from Malaysia, we met Ignacio and Cecilia from Chile, same age as us, so we decided to spend the next few days together.

In THE street on Ko Lipe (literally, there's only 1 street) with Ignacio and Cecilia

Here the Tuk-tuk are also 3-wheeler, but the motorbike is on one side instead of being in the middle. They use these for taxi and goods

Here's our private beach, getting ready for snorkeling

Our second day wasn't really sunny, so we went out for a walk under the rain. Here this sign is indicating the Tsunami evacuation road towards the highest point on the island, probably about 20m above see level

You will surely recognize these brands....

Here's the laidback atmosphere of Ko Lipe's street: no cars,

small shops and restaurant and no stress...

Another stormy afternoon on the island...


Our last evening on the island, enjoying a great sunset...

We loved every bit of Ko Lipe, especially the great white beaches and the laid back atmosphere. But it's only our first stop in Thailand and in search of more lost paradise it's time to move on to our next destination: Ko Lanta.

In spite of a bumpy boat ride, Caro fell asleep on the boat and

used her neighbour's shoulder as a pillow.

Just as in Ko Lipe, these signs can be seen everywhere, but
I'm not sure how efficient they would be in case of Tsunami...

Ko Lanta is nice, but surely doesn't live up to the French reality-TV show of the same name: it's huge and very touristy and unfortunately not half as beautiful as our first island Ko Lipe....

For 5€ per day + 1€ petrol, the best way to get around is on a scooter.
No need to show your licence ;-)

Automatic 24hr petrol dispenser, just like a can dispenser.
Insert coins (as little as 5 cents...), get the gas

Huge yummy grapefruit in the market!

Small sticky rice sweets

We got lost on our way to the beach and ended up on the other side of the Island ( I wondered how this happened since there's only 2 roads, but never mind). But we found this great bar on the cliff.


The electricity was gone, but we still had the possibility to get a fresh juice with this stone-age hand juice extractor. Quite hard for pineapple, but still does the job (10 min preparation and one full pineapple for a glass)

For our second day on the island, we went away from the beach for an Elefant safari in the jungle. They are obviously real slow and it goes from left to right, so everybody got more or less dizzy from the ride, but was still great!



For our final day in Ko Lanta, we took a boat ride to the diving site of Ko Haa: great formations at sea and also great for snorklers...

Arrival at our first diving / snorkeling spot

Here with our friends and the diving instructor

Caro got a little seasick on the way, but nothing serious...

Sunset on the way back!

David

Penang - Langkawi: Island hoping in Malaysia

Georgetown, on the island of Penang is another nice colonial town, and like for our other 2 stops in Malaysia, we end up in Chinatown with its typical houses. We’re staying in a nice colonial house with wooden floors and big windows, a nice change from the windowless room of KL!

The place has some great food, like the rest of the country, and some weird fruits like these giant Jackfruits.

Typical food court in Malaysia, where you eat fresh stuff for about 1 €

But we have seen enough towns and think that it’s time to head to the beach. So, after only a couple of days of not doing much in Penang we move on to the next and Northern most Island of Malaysia called Langkawi. It's a 2 hours ride on a speed boat. And that's exactly how we had pictured it: perfect white sand beach and 30°C water!

"Our" beach: our hut is just behind the first coconut tree....

The beach is perfect for swimming and of course for sunset Yoga....

We also quickly found a nice backpackers‘ beach bar, just 100m from our hut, which happened to be the best bar on the whole beach.

And of course, it served great BBQ seafood and Malaysian noodles to unbeatable prices!

Fresh seafood BBQ!

Caro on her B'day enjoying fresh grilled curry squid, rice noodles,
and fresh coconut (we usually have on average 3 to 5 fresh coconuts per day here...)

Here's a local version of the dragon fruit, before opening, opened, and after eating.

David

Modern and surprising KL!

Our first sight of Kuala Lumpur ("KL" as Locals like to refer to), is the super modern bus terminal just south of the city. Looks actually more like an airport: all arrivals and departures are indicated on digital screens showing assigned platforms and all platforms have their own escalator.

From the bus terminal, we jump on the just-as-modern metro. Yet the system is not so well organised, and it's quite hard to understand which line is which, where's the platform, and how to purchase the tickets.

In most of the city, the metro is elevated like in Medellin

We arrive at our "fancy" hostel right in the heart of town, in Chinatown. It would be the best hostel, if rooms had windows....

Common area of our hostel

Bathrooms of the hostel

Our street in Chinatown

The neighbourhood in Chinatown.

The city and way of life is very western and consumption-oriented. So you find some huge malls preparing for christmas (note that it's more than 30°C, and pretty much no one is Christian...)

Local way to take a picture: don't forget to show your fingers in "V"

Obviously, you still need to make a few changes to adapt the consumption to the local culture....


Just as in Melaka, there is some great street food for unbeatable prices just around the corner. For instance, they prepare these great soups where all the ingredients are mixed fresh into a bowl, and the soup is poured onto it.

The landmark of KL are the twin towers of the state petrol company Petronas, which can be seen from pretty much anywhere in Town as they are 420m high.

Sight seeing in the colonial part of town. KL was founded at the end of the 19th century so there's nothing very old.

Petronas tower as seen from the TV tower's observation deck, 250m

But the best view is a night, directly from below the towers

from KL's equivalent of "central park", called KLCC.

In Malaysia, the words are written phonetically, like on this police station. Taxi is teksi, Restaurant is restoran etc,

Here we found a nice vietnamese restaurant in the heart of the financial center of KL

Here in the "time square" of KL, with the famous "monorail".




We also found a good fancy restaurant, like in Melaka. Here all the menus are very well illustrated, so you dont have to understand a word, just show the picture you'd like to have! The only hard thing, is that it looks so good that you actually would like all of it...

Remote control to order the bill or get the waiter

David