Koh Lipe

Home to the Chao ley, sea gypsies rehomed from Phuket, this small crescenct shaped island hunkers down in clear turquoise waters beneath its bigger sister Koh Adang.

As part of a marine national park, development is limited on all other islands but Koh Lipe has suffered slightly from over development. Not that it isn't still a home to beautiful beaches, teems with marine life, and proffers a relaxed go easy vibe. A wander inland, not that there is much inland, hides a little too much rubbish, a few too many tourist bungalow construction sites and even motorbikes zipping around. However you spin it though still a beautiful and relaxing place to spend a few days.

We stayed 4 nights in airy and pleasant bamboo huts for around 800baht (£16), Lipe Beach resort and Varin Village for 2 nights each. Our preference being the first although we moved to save some money by taking a 3 bed bungalow in the latter with Jamie, Erlend having said his goodbyes and headed to Krabi.

As to be expected more relaxing on the beach followed. The Pattaya beach side where the long tail boats abound and biggest bars sit, whilst naturally beautiful, is too busy to be ideal for daytime relaxation so we located on the sunrise beach side. With clearer waters and better snorkelling much nicer and just a 5 minute walk over the island.

Koh Lipe also afforded us the opportunity to enjoy some diving. For me to pick up a few more dives being already certified and Em to give it a go for the first time. Em opted for a Padi intro to Scuba and me 3 dives with Koh Lipe Divers. Situated half way down 'Walk Street' they were keen to reassure Em and proved happy to work through any concerns with her.

As it happened Em completed her dives, time spent practising core exercises in shallow water helping build confidence and was happy to see her calmly swimming past on the first dive alongside her instructor. Lipe is not an ideal destination for those seeking the big stuff, sharks, barracuda etc. however offers some great macro life. Highlights for me included sea horses, pipe fish, a large stone fish and some moray types had not see before. Em's were lionfish, porcupine fish, lots of anemome fish (nemos), christmas tree worms and barrel sponges.

We decided to head off to Krabi on the ferry although the slightly misleading trip sold as a ferry all the way to Krabi with Tigerline ferries turned out to be a 2.5 hour ferry ride to trang, confusing wait where people didn't really know what was going on and finally another 2.5 hours on a minibus to Krabi. Given buying the combo speed boat and minibus journey is cheaper to start with more recommended than our trip.

From Krabi, it's 15kms to Ao Nang and a 100 baht for a long tail boat to Ton Sai our next stop.