Skyline - Marina Bay

Had a short weekend trip to Singapore. The last time I visited Singapore it was at least 5 years ago. Singapore is so much more efficient than Malaysia, everything just seems to be just works. Buses and MRTs are on the dots.  Shopping malls everywhere. “Organize” is the word that I can think of for the city state. Probably a bit too organized for me though.

Love the Night Safari (but no photos to share since I didn’t bring the camera). Geylang is interesting. Marina Bay skyline is magnificent. Little India and Chinatown are lively.

Would love to see Clarke Quay, Sentosa and Bird Park next time. Oh or maybe I will just put up a night at Marina Bay Sands just like my friend Bryan did. Maybe.

More photos at this link: http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Singapore_July2011/

Palawan Map

This is where Palawan is – at south-western Philippines. Provincial capital is Puerto Princesa (公主港), where most of the commercial flights touch down here. Roxas, Taytay are relatively big towns, but the real germ of Palawan is definitely El Nido at the north, a small laid-back town about 5~6 hours away by van through some rough roads.

Palawan is often called the “last frontier” of Philippines, to me indeed it is but not for much too long – tourists are starting to flocking in. Go visit now before El Nido is transformed into another Boracay. This is my first time visiting Palawan (Puerto Princesa & El Nido) – but it already makes me feel real good.

1st day – What’s new? Zest Airways’ flight to Puerto Princesa delayed

Partas Bus Schedule - Manila to Clark v.v.

Arriving Clark airport from Kuala Lumpur by Airasia (4 hours), it is another 2 hours (P350) bus ride (Partas) to Manila metropolitan/Pasay City. I kinda know the drill – this is the 3rd time I am arriving at this deserted airport in as many years. It sucks to take that long on the road, and to worry about the traffic at EDSA that might have prevented us to catch the connecting flight from Manila to Puerto Princesa.

Traffic turns out to be alright, and we reached Manila Domestic Airport at 2pm – our Zest flight ETD is at 3:30pm. The queue at the check-in counter snaked for at least 50m for this flight, for the reason that I found out a bit later, that this period (late March to early May) is the Summer Break for Filipinos, and the super peak season for air travel. Therefore,it took us one hour to check in, partly due to the inefficiency of the counter personnel as well.

There is no individual gates at the boarding area for this small Manila Domestic Airport (used only by Zest Air & SE Air). It has some lousy food stalls selling exorbitant priced badly-cooked food, but at least it has enough chairs for all the travelers. A flight destined to Cebu, which supposed to be departed 30mins before our flight, was delayed. So it is no surprise that it was announced a bit later that our flight is delayed, too, initially for one hour. It just got bad after that – the departure time was eventually set at 7pm. That’s 3.5 hours delay.

No more Zest Air for me – not that Cebu Pacific is brilliant, but at least it flies from a much bigger airport terminal. I used Zest just because it is a few peso cheaper than the Cebu Pacific flights, and the ETD is fitting to my schedule. Oh well. Fellow Filipino travelers that I met later part in the trip also recommended me not to use Zest – “they are the worst!”.

Free curry chicken rice & H2O, courtesy of Zest Airways.

Food & water is given to us free at about 6pm at the terminal. Somehow the not-spicy curry chicken rice tastes good. Luckily I’ve brought a novel to kill time. Travel serves the purpose to finish off books that I’ve started ages ago that pause after the first few pages.

1Q84 Book#3. At Manila Domestic Airport. 痴等。

On board, the pilot apologized for the delay – it sounds so touching, as if he is holding back emotion to prevent his tears streaming out of eye sockets. Soon, he regrouped himself, and sped the A320 to arrive at 8pm at Puerto Princesa, 15 mins ahead of revised ETA.

Dori from Raq Pensionne picked us up at the airport exit – I’ve made a room reservation via phone 2 days ago. I appreciate the fact that she came a few times to airport to check the flight status, being situated not far from the airport helps, of course. Raq Pensionne is just 10mins drive from here.

Oh and we arrived at Puerto at the Earth Hour, so most of the shops switched off their lights from 830pm ~ 930pm, even the restaurant that we went to later (Kinabuchs) switched to use candle lights. Nice!

Candle-lighting Kinabuchs- celebrating Earth Hour in Puerto Princesa.

All the staff at the Raq Pensionne are really polite and considerate, makes me to have the family feel. The room is alright – 2 double beds, hot/cold shower, with air-conditioner, stand fan & TV, breakfast included. Free Wifi is available each floor outside the room (signal too weak inside), and hot and cold drinking water is provided at the corridor. P1350 (double bed deluxe).

We signed up for tomorrow’s Sabang Underground River tour, selected the breakfast choice and serving time (6am!) and off we went to Kinabuchs, a restaurant that received good review in tripadvisor.com. “Sizzling Pork Ribs” is tasty and tender – just superb. Among the best porks that I’ve ever had. “Mixed Seafood” is sub-par, though. P490 for 2, plus some drinks.

We did come back a few days later and tried “Sizzling Baby Ribs”, it is not as good as the Pork Ribs. The food menu is extensive, it will probably take one a month to try them all.

Sizzling Pork Rib & over-exposed Mixed Seafood. Definitely it is the camera's fault! :-p

Oh, the tricycles rule the whole Palawan, it seems. They are everywhere, in Puerto, in El Nido, and everywhere in between, normally charged P10/tourist to any town area destinations. They can be charted too at a mutually agreed upon price. They look like bugs to me. So bugs infested Palawan.

Looking down from Raq Pensionne

Related Useful Links:

• Raq Pensionne – Malvar Street, Puerto Princesa, http://www.raqpalawan.com/
• Kinabuchs – Rizal Ave., Puerto Princesa, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kinabuchs-Palawan/128793830486080?sk=wall
• Zest Airways – use only as last resort! http://www.zestair.com.ph/
• Cebu Pacific – probably the best budget airlines in Philippines (some say south-east Asia too). http://www.cebupacificair.com/
• Filipino Travel Center FAQ – useful information regarding Manila airport terminals and fees etc. http://www.filipinotravel.com.ph/information/faqs.php
• http://www.tripadvisor.com/ – this one no need further introduction.

To be continued.

Some more diving photos, taken at northeastern Bali area – Tulamben, Amed and Kubu.

A short write up to be followed soon, when I am back from Tioman.

I just come back from a diving trip to Bali a couple of weeks ago. I have to admit I have a blast, even if I didn’t see any Mola Mola and Manta Rays at Nusa Penida. Yeah it is right, I see none of them, which is probably harder to achieve at this time of the year (end of August) than seeing one or a few of them. Luck is just not at my side at times. It is a perfect excuse to come Nusa Penida again though!

We dived 2 days at Nusa Penida, followed by 1 day each at Tulamben, Amed and Kubu.

For Nusa Penida dives, we pre-book online with Bali Scuba at Sanur. 3 dives/day cost USD130. The price includes hotel transfer, tank & weight & guide, onbaoard soft drinks & mineral water, and a nice little lunch onboard (steam rice with beef & chicken, egg and sambal). Gear rental is not included – expect USD5/item/day. Our dive master for the 2 dive days are Knut and Henry. Knut is a tall Caucasian and likes to joke around. Henry is an over-sized fatty with over 30 years of diving experience. Both are really nice guys and helpful. Read more below.

Swastika Bungalow, the place where we stayed for 2 nights for USD40/night, is not far from Bali Scuba dive shop. It is not really a bungalow, just the normal resort type double-storey rooms. Room is spacious enough for 2, and equipped with air-conditional, TV and hot shower. There are a couple of swimming pools too among the lush greenery of hotel compound. The whole place shouts BALI. Oh and an continental breakfast is included too in the cafe overlooking one of the swimming pools.

There is a Swastika Restaurant just a stone-throw away from the Bungalow under the same corporation. You will get 10% discount off (or is it 5%?) the food price if you tell them you are staying in Swastika Bungalow. I didn’t recall the waitress request for the show-of-proof. Food is OK here. Go try the fresh coconut juice – the fruit came with decorations!

Water temperature is cold at this time of the year at Nusa Penida, so I didn’t use my 3mm wetsuit but instead renting a 5mm M-size long-sleeve wetsuit made by Nemo from the dive shop. It is full black with custom “Bali Scuba” branding logo across the chest area, and heavily padded at the elbow and ankle areas. This is the first time I am using 5mm, but it didn’t feel much harder to don than my own 3mm wetsuit.

Dive day started early – at 730am, the pickup already arrived at hotel. There were some waitings here and there. It is about 10mins to reach the dive boat at the Sanur beach. It will be another 45mins or more to reach the dive sites (depending on which one). Good thing about diving in Indonesia compared to Malaysia is that we don’t need to setup the gears ourselves. The boat crew and the dive masters will get them ready while we endure the long boat journey to the dive sites on the choppy water. Soft drinks  and mineral water is free flow on the boat. There is a small toilet too but it is a challenge to get every drop into the toilet bowl while the boat zips through the Badung Strait. The top deck of the dive boat can be used as sun deck while the boat is anchored.

We met with currents in all the dives here, the strongest one in 3rd dive at Crystal Point after the turn back. I held on to some coral rocks just to make sure that I don’t get swept away into the Indian Ocean. Still – no Mola Mola. I saw a bunch of Bannerfish cleaning stations but the big fish just don’t show up. Thermocline encountered at almost every dive – it is the layer of water column where the temperature changed dramatically, and due to this exchange of heat, objects appeared as if you are looking through a wrinkled glass. Going down the thermocline layer, even colder water is waiting to wake you up. The coldest that we’ve had in these 2 days is 22C – cold but still bearable with the 5mm wetsuit for me. Dive duration is mostly short due to the higher air consumption in all these dives to fight with the currents. Henry the dive master is using his 2.5mm wetsuit, guess he has more than enough of fat reserve in his body to shield from the cold :-p.

While no Manta and Mola Mola showing up, most of the time were spent looking at corals and divers. We did see a clown frogfish and a very nice looking nudibranch (Nembrotha purpureolineata), which was swept away by current after I’ve taken a few snaps. Poor nudi. Soft and hard corals are good and of many different kinds, especially at Toya Pakeh.

Dive Logs (1st 3 dives: 27 Aug 2010, 2nd 3 dives: 28 Aug 2010)

Photos

Click below for some photos taken here. I haven’t been taking any underwater photos since Aug 2009 Manado trip but it is nice to be able to get started again.

Nusa Penida, Bali - Diving Photos, Aug 2010

Diving photos taken at Nusa Penida, Bali at end of August 2010. Major disappointment is no Mola mola and manta ray sightings. Nevertheless a really good experience with the strong currents and cold water! Sure will be back next Mola Mola season!

47 Photos

Truong Tien Bridge, Hue, central Vietnam. Majestic at night when the ever-changing lights give a new lease of life to the cold metal structure.

Then we meet. Us and the Truong Tien Bridge. It is a 2-lane, 6-span metal bridge with narrow pedestrian walkway at both side, over the Huong River (a.k.a. Perfume River). It is painted colorfully by the ever-changing lights, from white to red, green, blue, yellow, all in different hue (no pun intended). The bridge is grand by its own, but with the lights giving it a different color & personality every few seconds, it is just majestic. We were busy taking photos while crossing it and before we reached the other side (< 500m I’d say), Ben’s camera battery ran flat. While he was running back to the hotel to have the battery charged for a short-while and then come back for more, I have the whole bridge for myself. (Well, not really. Like with few hundreds of the locals).

This was the only night that we overnight in Hue. If we didn’t happen to be here now, we are going to miss it like forever.

In life, some great things just come to you without you asking for it. You are so ecstatically happy that you wish the time can freeze at this moment eternally for you to to own it forever. But it is not to be. You let go reluctantly. And look forward for the next serendipity.

More photos after the fold – my futile effort trying to capture the moment as present, but then, it has been past.

Pedestrian walkway at the side of Truong Tien bridge.

Crossing the bridge.

It is blue now!

Locals gather on Huong River bank to enjoy the Truong Tien bridge.

Truong Tien bridge stands over the Huong River colorfully.

GSM Roaming in Airasia flight via OnAir service. It is total coincidence that the song I was listening to at that time was "Fly me to the moon". I was flying back to KL.

Tried sent a couple of sms’es and able to deliver, and able to receive incoming sms’es too. Did not have any noticeable lag. Did not try to call out though – pretty sure it will work, and more sure that it will cost me a bomb. No idea how much the outgoing sms will cost me, but there will be no charges for the incoming sms. No related mobile roaming information is found in the seat pocket.

Googling the OnAir service brings me to their homepage FAQ: http://www.onair.aero/faqs, which is an interesting read. Airasia is listed as one of its customers using the Mobile OnAir GSM roaming technology, where there is a picocell installed onboard for mobile phones’ radio interfacing, and then signals are routed to ground servers via satellite. There is also an onboard channel selector to prevent the mobile phones from connecting to the ground mobile networks directly. The Mobile OnAir supports only GSM/GPRS but not 3G – good enough for calls and sms’es, as well as basic internet browsing.

Cabin crew reminds that the mobile phones need to be turned off during take off and landing, so other than these periods, the mobile phones can be switched on and connected – as long as your mobile service operator has roaming deal with OnAir. Mine, Maxis, does.

The problem that might arise from this is the ignorant phone users that always speak loudly when on mobile phone, think China passengers, for example. That will be really irritating.

The OnAir has another service too: Internet OnAir – that works via RJ45 connection or Wifi. I didn’t try out the Wifi connectivity (because I didn’t even think about it at all then) but this just-posted Bernama article confirms that Airasia signs up only the Mobile OnAir service from OnAir. So probably no high speed internet browsing for now onboard Airasia, but I will find out soon enough during my next trip in August!

It was July 17th 2010, a Saturday. Far away from home.

• Restaurant Name: Y Thao Garden
• Location: 3 Thach Han, the Citadel, Hue, Vietnam
• GPS: 16.468009,107.567117 (click for Google Map location)

It is just a 10-minute cab ride from the hotel. The restaurant is set in a mansion surrounded by tropical garden with lush of green, which is welcoming. Walking straight in, no one was there at the reception to greet us. We walked around and took some photos of the tropical garden, and after like forever (well, 2 minutes but felt like forever) the waitress showed up and lead us to one of the 2 main dining halls, which were both without any diners at that time (~6pm).

The restaurant runs set menu, and there is only one lone set – take it or leave it – that costs USD10 (not inclusive of beverages). No À la carte whatsoever. Ordered 2 sets and a couple of local bottled Huda Beer, we set off to take more photos of the beautiful garden. More after the fold.

Fried Spring Rolls on peacock!

It didn’t take long for the first dish to come – it is fried spring rolls on toothpick poking on the back of a peacock with its head carved from carrot, and body from a pineapple. Nice presentation but the spring rolls are far from the best that we have had in Vietnam – they are not bad, really. Genuis about serving this dish first is actually the toothpicks which I can use throughout the meal. Of course we didn’t eat the peacock head (carrot) – the whole peacock probably will be recycled for the next table…

And here goes the subsequent dishes:

Vegetable ABC soup with carrot and potatoes - I expect a better soup to be served (herbal chicken soup at least?) in an "imperial cuisine" experience. Hard to imagine the Hue Emperor sipping away ABC soup during dinner 200 years ago in the nearby Citadel just a stone-throw away from this restaurant. (Photo taken at ISO5000!)

Steamed Shrimps go well with the provided dipping sauce but the shrimp is overcooked and felt rubbery and hard - but again, good presentation. The only thing in Ben's mind at this moment is probably why I am taking such a long time to take photos before he can start peeling the shrimps!

Now this is delicious - Hue pancake with meat and vege inside. 1 piece is never enough but can't order another one!

Menu says this is "mix fig salad with pork and shrimp", to put on top of the provided prawn crackers. This is another great tasting dish, but can we have more??

To me this is the best - steam rice wrapped in lotus leaf served with grill beef. Open up the lotus leaf cover, the aromatic lotus smell of the steam rice fills the air where there are some lotus seeds dotting the rice. Beef is done just right, juicy and tender. Keeping up in the food presentation front, there is a lotus flower bud that comes along and brings some pink.

The strawberry-lookalike is actually made of green bean paste covered in thin jelly, not bad in taste and presentation.

The meal is closed out with pineapples and tea.

Verdict?

The food is actually not bad but portion is small – note that both of us shared the 4 shrimps, the small plate of lotus steam rice & grill beef and “mix fig salad with pork and shrimp”. It is more like a food tasting than a full fledged fill-your-stomach meal. It is also by far the most expensive meal that we have had in Vietnam. That said, if you are visiting Hue City, I’d still recommend this restaurant – just lower your expectation, and you will have a wonderful evening here. Forget about “imperial cuisine”, I wouldn’t want to become the Emperor if these are the best food on plate.

Happy dining!

Location: Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi
Date/Time: 1st Sept 2009, 15:30

This orange brownish juvenile frogfish, measuring less than 5cm in length, has been eyeballing the pity little seahorse for quite some time. It probably ponders whether to go for something prettier for a quick snack – it is teatime now anyway – or just take the black seahorse for a quick chow since it is easy – the seahorse didn’t intend to move out from the frogfish’s stare at all. My dive buddy Bill and myself swam around these 2 little creatures for a while but nothing happened. They kept staring at each other, like stone statues, not moving a muscle, and only few centimeters apart.

Then, in the blink of an eye, the frogfish opens its huge mouth and had the whole of the seahorse’s head and some of its body swallowed. It is kinda bizarre to witness such a killing, though I’d prefer real horse meat over seahorse’s meat anyday.

For the next 3 minutes or so, the below pose maintained:

Frogfish tries to swallow a seahorse

But then, probably feeling remorse to kill a seahorse, or maybe the seahorse is just too hard to swallow, the frogfish releases it out from his mouth, and slowly retreated. The seahorse is alive – for now.

erm.. the frogfish didn't really like the horse meat...

Sand Castle @ Boracay Long Beach

Finally uploaded some photos from my recent short trip to Boracay, the Philippines:

http://travelgaia.com/gallery/Boracay_May2009/

More trip details to follow.

Vacation diving and holiday packages in dive resorts, on liveaboards, PADI courses, and scuba travel, tours and trips worldwide.

7th Apr – Arriving Denpasar airport ~7pm. Too late for Tanah Lot. Eat etc. Drive to Gilimanuk (110km, ~3hours). Stay @ Gilimanuk. The car better be prepared there!

8th Apr – Dive Secret Bay at Gilimanuk. Departs afternoon, heading to Labuhan Lalang (jetty to Manjangan). It is quite near Gilimanuk from the map, maybe 45mins or so. Stay.

9th Apr – Dive Menjangan. This should be one of the highlights of the trip. Top dive sites are:

• the Anker Wreck (40+ meters),

• Eel Garden

• Pos II.

Depends on how it goes, maybe stay extra night here, or heads to Tulamben after the dives. The road is straight forward, moving across the north of Bali, maybe 2-3 hours. Stay at Tulamben.

10th Apr – Dive Tulamben + Amed. Maybe not enought time for Amed.

• Liberty Wreack
• Drop Off
• Batu Kelebit

Heads back to Kuta afternoon. Stay at Kuta. If time allows, go straight to Uluwatu before dask.

11th ~ 12th Apr: standard thingy. Short trip to Ubud? Pantai Kuta, Uluwatu or Tanah Lot, souvenir.

Romance

Date: Late Dec 2008

Location: Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Bangkok

My third time visiting Bangkok’s famous floating market. Was walking alone having lost both of my travel buddies in this busy place. The hoards of wooden boats were causing a really bad traffic jam on the canal.

I was just going to capture a few more boat photos at the sidewalk while a pair of Caucasian couple strolled in front of me and slowed down. Holding hands, he turned around, whispered to her, and touched his nose to her face, like forever. Right here at the busy floating market.

Love is in the air.

Leading To Angkor Wat

Date: 24th Feb, 2005, 7:45am

Location: Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Finally! After 3 weeks’ tiring travel linking us from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, to Chiang Mai, to Huai Xuey, Luang Prabang, Vientiane, Pakse, Veun Kham, Phnom Penh, we reached the climax of the trip – at Angkor Wat.

This is my favorite photo of the Angkor trip. Not one of those must-have-sunrise-over-Angkor Wat photos – I have those too, but to me, the photo above has something special that I can’t describe. At least it is not one of those.

We made it, finally. Save the best for last.

Dusk at Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir.

Date: Oct 2005

Location: From the boat house, the view of Dal Lake at Srinagar.

The sun has just set. Late autumn evening is getting colder by the minute. Dal Lake is as calm as it can be, but can’t say the same to Srinagar, the Summer Capital of Kashmir – the disputed state that has multiple blasts that killed and injured many, before and after my visit. Srinagar is so beautiful at this time, it must be amazing during the Spring time when the flowers blossom. I wish I would have chance to revisit the place again, in Spring. I hope.

Arriving at Srinagar was spontaneous, totally unplanned. We’re checking out day tours in one of the many travel agents in New Delhi, and were persuaded to come visit Srinagar after hours of bombardment by the agent. The photos shown to us were heavenly – Srinagar IS beautiful. We paid USD160 for a one-way ticket to reach Srinagar, and were subsequently forced to fork out few hundred US Dollars each for the accommodation (boat house) and tours in Srinagar.

Sound familiar? Yea, this is exactly what Lonely Planet India specifically advices travelers not to get conned and sign up for this type of Srinagar arrangement in New Delhi. Basically, as foreigners, we can’t walk around the city by ourselves – it is just too dangerous, and the gun-holding army personnel can be seen every 50meter along the roads. There is no way we can get out of the boat house and go anywhere if we don’t sign up for the bloated super expensive “Srinagar Tour”, arranged by the boat house operator.

Of course, my Srinagar visit gets more interesting when a lone Korean lady checks into the boat house the second day when we were there. It was not romance, but personal safety is on the stake. I would not elaborate more, but the whole trip makes me grow as a person, and to see the evil part of some rich and powerful people in Srinagar.

Srinagar is really beautiful. The photo above alone cannot do the justice. We went to see the glacier and the snow capped mountains, tour the majestic Dal Lake, walk the city, and eventually go from Srinagar to Jammu in a minivan – the scenery of the winding journey is breathtaking – and take the train back to New Delhi.

We wouldn’t have seen Srinagar if we read the Lonely Planet – I love Lonely Planet, but it is not my Bible of travel. Dal Lake looked so peaceful, but not Srinagar. Things are not what they seem to be in Srinagar. And this apply to a handful of evil and greedy people there too. Don’t get me wrong, we met a lot of great and nice people in Kashmir, too, but in our case, the one evil out shined the rest of the good people, unfortunately.

May peace arrives in Kashmir.

Ferrero Garden

I was going to get some chocolates as souvenir in the Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport’s duty-free shop while waiting for the flight back home to Kuala Lumpur, and noticed that that there is a different kind of Ferrero chocolates. I’ve seen only one type of Ferrero chocolate in Malaysia – pardon my ignorance – which is the Ferrero Rocher.

The prestige Strawberry flavor

There, sitting on the shelf, is this Ferrero Garden chocolates in a clear plastic box. Total 18 pieces of chocolates inside, all individually wrapped just like the Rocher. There are 5 different flavors, namely Almond, Pistachio, Strawberry, Hazelnut and Coconut, differentiated by the wrapper color as well as the logo on the wrapper itself. Interestingly the Strawberry flavor has only 2 pieces in all the boxes that I see in the duty-free shop, while other flavors all having 4 pieces each.

I bought a box of the Ferrero Garden, costs me 320 Baht, and it ended up as a souvenir. I did try a piece of the Coconut flavor – it is sweet, white-milky and there is an almond inside. Unlike the Rocher, the Garden’s coating did not have the little chopped nuts, which to me is a plus.

Go check out the duty-free shops when you are in one of the airports around the world, and try it yourself!

Beach Volleyball is the daily routine on Lipe's Pattaya Beach at dawn

I first heard about Koh Lipe, or Lipe Island, in southern Thailand in Andaman Sea, was during Dive Expo in PWTC, Kuala Lumpur. Got some brochures about Lipe from one of the booths, read it up but didn’t really have any plan to go visit. And then I heard about it from a diver friend who herself hasn’t been there. And then I read an article introducing Koh Lipe in one of the dive magazines. Checked out some Lipe websites and I am sold, and managed to get Bill and JS onboard with me.

We went there 20 Dec 2007 (yea I know, it was over a year ago, but so what?) – it was super peak season during year end so if you happen to plan going Oct/Nov/Dec you better book the resort first. We’ve seen backpackers walking to and fro at the main Lipe beach (called Pattaya Beach) trying to get a place to stay but to no avail.

Getting There

The most convenient way for Malaysians (or from Malaysia) to get to Lipe is thru Langkawi Island. We used boat transfer from Langkawi direct to Lipe which costs RM228/person for a roundtrip, using Telaga Harbour’s service. There are other boats departing from other harbours at Kuah so you need to ask around (heard that those would be cheaper). Telaga Harbour’s catamaran takes about 10-12 persons and the trip takes just over 1 hour. Telaga Harbour is just beside the Petronas at the northern side of Langkawi island, and not that far from the Langkawi airport. There is a simple custom facility up at the 1st floor of the Telaga Harbour building for cleerance purpose, and on Thailand side, a little hut situated at the Lipe main beach served as the custom checkpoint. Do call and confirm the boat schedule in Telaga Harbour.

There are other ways of getting into Koh Lipe if you are from Thailand side. Check out the Useful Links at the bottom of this page.

Accommodation

We stayed at Varin Beach Resort, http://www.varinbeachresort.com/. Our rate that time was 1500B for 3 persons/night for a bungalow hut with air-conditional. Varin is located near the middle of the popular Pattaya Beach (see map below) and I have no complaints on the room for the price that we paid. Varin is also very near to the main island link road that connects Pattaya Beach to Sunrise Beach. Below is one the most comprehensive maps that I can find for Koh Lipe online, from http://www.kohlipethailand.com:

Island Map of Koh Lipe

We used the dive shop Lotus Dive, which is attached to the Pooh’s Bar, the self-proclaimed “The friendliest place on Koh Lipe”, and deservedly so. The dive shop is run by foreigners (US/Europe). AVOID THIS DIVESHOP BY ALL MEANS! The 3 DMs were struggling to use the GPS to locate the 8-mile Rock location during our first dive, and we ended up spending 3 hours on the boat without able to locate the mooring line and forced to turn back, and then the next day they also can’t find the wreck site (can’t recall the exact dive site name but it is an advance site). They even tell us that their boat is the fastest on Lipe, which is an outright lie – the boat is slow like snail. Things might have changed to better, but do check it out properly and ask around before diving with Lotus. There are a few dive shops on the island for you to pick too.

Tomato Anemonefish

Best dive site is 8-mile Rock which we didn’t manage to dive due to huge waves. The site is like 1.5hr boat ride so it has to be good. Pelagic site (I think for Advance only), current can be very strong and low vis. Worse yet, it can only be dive 2-3 days per month (near the full moon period) due to the tide condition. Other sites are OK, but nothing very special or distinct like Sipadan or Mabul.

In short, I have no dive shop to recommend but just don’t dive with Lotus. That said, you have to go visit Pooh’s Bar – the owner, Pooh, is a really nice, friendly and interesting guy. Check out Pooh’s website here, there are some useful travel information there. He even dived with us during one of our dives.  Pooh’s Bar is along the road linking Pattaya Beach and Sunrise Beach, you won’t miss it.

Food price in Lipe is reasonable. I recalled that we have a big grilled Barracuda steak for 120Baht or somewhere around there. Not dirt cheap food prices but definitely not cut-throat like those in Redang restaurants. As good as it was, Lipe’s grilled Barracuda steak still can’t beat those found in a Warung at Tulamben, Bali. Yummy!

I like this island for the laid back style, after all, it is Thailand and not Malaysia – I much prefer this than Redang (too overly crowded, and most resorts are running the packaged deal) or Perhentian (too peaceful). And of course, you can find Thai traditional massage here on Lipe, and many bars and restaurants scattered around the island. Lipe is really a great place to relax adn get away, and it is still relatively unknown to Malaysians. Locals here are friendly, just like what you would expect from Thai people. Water is pristine clear, as anyone would expect for Andaman Sea.

Reggae - Africa Sorrow I Know I Know

Check out my photos from Lipe at my Photo Albums page, or click here for the direct link.

Give Koh Lipe a chance, and you will find out that lesser known places can be as good as the famed ones, if not better.

Useful Links

A great and comprehensive site on Koh Lipe, you probably won’t need to read another ones: http://www.kohlipethailand.com/

Pooh, the friendliest place on Koh Lipe: http://www.poohlipe.com/index.htm

Varin Beach Resort: http://www.varinbeachresort.com (no affiliation, this is just where I stayed during my visit)

Lotus Dive: http://www.lotusdive.com/en/dive.php

Forra Diving: http://forradiving.com/