Hat Yai, Thailand
Day 29: From Hat Yai to Koh Lipe
In the end, we paid a little more than we would have liked, but we got a proper hotel room with hot shower, Western-style toilet, and air conditioning. After a shower and a rest, we set off for the night markets to find food.
Tom spotted a seafoody dish, and I grabbed one that was mostly vegetables. On eof the most difficult things is getting enough vegetables – everywhere in Malaysia offered bread or rice with curry dishes that were essentially chunks of meat in liquid. Vegetable dishes cost just as much as those with meat, if not more.
So it turned out that the “seafood” ingredient in Tom’s dish was actually chicken feet, boiled until the cartilage softened, and then stir-fried with lots of chilli … read more.
Day 30: Finding a place to stay
For our first night on Koh Lipe, we took a taxi to a remote beach (not that anything is 
more than 900m from the centre of town), where we had heard that a place called Porn Resort (I kid you not) had a clothing-optional beach. Unfortunately, Porn is not open yet, because it’s still low season. Note in the picture of the taxi that it was “Bring Your Kid To Work Day” on Koh Lipe.
Wearing our backpacks, we trudged along the beach to the next “resort”, a bunch of huts operated by the Marine Fisheries Department. Squat toilet, no shower, no mosquito net, but by this point Jenny was so tired and sick that anything with a place to lie down would have done. It did boast a huge empty second room, which made a lovely yoga studio… read more.
Cafe Lipe has a number of advantages, including spectaular views of the beach on the doorstep, proper espresso coffee, real cheddar cheese used in making omelettes and scrambled eggs (most other places use plastic processed cheese), the best Thai food we have ever tasted, and a very pleasant resident dog called Tul (spelling uncertain).
Tom had Tom Yum Gung for breakfast this morning, and it was the most amazing and delicious thing we had ever tasted. The food at Cafe Lipe is slightly more expensive than we would like to pay, but worth every penny. We are revising the budget, rather than living on rice and bananas when nectar and ambrosia are available … read more.
Pattaya Beach, Koh Lipe