Koh Lipe

Tucked in a corner of the Andaman Sea south of Thailand and proximate to the Malaysian island of Langkawi is tiny Koh Lipe, an island that forms part of the Koh Tarutao Marine National Park. If you have gotten jaded about the crowds in the beaches of Phuket, Koh Samui, Krabi and Pattaya, then this small tropical hideaway is your best bet to escape agoraphobia. The island is home to about 700 Chao Leh locals or nomadic seafarers who were originally from nearby Malaysia and granted land ownership of parts of the island. Together with an increasing number of tourist and resort operators, they form part of a fast growing tourism center in the extreme southern Thailand.

This southernmost of all Thai islands has various transliterations of its name such as Koh Lipe, Ko Lipe, Ko Lipey and Koh Lipeh. ‘Ko’ or ‘koh’ is the Thai term for ‘island’ while ‘lipe’ is ‘paper’ in the native Chao Leh language. Paper Island has four beach districts, namely, Sunrise Beach, Sunset Beach, Pattaya Beach and the curiously named Karma Beach. Coves and smaller secluded beaches skirt this tiny speck such as Bila Beach and Sanom Beach. Over 600 rooms dot the island, from bungalows to tents to upmarket hotels granting you an arresting view of the Andaman. For a more inland feel you may hike up a bit to and take your pick from a host of accommodations there.

Koh Lipe does not sport any old temples or historical monuments, not that temple spotting would be your objective when landing here. Apart from the emerging nightlife, there is not much to do on the island except to laze by the beach under a palm tree, with a book perhaps on one hand and a bottle of Singha Beer on the other. Mind you, this island is not totally isolated and parts of it could get crowded during peak season. You could be people watching while lying around and see backpackers, mature Western males, and Thai day trippers pass you by. You could be doing this for a few days and maybe push yourself to do something else eventually.

So you are down to diving and snorkeling next, and these water sports could have enticed you to endure more than a half day of travel from another Thai spot. You may enroll for a PADI course or practice what you are already proficient at and rent diving gear from various dive shops that will also allow you to dive at night. To swim with the fishes even longer, you may consider signing up for a Nitrox course, which utilizes gas tanks containing a higher percentage of oxygen and less nitrogen. Freediving, or the sport of diving using fins only and involves holding the breath while underwater is starting to take its roots on the island. If you have the lung power for it, you may enroll for  basic up to intermediate courses of freediving, and be an expert in competitive apnea.

As part of the Koh Tarutao National Marine Park, Koh Lipe has managed to preserve its sea treasures with minimal degradation. Fishing is generally prohibited in the area, so you need to be wary of tours enticing you for a fishing trip. Thus, the azure clear waters surrounding the island are excellent venues for snorkelling. Rent your gear from your resort, hop on a longtail boat and float endlessly while rummaging through countless marine species. The island’s adjacent areas are home to about a quarter of the world’s tropical fish varieties. Alternatively, you may also rent a kayak and leisurely paddle throughout the day and explore for yourself the various coves and reefs the island has to offer. Better yet, avail of day trips to neighboring 30 or so islands and do your version of island hopping in southern Thailand.

Prior to your trip to Koh Lipe, stack up on baht as the island has no ATM. Many resorts, though, accept credit cards and they may even give you cash advances on your Visa or Mastercard with exorbitant charges up to 8%, of course. Your dollars, pounds, euros, yens and ringgit will still come in handy, but rates will be lower than in the city.

It seems that as Thailand’s southernmost island, Koh Lipe suffers from higher fees in almost every product or service. Accommodations may be more expensive than some parts of Thailand, exchange rates lower, and the Internet more expensive but slower. As a relatively far flung area, the island is hooked up to the Internet through satellite link, so Internet rates are expensive as expected. Mobile phones can give you reasonable communication costs, but there are no 3G signals in the area. Let not these remote inconveniences deter you from sailing to the island. After all it is the warm tropical seas that pulled you to come here, so enjoy the day and perhaps get a nice soothing Thai massage in the evening or enroll at a batik class (Koh Lipe is just a few kilometers away from Malaysia).

Realizing the negative impact of tourism on the environment, the local authorities of Koh Lipe tries to implement sustainable tourism to avoid the experiences of the beach metropolises of Phuket and Pattaya. However, as a diminutive island in a marine park enclave, the existence of a tourism-driven economy on Koh Lipe appears to be rather ironic. As a result, to maintain its pristine facade, the island does not want its garbage within its premises. The province of Satun could only do so much in hauling off the island’s refuse to the mainland. Regular barges to ferry the garbage across the sea are amiss, so most residents and resorts turn to the primitive methods of trash disposal of dumping and burning. It will not be uncommon to see your hotel staff burn trash at the back of the building. Nevertheless, new garbage disposal methods are in place all over such as segregation. Steps like these will somehow avert the environmental challenges typically experienced by a small inhab ited island like forest denudation and freshwater shortage.