Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Epic Road Trip (Episode 14) - Koh Lipe

Hello Hello Hello....

It's been a while since I last updated this blog because it has been a while since I rode across the border.

As some of you might have heard, I was recently blessed with the birth of my lovely daughter, so riding has been pushed down temporarily.

Anyways, my daughter is now two months old and both she and her mom are healthy. So, it's time for me to continue riding.

In this episode, I will share my recent 'short-trip' to Koh Lipe. This ride was a last minute/one-week-planned ride and I'm glad that it happened. One of my good friend had never ridden to Thailand and he wanted to ride somewhere that's nice but not that far. I figured Koh Lipe is a good place as any.

Before we begin, here are some photos and information about the place:

Read about KOH LIPE here :)

We started our journey at the usual time. 3 am or so from KL in order to reach to border early in the morning. We met up at R&R Rawang around 3am, performed our Subuh/Fajr prayer at R&R Juru and reached Changloon for insurance/white card/money changing at around 8am.






After everyone have all the necessary documents, we rode to Wang Kelian. There are several ways to go to Lipe but if you are from the mainland, Pak Bara is the easiest (not necessarily the quickest though :P )

We passed through this nice route in Felda Chuping

 


We then proceed to make our way to the border.






After clearing both Immigration and Custom, we rode to Pak Bara. Upon arriving, we looked for the Pier. There, we bought our ferry tickets and found ourselves a secure parking spot for our bikes. We changed our clothes and walked to the Pier.




* Travel Tips: When you go to the pier to get your ticket (1200 Baht for return trip), that is not the only thing you will be paying. I found that it costs more to go to Koh Lipe than some of the other islands in Thailand *

As you enter the jetty, you will be greeted by some nice staff and ask you to pay for entrance fee.Only then can we board the boat. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good seat. So, it's the side seats for two hours. :P






The boat ride will pass through another Island called Koh Tarutao. It's a national park. Next trip perhaps? :)

Now this is where it gets funny. As we approached the island, we are dropped off at a floating jetty. From there, you pay some more and then take a long boat to shore. However, later that evening, I saw the big boat parked somewhere close to shore. "Couldn't you just dropped me off directly near the beach?"




We didn't book any hotel so as soon as we arrived, the first that I did was..... take some photos! :P



We managed to get ourselves a nice hotel. It wasn't as cheap as I expected but still considered cheap. Before checking in, we had ourselves some drink at the hotel restaurant which faced the beach and ocean. Spectacular view! :)




Noticed that I included my leg in some of the photos, just in case people say that the photo is from the internet :P Seriously guys, this place is beautiful! :)









After hitting the shower and a bit of a rest, we decided to walk to the famous 'Walking Street of Koh Lipe'. It was a few minutes walk from our hotel. If you googled about Lipe, Walking Street is one of the thing that is going to pop up. It is basically a 2km long stretch of street with all kinds of shops, restaurants and bars.

But before anything, some food cause we were hungry.

 


Now, photos of us walking on the Walking Street... duhhhhh... hehehee



 

The next morning, it was raining but we still needed to go home. So, we went through the same procedure. Long boat - Floating Jetty - Big boat home.











Back at Pak Bara, we had a quick lunch and got ourselves ready for the ride home. It was a very nice road trip to a beautiful place.







On the way back, we encountered a lot of interesting places such as a trunk road that the GPS pointed and also a COWBOY shop at one of the PTT.



Overall it was a nice trip worthy of being in the 'Epic Road Trip Episodes'. :)

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