Hatyai - Koh Lipe Trip Part 4

Next destination, Koh Rawi.

Another island with beautiful beach and crystal clear water. We stop here for 2 hours break and had our lunch.

Seems like this island is a pit stop for other island tours as well. Few long tails boats at the shore.

Boat with 'long' engine, thus it's called longtail boat!! Blek...

For our last destination we headed to Jabang, a snorkeling area for corals. Paradise of colorful beautiful soft corals. An amazing sight. No photos taken here, was busy snorkeling, hehe...

After the snorkeling, we headed back to Pattaya Beach. I was already sunburned then, can feel the 'heat' on my face T_T We went back to our hotel, took a shower and had a few hours break. I applied some aloe vera gel on my very red face, and suffered the soreness from the burns. Ughhh...

We went back to Bundhaya Resort to have our dinner. I read in some blogs that the food at the restaurant is quite good and not expensive.

Restaurant just beside the beach.

Seafood Tomyam Soup. Not that nice, just slightly sourish and not spicy. My friend very happy though, cause it was just right for her. A plus though, the soup was full of seafood, lots of fresh prawns, squids, fish meats and mushrooms. I still prefer the one we had the first night though.

Mixed vegetables. My friend tried to ask the waiter what type of vegetables they put in but the waiter had a hard time speaking in English and explaining to us. My friend gave up and just ordered it. She said she can eat all veggies as long as it's not cauliflowers. And we were served with lots of cauliflowers, hahaha...

Sweet and sour pork meat. It was sweet and sour alright, but the meats were very tough. By the time I had my third piece, my teeth were numb -.-''

After our dinner, we went back to the Walking Street. I wanted to grab the pineapple and orange juice, hehehe. It was dark along the road in the walking street. Most of the shops were not open. But luckily, the pancake shop was open xD Happily bought it and walked back to our room, lalalala~~

Spotted this motorbike beside the pancake shop. This type of motorbike had been our transport throughout our stay on the island.

Slept early that night. Was pretty tired from the island and snorkeling trip. And we need to get up early the next day to catch our boat.

Early next morning, again with the motorbike, we headed over to Sunrise Beach. Had a light breakfast at Sunrise Beach Restaurant.

My Cafe Latte. I actually forgot to take a photo of our breakfast. By the time I remembered, the plate was already empty -.-''

Our speedboat back to Pak Bara pier.

And our journey continued to Hatyai....

Hatyai - Koh Lipe Trip Part 3

Second day on the island, I wanted to catch the sunrise. So my friend and I woke up early the next day and walked to Sunrise Beach. We were a bit too early, the sky was still very dark and there was not much lights around. Armed with flashlight from my mobile phone and compass from my friend's iPhone, we searched for the beach. We were lost for a couple of times and there were lots of stray dogs barking at us in the dark. We managed to find our way to the beach after quite a while.

But to my great disappointment, the sky was cover with lots of clouds that early morning. Couldn't see the sun as it raised itself behind the clouds.

Lots of clouds in the early morning. Still a pretty sight though.

Walked back to our room took us less than 15 minutes now that the sun was up -.- It was still early, so we went back to sleep, hahaha...

We had our breakfast later that morning at the walking street.

This was where we had our breakfast. Thai Lady Pancake.

My friend ordered the Ice Mocha and Banana + Lemon Thai Pancake with Nutella. I ordered something more common, Pineapple + Orange Juice and Ham + Cheese Thai Pancake. I like my juice, hehe. Cold and refreshing to drink on a hot weather.

The shop opposite us.

Most of the shops in the walking street were close due to low season. Which resulted in nothing much to see, even the souvenir shop was close.

After our breakfast, we were ready to go for our islands hopping and snorkeling trip xD

Our longtail boat leaving the island as we headed towards our first destination.

The longtail boat is actually not that fast and shaky at times.

Reached our first destination, Koh Yang, one of the snorkeling spot. Lots of fishes =D

Our second destinations, Koh Hin Ngam. A small island, mysteriously built up from thousands of black pebbles and rocks. I read from one of the blogs that we are not allow to bring back the rocks. Seems like there is a curse and bad luck will follow whoever brings the rock back. Hmmm... wondering how true it is. But the island is kinda dirty, with lots of rubbish on the small island. Most probably dumped by irresponsible tourists =\

Journey continues next post...gotta sleep now =P

Hatyai - Koh Lipe Trip Part 2

LAND AHOY!!~~

After 1 hour and 15 minutes in the speedboat (we didn't stop at Koh Tarutao as it is closed during low peak season so we got there faster), we finally reached Koh Lipe. It was such a beautiful sight that once the speedboat slowed down, everyone got up and started taking photos.

There is no pier on the island, so the speedboat stop as close to the shore as it could. We had to jump down into the shallow water and waded to the shore. And I was wearing jeans!! -.-'' But once I stepped foot on the island, I couldn't helped myself but to take some photos first.

Sunrise Beach, one of the beaches on the island. This was where our speedboat dropped us. Just look at the crystal clear water. You'll never get enough of it. Even the waves looked so clear. Simply beautiful.

At the beach, the representatives from different hotels were waiting for their guests, each holding a card with the names of their guests. It's like what you normally see in the airport but you are at the beach instead. Kinda cool though, different feel, wakakaka... blek...

But I really appreciated the fact that they actually came to the beach and waited for their guests. My friend and I were a bit worry as to how we will get to our hotel. Along with our luggage, we were 'transported' in a buggy to our hotel. Just a few minutes ride to our hotel but the road was bumpy all the way.

We stayed at the Harmony Bed and Bakery Hotel which is quite near to the walking street.

Hotel Lobby

Our room, small but comfy. With air-con too but lots of big mosquitoes and ants. I was kinda terrified of the big mosquitoes and I seriously don't want to go back Malaysia with dengue -.- We bought some mosquito coils for our own protection, haha...

We took a quick shower, hanged our jeans out under the super hot weather to dry and headed out for a late lunch. Were already super hungry so we just grabbed our lunch at the hotel bakery.

Bakery, didn't see any breads or cakes though. All I saw were croissants. Nothing much on the menu either so both of us ended up ordered pasta.

Bacon Spaghetti Carbonara. Cheesy and creamy, quite nice.

Tuna Spaghetti Bolognese. My friend commented it was very good. Even attracted the fly, haha...

We walked around the small for a while after lunch. We wanted to explore the other side of the island and walked to Sunset Beach. But the weather was so super hot and after like 10 minutes walk, we gave up and turned back to our hotel. We asked the receptionist if there is any public transportation that can bring us to Sunset Beach.

She told us we can wait outside the hotel for the motorbike taxi. So we waited, but there didn't seems to be any taxi around. Luckily for us, the hotel's motorbike came back from delivering some goods and she requested the guy to bring us there. We ended up getting a free ride xD

The guy dropped us at Mountain Resort which is on a higher ground. He told us to get back to our hotel, all we need to do is walk along Sunset Beach to Sunrise Beach.

Looking down to Sunset Beach from higher ground, it was another beautiful sight. Just breathtaking. White sandy beach, crystal clear water by the shore and clear blue open sea, it felt like paradise. No wonder they called this place Maldives of Thailand.

Sunset Beach

Mountain Resort's Chalets by the seaside

It was still too hot to walk back so we just relaxed ourselves at the beach and waited for the sunset.

One of the sunset shots I took.

We walked back to our hotel as the sky was getting darker. As per instructed by the guy, we walked along Sunset Beach into Sunrise Beach. It was further than we expected and the sky is getting darker. There was no light on the beach but only some faint lights from the hotels and restaurants. We managed to get back to our hotel by asking one of the guy at the restaurant for directions.

We had our dinner very late that night. When we walked out from the hotel, almost all the shops were closed except for one and that was where we had our dinner. And this time, we ordered Thai food xD

Chicken and mushrooms tom yam soup. My friend requested for it to be less spicy as she can't take spicy food. But the soup came out still spicy for her, haha. But it was good. Nice and would have been nicer if spicier =P

Squids in sesame sauce. A normal dish but it was still nice.

Kangkung with cashew nuts. Another simple dish but I liked it. I didn't really see much cashew nuts in it but my friends admitted couple of days later that she ate a lot =.=''

Soon after dinner, we headed back to our room and hit the bed. And that ends our trip on day 1....

Hatyai - Koh Lipe Trip Part 1

Finally managed to go for a short break last weekend. Didn't go that far though, just to our neighboring country, across the border to Hatyai, Thailand. And oh, a little detour to Koh Lipe for some tan and sunburn.

It was my first time to Hatyai, same goes for my friend. We started our journey at around 3.40am. I made sure I had some sleep earlier that night cause I was driving. Reached Bukit Kayu Hitam approximately 2 hours later. The immigration only opens at 6am so we waited with all the people that reached even earlier than us. When we got there, there were already lots of cars and buses waiting in line for the immigration to open.

It didn't take us long to pass the Malaysia Immigration. I drove over to the duty free zone and parked my car at the car park. Lots of people have already leave their cars here while they headed over to Hatyai, the car park was almost full -.-'' I managed to find a parking lot and hoped my car will be safe for the next 4 days.

We rented a van and the uncle drove us to the bus terminal in Hatyai. One hour drive from Danok to the bus terminal. Still very early with no traffic jam, the uncle drove pretty fast. We reached the bus terminal quite early and our next transportation won't be picking us up for another 2 hours, so we walked around the area. Nothing much to see though, went into a small Tesco Lotus and 7-11. I was already hungry and we took our breakfast at a small stall beside the 7-11.

My first breakfast in Hatyai. Porridge with half boiled eggs and some minced meat. It was surprisingly tasty.

I ordered the coffee and my friend ordered the milk tea. Not bad.

It was still early after our breakfast so we walked inside the bus terminal. My friend wanted to look around if there is a bus to Pak Bara Pier, which was our next destination. She said just in case next time we decide to come again, we know of an alternative way instead of just relying on the tour van.

The van tour agency suddenly called us and said they will be picking us up early. So we rushed back to the 7-11 and waited for the van. He was around 15 minutes late and could speak no English. After picking us up, he headed over to Prince of Songkla University to pick up 7 more passengers. All of us heading to the same final destination, Koh Lipe xD

It was 2 hours drive from Hatyai to Pak Bara pier in Satun. I slept almost the whole journey.

It was super hot when we reached Pak Bara. Nothing much here, except for 1 or 2 rows of shoplots, mostly are tour agencies. We booked our speedboat ticket from Bundhaya Speeboat. It is low peak season on June and July, so there is only 1 trip per day throughout the months.

The speedboat schedule for Bundhaya Speedboat. Other agencies may have different schedules. But due to the low peak season, all the agencies collaborate among each other by combining all their passengers into one speedboat, thus only 1 boat per day will go to the island. Good idea huh.

A big map of Satun.

The waiting area. Not very well maintained, kinda dirty and a bit run down.

Our queue number cards.

Our speedboat to Koh Lipe.

And off we went. Took around 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the island.

The journey continues..... blek... xD