[Koh Lipe, Thailand] We’re pretty much all beached out for now. Three full days of baking hot sun, soft white sands and crystal blue water will do that to us. Being held up here in our little bungalow above Pattaya beach has been a fantastic little break in our travels. The bungalow has been acceptable. The cold water shower is not too cold and we have electricity from 6pm to 7am – although during the night the power dips up and down making the ceiling fan seem possessed. Sitting on our shaded porch and just watching the idillic beach has consumed many an hour.

We have wandered down to the beach occasionally to explore the rocks, take a quick dip in the very warm sea or find some food. We’ve become regulars at the Pee Pee Bakery for a breakfast pastry and in the evening all the beach restaurants move their tables out onto the sands – a great spot for a beer shandy while the sun sets. We decided to do some more diving here so have had to tighten our meal budget a little (to the cheapest item on the menu) but probably still eating double what we ate in China.

Yesterday we went diving with Forra Divers at a group of islands known locally as ‘The Far Islands’, because they are far away. They seemed a bit disorganized but friendly enough and the gear was in good nick. We got another Frenchman (Etienne) to lead our dives and after two hours on the painfully slow converted fishing boat we arrived at Koh Pung. The dive site was a 20m deep channel between two small islands. Above the water it was stunning but below was less than ideal. V had a terrible time and I fared only slightly better. 3m visibility and an incredibly strong current that we had to fight continuously. You could see that the soft coral forests were unbelievably beautiful but in those conditions and at that speed it was not fun. The conditions were marginally better at the end of the dive in the shallows where I got to watch a massive Morey for a few minutes.

For lunch we stopped in between two islands – the most amazing setting. It wasn’t very deep but the water was perfectly clear and full of sea-life. V and I did a little snorkeling and that more than made up for disastrous morning dive. The second site at Koh Sarrang was a short distance away. Sarrang is a tiny island with a reef extending down to 20m or so. It was perfect. 10m+ visibility and no current. We cruised around the island through beautiful soft coral forests. I love the round blue ones (that’s the technical name I believe) and the wavey green ones that always have a Nemo (Clownfish) in them. We saw (amongst many) Lion Fish, Scorpion Fish, Moreys, Emperor Angelfish, a huge Parrot fish (V’s fave), Moorish Idols (my faves), friendly Pufferfish and a decent sized Batfish as we were coming up. This diving thing is just too much fun and it seems we are getting better at it.

Besides all of that and snoozing afternoons away we have been plotting the next leg of the trip. The budget is getting a little tight (thanks largely to diving) so at this stage we want to head to Kuala Lumpar reasonably quickly and fly to Kota Kinabalu. We’ll spend three weeks around the Malaysian part of North Eastern Borneo before heading back to KL and on to New Zealand. It’s a pitty we can’t just keep going – looks like we are going to need another adventure to hit the spots we’ve missed!

[Pictures: Beach Views, Sunsets and Lunch time snorkel spots]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi