Ko Lipe stopover

Many had warned us about visiting Ko Lipe due to the untamed developments. We were led to understand that it was an island devoted to the Sea Gypsy community and a Chinese entrepreneur struck an agreement with their elders to buy or lease most of the island from them. Yes the place was busy, but the urbanisation was not a concrete jungle and still had a distinct cast-away feel to it. It's the last island in the adaman archipelago before reaching Malaysia in the south. To us it was an overnight stop to get a connection the next day northwards. Once we'd found a room for the night we relished in the range of cusine available and then treated ourselves to a good old burger, with a tasty brown seeded (not white sweet and dry) bread bun - luxury. 

The Main Street is called walking street, lined with restaurants, shops, dive centers and bars. After dusk the restaurants display their fresh fish selection: snapper, grouper, jack fish, large tiger prawns, jumbo prawns, squid, razor shells, clams, lobsters, blue crabs and more were on offer. Our attention was drawn to a large 5ft long sailfish which took three men to carry it and had a beautiful high and wide dorsal fin and marlin-like jaws. It tasted delicious, similar to, but softer than, swordfish. We couldn't manage to it eat it all though, as they carved over 40 steaks from it!

On the way back to our room we bumped into a honeymoon couple from Dulwich. Lisa and James asked us to join them at a bar on the beach. It was great to chat with them and we even went for a dip in the sea. Unfortunately Chris had his phone in his pocket. So it's now broken :( 

The next morning we visited a bakery for croissants and doughnuts and took the 3.5 hour ferry to Koh Mook to meet Fraser.