Arrival and Kayaking at Sunrise Beach
The travel here is pretty long. We’ve done it a few times already and this time around was a bit better because we had someone to pick us up from the airport with a car, instead of getting a shuttle bus straight to the pier. Our group this time was a bit bigger - we had Nat’a dad with us and two of his friends. One of the friends lives near Khao Lak and drove to pick us up from the airport. Our flight was a pretty early one so we had plenty of time to stop for food and coffee on the way to the pier.
On our way from Hat Yai pier to the island - which takes about 1.5-2 hours with a speed boat - we stopped at an island for 10 minutes to explore. That was a new thing and glad we did. The place was simply amazing. A long beach line leading towards a small rock tunnel. It is said that the couples that go through the other side of it would get married in the near future. I was wondering why no one was going through it.. 😃
After our arrival at the hotel, we quickly left our stuff and headed towards sunrise beach for some kayaking. I decided I would be the one documenting the whole thing instead of participating and i’m glad I did. The bird eye view from the drone is really something else around these parts.
There was a tiny island with a small beach on it in the distance. The plan was for the kayakers to get there in about 20 minutes. Plenty or time for me to explore around and capture them paddling.
Here's the kayaking destinations from all angles. If you look closely you can see the two kayaks on the little coast in this last photo.
The water around the island is quite shallow and Lipe is known for being the island with the clearest waters in Thailand (or so people say). These two things combined makes the corals underneath pop so well even deeper in the sea. The water all around is bright emerald-turquoise color. It is one of the most beautiful things to see and I don’t think I can ever get tired of this sight.
Suppose this was my kayak. The three they gave us were pretty much the same. I quite liked the color. I like the yellow color of them. It popped quite nicely on the photos, contrasting with the bluish waters.
And here's the returning kayak champion. Nat isn't used to kayaking without me I guess. Usually I'm the hard worker with the paddling and she had to do quite a bit more here. Have to say I'm proud she made it! :)
From here we went straight to dinner. I was starving so bad by the time we actually got to the hotel. The rest of the night was quite uneventful. We spent the rest of it at the hotel restaurant looking at the sunset. After that we went by the pool connected to our rooms and had a night dip for awhile before going to bed.
Oh wow, the color and clarity is truly oustanding. But I believe with the mass tourism around the world being reduced so much lately (for obvious reasons), many natural places finally have some time to heal and we might soon see such pristine environments where they were not before. It´s incredible how fast nature can recover. Amazing photos as always my friend, great job :)
This is somewhat true but we've been to Lipe 3 times now and twice before the pandemic. I'd say nothing has changed here because the island isn't usually crowded. It takes about 9 hours to get there from Bangkok and not many tourists want to take that long of a trip, when there are other amazing places to visit withing closer reach. It is true that the island was a lot more emptier this time around though. Used to have 10ish boats sailing towards it per day - now there are only 2 during the week days.
I am not saying this is the case of Koh Lipe, I believe this place might have always looked amazing like that. I am saying that the dramatic drop in mass tourism around the world has caused the quality of water to increase significantly in many other places. Even many rivers, lakes and other bodies of water are now much cleaner than they were before the pandemic outbreak. Sorry for the misunderstanding ;)
With that I can definitely agree! Nature probably is the biggest winner when it comes to Covid. Even at the start when all the factories were closed and the air was the clearest it has been in decades. It is amazing how little time it takes for it to heal when everything just stops.
Exactly :)
so true i wanted to say the same the water looks amazing :)))!
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The view is incredible, man. On the contrary, I am buried here in a mountain of snow.
Well sometimes I wish I could see a mountain of snow too. Nat's been even more keen on going somewhere cold but the covid situation doesn't really allow it at all.
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My favorite place in Thailand so far and I've traveled quite a bit. Had Khao Lak and Similian islands been pitched quite a lot as well and going there beginning of next month. Will compare and see if it is even more beautiful! ^^