Thailand ... Koh Lipe

Stunningly beautiful beaches and water. Very small, at just a few kilometres long. No cars so transport is by modified scooters. They have a bench bolted to them to make it a side-car. Island is so small it is very easy to walk between the different beaches.

We stayed in an eco-retreat. Very basic with no air-conditioning, hot water etc.

To get into the environmental mode we even had frogs in our shower. They were always checking us out and gloating. I promised the girls that the frogs would stay downstairs in the shower room. Came home one night and they had decided to climb the stairs to the bedroom.

Some family members were not happy with this decision. I must have missed this one in boyhood because never had to catch frogs. Grabbing them was easy but holding them was difficult. They felt like a boucing bar of wriggling soap.

I was pondering why they were so easy to catch. Because they can only move by jumping if you grab them from above they have limited room to manoeuvre. If they could run or scurry it would be  more challenging.

There was one other unexpected problem. We stayed at Sunrise beach which is quieter and has better snorkelling. Unfortunately there was one bar that everyone hated and were trying to get closed down.
 ( The lease runs out soon and is not going to be renewed). Our retreat was handing out earplugs. We had two nights of very loud music which echoed across the whole bay. To make it worse the actual music was just so annoying.



I know your parents have eaten all the whales and had all the original adventures. So the young are left with worn out package tours and drugs so psychotic that the only sound they can relate to is a three second  base loop. Its not musical said the old man and it annoys my frogs.

I have always wanted to learn to free dive. A two day course covered theory and practical water diving. I was a little disappointed as had problems equalising in one ear. I got over 16 metres but really wanted to get to 20 metres. I am going to have another crack at this. It is so cool.

Lots of chilling out. The days were hectic as we snorkelled constantly. One day on a boat trip to various islands and another day hired a kayak and did our own thing. Seren loved being towed around the bay behind the kayak. I have some video in the next post.

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Drinks were cheap and food delicious. I lived on Massaman curry and mango sticky rice the whole trip. So good for your waistline said nobody ever.