Faux Rustic in Ko Lipe

After a week or two of being on the move, we put down roots on Ko Lipe, a tiny island in the Ko Tarutao Marine National Park in Thailand's Andaman sea. We've been lying around the beach for a week and a half, staring at emerad green water and working on forgetting what day it is.  Here are a few of the highlights:

Top 8 Best Things About Our Stay on Ko Lipe

1. Bungalow living...going faux rustic in a Swiss Family Robinson-style bungalow at Castaway Resort. Mosquito nets and flashights included. Shenanigans ensue.

2. Learning that you don't actually want to be a "castaway"... after one long day dropped off on the banks of uninhabited national park island Ko Adang. Let's just say it was low on the "faux", high on the "rustic." Take home point: the best kind of "castaway" to be is the kind that is served crispy spring rolls and frosty gin and tonics on the resort deck at the end of a hard day bonding with nature.

3. Live entertainment... at the local bar ("Pooh's") by Mr. Chet, who does not speak English but sings eerily convincing renditions of our favorite easy-listening classics ("Puff the Magic Dragon", "Horse With No Name")

4. Cold showers...wait, is this a "best of" list?

5. Waking with the birds...turns out this is more "woken by the birds," who seem to be nesting in our roof, and least of one of whom sounds to be in heat...or maybe was that a cat? Monkey?

6. The night sky...we hear we have this back home but find we're staring at it a lot here. Note to self: purchase Kindle book on origins of the cosmos. Contemplate.

7. Trying to use credit card...at the local pharmacy. Mr. Pharmacy is gone in the blink of an eye then screeches up to curb in his scooter. Gestures, smiling, at the bike's sidecar. Says encouragingly "tuk tuk!" We climb in, mildly alarmed, and are taken for a wild, Space-Mountain-esque ride under a full moon, across the island. Run Amex at Mr. Pharmacy's friend's restauarant (improbably named "Riccis")  while he checks his Facebook profile on his cell phone. He cheerfully drops us off at our hotel.

8. Rice...it's what's for dessert. Who knew rice had a whole secret dessert life beyond the Puritanical confines of rice pudding? Mango Sticky Rice = almondy rice plus sliced mango plus sweetened condensed milk = perfect symphony of sweet, salty and fruity goodness. A dessert revolution.

Krabi: Not So Crabby

After successfully landing a nice place to sleep on Ko Phi Phi in high season after showing up without a hotel reservation we took our new found swagger on the ferry to the mainland for the cliff-dominated beaches of Railay in the Krabi province of Thailand.



Brave smile.  I'm hiding behind camera.



Not so easy this time. 

After dragging our bags from one side of the island to the other, down a path to what appeared to be the island landfill, we quickly discovered that the places that would have us were a touch grittier than we expected.

We did find a really nice hotel with only one night open, checked out the next morning and moved next door to the Ya Ya "resort" which was more like a tree house village. 

We spotted a family we've been calling The Tevas that we encountered at the airport on the way to Chiang Mai.  We all played it pretty cool.

Not to keep repeating the same post, but Railay is really beautiful.  It is almost impossible to choose what to gawk at and we're sure pictures won't do it justice.  We're surprised that nobody has every really sold these islands more aggressively to us, it is really that impressive.

               

The island is split between two main coasts:  West Railay which is more upscale resorts and East Railay which is the edgier side, more for backpackers than holiday makers.  We stayed on East, although our hearts are West.

Food safety alert!

The food was cheap-ish, but we admit that we've been hitting the touristy places and thus pay the tourist tax.  The best and most affordable eats were actually from a longtail boat beached on the sand served up by a friendly Thai lady manning two woks and a grill.

We broke down and ordered a pizza - it was worth it.

This cave is supposedly haunted by an Indian princess.
We were haunted by Swedish tourists.

Seriously, don't feed these monkeys.

After hopping around a bit, we decided that our next stop would be a little more remote and for a longer stay to actually see if we could get bored.  We're on Ko Lipe now, a short ferry ride from Malaysia where we'll need to be before our 30-day visa waiver runs dry at the end of the month.  More on that next post...

Rod Stewart: Thailand's Answer to David Hasselhoff



Ready for our close-up



We continue our tour of the Andaman coast with a two night stay on Ko Phi Phi island's Long Beach.  The views were really great from our hotel, a direct shot to Ko Phi Phi Ley which is now a national park and famous for "The Beach" film that we all secretly enjoyed.



Swinging:  still fun.


It doesn't seem to matter where we go in Thailand, but we can't seem to escape Rod Stewart music.  We also can't seem to stop humming along.  Suzanna seems to know a lot of these lyrics... 

Just arrived/survived 3 hour ferry with the "Bros"


 

Taxi island style


These are our two bags, and believe it or not, they are about half the size of all the other tourists on our beaten path.



Breakfast on Ko Phi Phi



Dramamine anyone?

Night Canoe

On our last day on the northern Andaman coast out of Phuket we took a trip up to Ao Phang Nga National Park.

The limestone krast formations here are incredible, dozens of islands with vertical cliffs rising straight out of the sea. Famous for its "James Bond Island" we agreed that the scenery here easily rivals the south pacific islands of French Polynesia (at about 1/100th the cost!).

The best decision we made was to take an afternoon into evening kayak tour to avoid the crowds, and our group was essentially alone, cruising through caves with countless bats hanging from the ceiling to then emerge into serene and isloated coves. Once the sun set, our paddles would light up the water with emerald bio-luminescence flashes.

We got the impression that if you stuck around too long you would be trapped within the interior of the caves as the tides changed quickly.

Now we're on Ko Phi Phi, of Leonardo DiCaprio fame ("The Beach"). More soon!

Phuket, Thailand

Hey, at least it's not a closeup of an orchid.

Eating Italian food surrounded by Russians drinking vodka while watching a Mediterranean dance show in Thailand:  Welcome to Phuket!

First person ever to clean their sneakers in the
shower at the Le Meridien Phuket
(don't worry, we used points).

We haven't posted in a few days, because, well, we haven't been able to overcome beach chair inertia.

We decided to cash in some points and stay at a resort (surprise!) in a protected cove just south of debauched Patong beach.

The cuisine is much more westernized and therefore more expensive than where we've been elsewhere thus far.  However, we've managed to tap into Suzanna's Swedish side and have Wasa-bread picnics on the beach for lunch.

We hired a taxi to take us to the grocery store and the driver Mr. Wit parked the car, came into the store, and actually pushed the cart for us, all the while smiling encouragingly.  We later began to suspect we paid too much for this shopping excursion.

We're plotting our next move, heading south down the Andaman coast towards Krabi, with a stop on the island of Ko Yao Yai to check out the famous limestone cliffs.

Chiang Mai, Thailand





After four days in bustling Bangkok, we were happy to find ourselves in Northern Thailand,

 in the tree-lined university town of Chiang Mai.

We soared over the forest canopy on zip-lines:



Nick only sustained a minor injury (not including pride
 cost of wearing a harness)

    

 

But fortunately Dr.Panitsas came to
 the rescue with neosporin



We saw a gibbon family in the jungle:



Cute baby gibbon hiding



We admired fabulous golden wats:



And got up close and personal with public transport, Thai-Style:

Tuk-tuk (special price for you my friend)



And to think Suzanna won't even take the T at home  



Sawngthaew: Thai for "Big open red bus driven
 erratically, very, very fast"



Tomorrow we are headed for golden sand and emerald waters at th beaches of Phuket...

...life is good.