By Brandon
March 02, 2020 • 10 min read
January 25th to February 20th
After our brief stay in Singapore, we more or less spent the next month (from January 25th to February 20th) on various Thai islands. It was a blast and a really unique experience. Looking back on it I'm probably struck the most by how different the experience was on each of the islands. We also had some interesting experiences getting to and from the different islands...
Our first stop was Koh Lipe. From Singapore we took a 1.5-hour flight on budget airline Scoot to Hat Yai airport in Thailand. From there it was a two-hour shuttle ride to the Pak Bara pier where we took a 3-hour ferry ride to Koh Lipe. The ferry ride would have been quicker but it kept making random stops at tiny islands for us to get off have a look around for a bit which we weren't expecting. A recurring frustration with these various boats and shuttles we booked through local transport companies was the lack of information they provide upfront. Half the time we just knew we had to be somewhere at a certain time and hope we found the person who was supposed to guide us the rest of the way. Several of them will give a sticker to place on your shirt denoting your intended destination in order to help staff corale people going to different islands — but it was still a bit stressful trying to make sure we were getting on the right boat or following the correct person.
In the end we had no major mishaps en route and once we landed at Koh Lipe, someone from Ten Moons met us at the "pier" (floating plastic bins attached to the beach) and put us on a small banana boat to take a quick trip around to the other side of the island where we would be staying.
It's hard to really convey just how beautiful it was seeing the crystal blue water and natural coast as we made our way around this tiny island.
We were immediately impressed by Ten Moons once we arrived. It's a small unassuming collection of bungalows on what we think is the most amazing portion of Koh Lipe's sunset beach. The staff were super friendly and attentive and the owner is a genial Spanish gentleman who makes time to chat with the guests and see how they're doing. The bungalows have a rustic feel but still have essential amenities like a standard bathroom and air conditioning and the staff keeps the pitchers of drinking water constantly filled. But the view is the real appeal of these accommodations. While every bungalow has an ocean view, we were especially fortunate that ours was right on the beach (largely thanks to Chris booking it almost a year in advance).
As for the beach itself, it's almost too perfect to believe. The white sand feels as soft as flour and the water is so clear and shallow and calm that even a hundred feet out you feel like you're taking a bath with an infinite view.
But the beach isn't without its dangers...
Chris really enjoys lounging in the water on floaties, but it wasn't practical to pack one from home so she tried ordering one from amazon. And it actually arrived. I secretly had little confidence it would make it so I was shocked one morning when Chris walked up holding that familiar smiling box. She'd placed the order a few days ago and it promptly left its warehouse in Kentucky to begin its journey to the small Thai island. And despite the lunar new year weekend it managed to make it here ahead of the estimated delivery date. It's a floaty style called a pool hammock that we highly recommend. You can get it here. It's pretty cool since it's versatile, doesn't take long to blow up, and is pretty compact when stored.
She was excited to take it for a spin so she hopped in the water as soon as she had it blown up. When I joined her she had been enjoying herself immensely and insisted I try it out so I hopped on in the full "lounge" configuration. After floating for a bit, Chris was feeling adventurous and started propelling us towards this tiny island maybe four hundred yards away from shore. After we were maybe a few hundred feet out, I was looking around amazed at how clear the water was that we could see the coral underneath us. I also noticed some small brown seaweed looking things floating around me. huh, those look kinda like... "My arm feels tingly", Chris said abruptly. Yep, those are jellyfish... "I see a bunch of small jellyfish! Turn back!" I immediately switched to full lounge reversal mode, which to an outside observer might look like a somewhat uncontrolled thrashing of the limbs but I'm fairly certain it's the most expedient way to move while laying on a floaty. Chris did not hesitate. She immediately went full GTFO mode and hightailed it out of there. I looked back to check on her and saw she was practically all the way back at shore already and calling out asking if I was ok. On the one hand I was glad she ok and I could just worry about myself now... on the other I was reminded of the old adage "you don't have to outrun a bear, you just have to outrun your friend..."
Afterward, we did confirm those types of small jellyfish are sometimes seen in this area. Mercifully, the strings were fairly minor and only left small tingling red dots that faded after about an hour. We were still lucky that we only had a few stings for floating through what looked like a sizeable bloom (I learned this is what a group of jellyfish is called).
After about a week on Koh Lipe, we said goodbye to the sleepy little island and traveled North about 4 hours by ferry up the Thai coast to the island of Koh Lanta to stay at the Pimalai resort. We first heard about Pimalai when our friends Greg and Ro raved about it after their trip to Thailand so we figured we should stop by and spend a few days relaxing there. In stark contrast to Ten Moons, Pimalai is a sprawling resort-style hotel with multiple restaurants, large pools, gym and a spa. You can't get a room right on the beach but it's just a short walk down and still an amazing view.
The food was also tough to beat especially when coupled with the view:
We also may have indulged a bit and stayed a couple of nights in one of their private villas...
By now you may have started to notice Chris' affinity for infinity pools...
She also made sure we took full advantage of the great deal they gave us on massages at their spa. The gym was also nice for working off the extra calories from all the tasty food including what some might consider an unhealthy amount of mango sticky rice...
The next stop on our tour of the islands was Koh Samui. This was definitely the longest and most disjointed travel day thus far and on top of that, we'd been given only minimal instructions other than we would be picked up at Pimalai and we had supposedly booked transport all the way to the pier on Koh Samui.
We finally arrived at our Airbnb aptly named "Infinity Villa" since it's a villa high up on a hillside with an infinity pool and an amazing view of the island.
We spent our time on Koh Samui mostly enjoying daily life. We cooked meals, enjoyed the view, floated in the pool, practiced making some dance videos with the awesome background, and even getting massages.
Though it's an Airbnb, the villa is owned by a management company that throws in additional benefits like fresh breakfast every morning and scheduling a massage therapist to come by and give an excellent reasonably priced massage with a great view (Chris made ample use of this service).
We also ventured into town several times and checked out the market center and the local vendors and I even found a good barber to get a haircut from. We made a couple of trips to get groceries and even went to the movie theater to see "1917" (highly recommend). We mostly used Grab (a popular ride-sharing service in Asia) to get around but a couple of times we decided to hike down our to get some basic supplies from the convenience store (which we now refer to as conbini's after being in Japan so long and it's fewer syllables anyway) at the bottom of our hill and we would just consider that our workout for the day since a 20-30 minute hike up the steep hill while carrying a few gallons of water is no joke.
We of course tried out some tasty local restaurants and had more delicious Thai food including more mango sticky rice 😍. Admittedly we were also missing Japanese food so we were pleasantly surprised we even found a nice Japanese restaurant.
Since it's somewhat difficult to make it out to some of these islands, we were really fortunate to have the time to see them all. It was a really great opportunity getting to experience such diverse island life.
January 25th to February 20th After our brief stay in Singapore, we more or less spent the next month (from January 25th to February 20th) on various Thai islands. It was a blast and a really unique experience. Looking back on it I'm probably struck the most by how different the experience was on each of the islands. We also had some interesting experiences getting to and from the different…