Thailand: Koh Lipe - Mountain Resort Review

There are few ways to go to Koh Lipe. 

From Hatyai you may take mini bus or taxi for one and half hour to Pak Bara pier, where you take boat to Koh Lipe, and take an hour speed boat to the island.

Alternatively, take 2 hours speed boat from Langkawi to Koh Lipe. I'm not sure with the price, but that is like RM 200 +- one way. And hey, 2 hours speed boat is not kidding. 

If you don't mind 2 hours speed boat riding and you think to go from Langkawi is all fine for you, make sure you go by high season, which is from November to June, BECAUSE NO BOAT FROM LANGKAWI DURING LOW SEASONS. 

Then, your only is land transport, you may go to Pak Bara from any part of Thailand, but my choice was Hatyai -> Pak Bara. 

To go from Hatyai is the most popular route for tourist, you can got AirAsia to Hatyai, spend a night there and take the mini van the next day, one way mini van like RM25. 

If you wanna go by mini van, make sure you go by high season, BECAUSE  NO MINI VAN TRANSFER EVERYDAY FROM HATYAI TO PAK BARA DURING LOW SEASONS. 

If you go by high season, just ask your hotel to book for you, this is easy. If you didn't done your homework like me, accidentally bought your ticket in low season, please prepare RM 150 for one way luxury mini van to pier. 

But don't worry about way back to Hatyai, there are mini van everyday waiting in the pier to different places like Hatyai or Satun, so travel back to the city is not an issue.

I was lucky because i email a diver centre in Koh Lipe and she told me all those info earlier, so i can get myself prepare before i fly to Hatyai. 

Hello Rachel,

I can organise your transfers to Koh Lipe :
There is no daily minibus from Hat Yai to Lipe in october. The trip from Hat Yai to Pak Bara is around 2 hours so you want to leave Hat Yai at 8.30 am in order to get the speedboat to Lipe at 11.30 am.
Private taxi from Hat Yai to Pak Bara is 1500 baht.
Then speedboat return ticket Pak Bara - Lipe is 1000 baht.
Please let me know where you plan to stay in hat Yai, this way the taxi can come and pick you up directly at your hotel.

Total of the transfers : 3500 baht

Above the email that Kristelle sent to me, a very nice lady from Adang Sea Divers. She is a foreigner and runs a dive center + eco lodge on the island. 

In fact, lots of hotel and dive centers were close during low season, there are no snorkeling tour or island tour either, some small hotels owner not even stay in this small island. 

But luckily Kris is living on the island and manage to organize a private snorkeling trip for us, will write in detail in next post.

Most importantly is Adang Sea Dive also organise transfers, and i decided to get everything settle with Kris's help. Afterall, you do not have too much choice when you're travelling to an uncommercial and quiet island during low season. 

Oh yea, only one speedboat per day, make sure you catch the 1130am one during low season. 

And not to forget the emails of Kris, Kris@adangseadivers.com, you may google the website as well. But be patient to get the reply mail, internet is luxury in the island, Kris only checks her mail once every few days.  

We own a 10 seats mini van way to Pak Bara. 

Kris sent me a voucher, print it out and change for the boat ticket number in Pak Bara pier.  

The pier

In the speed boat. 

The island from the boat

Nice weather ain't? Wait till next photo.

Weather changes in a minute during low season.

See?

Thick cloud

We were staying in Mountain Resort, which isolated in another beach.

For your info, Koh Lipe isn't a big island, but there are 3 beaches, which is Pattaya beach, sunrise beach and sunset beach.

Yellow pin is Mountain Resort, while Green is where you drop off and main beach. You may google it for bigger image. 

As i said Lipe is not big and too commercial, there is school and community on the island, very quiet during low season and only have their origin residents, but that might be different story during high season.

And the main point is, Mountain Resort is god damn far and isolated, i read from the website that there is long tail transfer but none in low season, but they do have golf car waiting in on the beach everyday, if you pre-book mountain resort, just search the person from Mountain and they will send you the resort with their golf car. 

One way transfer like take you 15 minutes, and no kidding man, it is built on a real mountain, fuck steep. 

The walking street aka main street is 15 minutes golf car transfer from the resort, and trust me, you would want to walk in the night, you've to go thru a very dark path like grave. You may take the beach walk but its either any better. 

No worries, the resort take care of the customer, you may use their golf car whenever you wanna out to the hub, of course you might need to wait for either the driver to be free or free car. But its good enough, you feel like you're rich ass and you got a driver LOL. 

And its totally free, at least during low season. 

With condition that, no service after 830pm. If you back after 830pm, i suggest you to take the beach walk, the inner track is haunted, and don't forget the steep way. 

Oh, one thing i love about Mountain Resort is the private beach, absolutely no disturbing, and you got the damn nice sunset view in the beautiful restaurant. 

The food is nice, we dined a couple times in the restaurant, but that is a bit pricy, i understand that, so its fine (Because i'm not the one who pay for food hahahahahahahahha).

Taken in the open air restaurant

Path to the restaurant and receptionist 

half indoor restaurant, damn nice view

Low season = bad weather. Sigh. 

I miss that. 

We love the seat in the corner-most, nice spot to see the sunset during dinner.

You can snorkeling as near as the beach in front of this resort.  

The private beach

Huge resort with lots of bungalow, full of privacy

View from our bungalow

2nd day with nicer weather

Staircase to the beach, and this is one of the reason i suggest back from the beach in night time. 

The restaurant

Beach on your own

One of the dinner we had, cost us RM 100 which i think its reasonable.

Breakfast is not included, at least during low season. RM 20 for set like this. 

I forget to take photo of the bungalow before i mess it :p. OK we stay in the VIP air con room (i suggest air con room if you don't wanna donate your blood to mosquito) although there is cheaper fan room. The room cost me RM 150 per night, with private balcony, big bed, fridge, tv and bright shower room. I think worth for the money, for the sake of the private beach and nice sunset view.

One thing before i forget, Mountain resort has no internet connection during low season, this is killing John but its good for me, haha.

Throw your gadget away and enjoy the beach bitch!

This is long post that i beg for forgiveness to not blog for so long time. Next 2 posts will be Koh Lipe still, one is undersea and upperland, stay tuned!

Lastly, DOG IS EVERYWHERE IN THE ISLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! And damn, they all can swim better than John do. Hahahahahahahhahahahahahahaah. 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20111118, 1048am

Rach in finger nails is too long mood. 

Thailand: HatYai - A bit here and there

Aihh..

I don't know what should i write for my HatYai trip, its all about eat.

Ok before that, tell me what is the first thing when you're arriving in HatYai?

Get a cab to hotel, chill and eat or massage right? Yea i agree. But i got a completely different experience.

First, i leave my camera in Malaysia.

Second, i dropped my phone in the cab which sent us to HatYai hotel from airport. (Fuck i just have it like one and half month damn it!)

Great, no device for photo taking.

Ok its not fair to say no device at all, John with his iPhone, DSLR and a compact camera, but they are not my Xiao P and i don't know how to take the photo that i wanted la!

Ok back to the topic.

This is my first time to HatYai, and HatYai wasn't my destination, i just stay in Hatyai for 2 days, and stay 4 days in Koh Lipe.

John and I arrived in HatYai airport by noon, get a cab and check into New Season Hotel which located in the city center.

We didn't have much plan, just eat and wonder around in the city center.

If you're not a buddha, you might not interested in the famous temple and buddha visit in HatYai. So your only activity will be only eat, and shopping.

HatYai is not a big city, the most happening street is XXXXXXXXXX street, i can never remember the name, but if you're staying in Novotel, New Season, Lee Plaza, Regency or Sakura Grand View Hotel, you're basically staying in the XXXXXXXXX street that i'm saying.

Ok, I was staying in New Season Hotel for the first night arrived in Thai, and stayed in Sakura Grand View Hotel in last night before back to Malaysia (The 4 days in the middle i was in Koh Lipe). My advice, go for Sakura Grand View, might take you extra 5 minute walking distance to the main street aka shopping center, but cheaper the price, better the view, nicer the room, definitely better than New Season Hotel.

Alright, go to photos, copyright under John.

Room view from New Season Hotel

My regret, i haven't got a chance to taste the pork ankle.

Buddha festival food court

Chilling in the night, found Birdy coffee, haha. Birdy the name of my deputy editor.

Riding Tuk Tuk.

Famous Kam Eng Restaurant

Monkey hahahahahahahahahaha. Nice shoot John!

Hawker street

I owned the road.

How horrible, i got all these within a day.

Famous dish in HatYai is chicken rice, pork ankle, bird nest, noodle and suckling pig. Surprisingly not Thai food right? By natural HatYai has lot of Chinese, believe it or not, you don't need to know Thai to survive here, if you know Hokkien you can survive very well here.

Research from the internet, we had our dinner in famous Kam Eng restaurant in HatYai, don't worry about location, get a Tuk Tuk and tell them you wanna go Kam Eng Restaurant, almost every driver know where is the location.

And get your supper in the hawker street, just beside Lee Garden Plaza. We had our mid night dessert in the street, lots of nice food too.

John enjoyed his 7-11 shopping very much, all he looked for is MeiJi chocolate milk, he can finish a big bottle one shoot, i stunned, haha.

We got back from Koh Lipe 4 days later and i decided to change a hotel (I decide on the hotel and he decide in food), Sakura Grand View Hotel.

First, we got higher level room, great view of the city center and heck i saw great sunrise in the next morning!

Second, cheaper and nicer breakfast buffet. A little bit cheaper because of the location. But no worry about that, you can go everywhere by tuk tuk with very cheap fare.

Third, clean and big room. Very big window in the room, bright and clean, far better than New Season Hotel.

Scroll down for the sunrise view, and FOOD!

Cute donkey! In Sakura Grand View Hotel

Langsung tak paham

So we ordered whatever we see. And this only cost us RM30+-

Damn nice ice cream, only cost him less than 10 bucks.

Countless shoes.

Birdnest

View from Sakura Grand View, the city center of HatYai

He wanna capture the hot chick behind me, i covered him.

Amazing, sunrise view from my room.

I really don't have the talent in playing DSLR.

Those are the best sunrise pictures that i could do.

2 nuts playing with the shadow.

Macam Petaling Street

We have half day in the last day in Thai, we do not have much plan, except eat (Yes, this is makan tour) and get some souvenirs. We decided to go for some local food, so we walked without an aim and we got a very nice local store selling BBQ and noodle.

See the menu? We don't understand at all, the boss couldn't understand Chinese at all too, so we just ordered whatever display and that is what we got. Haha.

We then walk to shopping center, called Centrol and Lee Garden, lots of boutique and shoes and branded stuff as well. But we're both not shopper, i like dessert more.

Then we got some nuts.

Hey, yang boleh makan punya nuts la. Cashew nuts is cheap and nice.

Alright next post will be Koh Lipe, will give all the info including transport and stay.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

20111025, 0829pm

Rach in headache mood.