Long stretches of white-sand beaches, crystal clear water, chill atmosphere, great snorkelling...The list could go on forever. All these things I had heard prior to coming here and all things I expected from this tiny little island of Koh Lipe. Our last stop on Thai islands. Situated quite a bit down south from the most popular Thai islands, it has been said that Lipe is one of the best kept secrets. Whilst this may or may not be true, we at least found what we were looking for: The perfect place to end our island hopping. And although the island itself is small, it's part of the Tarutao National Marine Park and surrounded by many bigger, untouched islands. These, plus its proximity to the Malaysian border, all contribute to its good location. 

The arrival to Lipe was pretty different from the other islands as it didn't have a passenger pier and the ferry dropped us off on a floating harbour bit further off the shore. The luggage then was transferred into a long-tail boat which then brought us to the Pattaya Beach where we got off the boat and literally waded through the knee-high water. As easy-going arrival as the general vibe of this whole place! The island really has only three main beaches and one "main" pedestrian road that connects two of the beaches. It's all very walkable and the stroll from one end to another is only a good 10-15 minutes. The beach where the ferry operates is not so attractive during the day but in the night the restaurants spread out their tables across the sand and it transforms into this lively beach dining milieu. Along with this beach, the main strip gets very bustling during the evening hours and there's everything from cheap manicures to reggae bars to choose from. 

I could spend hours trying to convince everyone that the movie The Beach wasn't the reason I so badly wanted to go to Maya Bay. I mean, it probably is a reason for many people to visit this beautiful bay and surely the movie made it more famous, but I actually wanted to see it for seeing it and not visiting 'the movie set'. Again, getting everyone on board about this idea wasn't the easiest task but somehow I managed to talk them into it and so we rented a private long-tail boat for the afternoon and off we went! The point was actually to go around the entire Phi Phi Lee, not just the Maya Bay, and making several stops for snorkelling on the way. 

Our arrival to Ko Samui was nothing short of memorable- namely it was the Thai New Year and the Songkran water festival! As we rode to our hotel (which thanks to Songkran took almost two hours) we got splashed water on our car literally non-stop. I mean for us this was a great way to see the local people in action without getting all soaking wet and we got to take pretty cool shots along the way! 

Songkran's the single most celebrated event in all Thailand and it's an old Buddhist tradition. Since in Samui the vast majority are Buddhist, it goes without saying that a good proportion of the islands 40 thousand inhabitants were on the streets with their super soakers, huge water barrels and we even spotted a few bath tubes on the side of the road! Talking about some serious water fighting!  According to Thai believes, the splashed water washes away bad things and brings good luck and prosperity into the new year. The Thai New Year takes place right at the end of the dry season, and so this festival also reflects the transit into the "real" wet season. From my point of view, it's a genius way to cool down since April is the hottest month of the year- so it also serves a practical matter!

Songkran wasn't the only party around though. It just so happened that the world famous Full Moon Party in Ko Phangan and my own birthday were both lined up in our social calendar for the next days. Goes without saying that we didn't have so much time to really explore the island but instead we focused on having a good time. The FMP turned out to be "better" than expected, probably because the Haad Rin beach wasn't all too crowded and crazy, and besides, I know only a very few better ways to arrive to a party than in a speed boat ;)! 

All good stories come with some drama. We got our share right from the start at the Bangkok train station. We boarded the train as usual just to notice that our tickets were due days ago. In fact the lady at the desk had sold us the tickets for the day that we had purchased them even though we had told her specifically for what date they were for! The problem was that we had already booked a night in Chumphon and the ferry tickets to Ko Tao the next morning, plus it was the biggest Thai holiday at hand... so clearly we panicked for a second. Good news is that we had 15 minutes before departure and could still run back to the sales desk to change our tickets- no refund whatsoever but instead we had to buy even more expensive first class tickets because there was nothing else available! Awesome. In the end of it, we were just relieved to board and head down towards the anticipated Thai islands!