Ko Lipe

With only days left on our Thai visa (you always need that extra week somehow...) it was time to head south towards Malaysia. We found Ko Lipe while browsing the guide book and looked perfect: in a deep south-west of Thailand, only 45min boat ride away from Malaysia.

They call it "Maldives of Thailand" - no surprise with regards to island's "walk around in 30min" size, beautiful white sandy beaches and pristine coral reefs around it.

As always we just couldn't resist doing some diving here. This time we where well rewarded. 8 mile reef (unique name for this reef that is about 8 miles away from island) was a fantastic dive - devil rays (mobilas), sharks, huge school of jacks.

Lipe is not a place for extra luxury hotels - yet! On our part, think that we redefined the basic accommodation here (check out the pictures). Slept with one eye open as the island is packed with insects, frogs, snakes and scorpions - and yeah we had some in the room (not snakes thankfully or Nives would be back in Europe by now). Hot water is always the luxury, but bathroom sinks started to be one as well.

We felt sad leaving Thailand, but prospect of some good naan bread and duty free booze in Malaysia's Langkawi island kept our spirits high when we left on our last visa day.

Some more pictures here.