A few days of silence, because we have been soooooo busy. Hahaha no, just a different part of the trip. The children have arrived, and we are not cycling now for a few weeks. So what did we do? Well, we had a nice day in Langkawi first, just some good quality time together - including beach, food, drinks, little bit of shopping, walking around, ... and then we had dinner with Sofie in the evening, she arrived from KL to join us to Koh Lipe.
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| Family time on the beach in Langkawi |
Yesterday, Friday, we took the boat from Langkawi to Koh Lipe. Koh Lipe is an island in the south of Thailand (in fact, there is a group of blue water, white sandy beach paradise islands in the area) which we visited first about 3 years ago, and we absolutely loved it. It still had the charm of a simple Thai island, while it also had some relatively simple but good tourist infrastructure and excellent diving. We have been back a few times since then, and loved it every time.
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| Interesting frame, found in a shop in Langkawi |
Koh Lipe is changing however, as you would expect, unfortunately. It's still very nice, don't get me wrong, and it has not drastically changed, but slowly you can see that it is getting more crowded, busier, more resorts (and bigger, more expensive resorts, more concrete), more restaurants, ... The real laid back feeling is fading and give it another few years, will probably be lost forever... I've gone diving with Vere and Sofie today and had the impression that the underwater world is also suffering from the developments, which is not surprising. Less pristine coral, little marine life. I'll be going again tomorrow, to 2 normally very interesting dive sites, so curious to see what the situation is there.
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| Busy times in Koh Lipe |
Our plan is to stay here at least for another week, this Thursday our good friend Veckie is arriving to spend a couple of lovely days together with us in this little paradise. After that, Sander and Vere can stay another week and we'll see if we stay here, or go somewhere else in the region. Everything is possible...
I haven't made any picture in Koh Lipe yet, except the one above... promise to get you some in the next couple of days.