Koh Lipe

It’s the hot season in Thailand right now. The hot season right before the rainy season begins proper in a month. So that means its around ... i dunno... 34 in the day perhaps? Which doesn’t feel all that hot, but its the humidity sometimes, when there is no breeze, that makes it so sticky. But the cool sea is never more than 5 steps away at any given time, so it’s really a non-issue.
We have a fan and a mosquito net in our room so its more than sufficient and comfortable. I love sleeping in the tropics with the smell of the sea and the sound of the waves softly lapping at night like a lullaby. Ya, our room is basic beach hut bungalow chic. Replete with a toilet with no flush. You use a couple scoops of water of course to wash it all down. I don’t think it ever was a flushing toilet. I think it was meant this way from day one. No problem. Not a one.
The island is no bigger than 2km from any given walking point to another. I am glad we have two weeks here because it has taken us a whole week to get our island legs. But we are fully and completely chilled out now. Everything is flowing. The pure simplicity of waking 20 feet from a crystal clear warm sea with blue horizons, white sands and palms is enough to transform anyone, even the hardened city person or stress case. Slowly surely, every tense muscle in your body starts to release, every ache and pain begins to ease until you realize you are waking in total comfortable bliss every morning. Sand between the toes becomes addictive.
We have pets too. One lovely dog who adopted us on the first day we arrived. Claiming us as her own. She protected and accompanied us for 3 full days before we even began feeding her. Now that’s loyalty. We have named her gypsy. Oh, and here she comes now. Gypsy is beautiful, with dark soulful eyes and a golden coat. Her face wrinkles up when she looks at you. She has a great big black scar where the fur doesn’t grow all the way from her left ribcage across her shoulder and back to the right ribcage. Looks like maybe she got tangled up in a barbed wire fence or something, i’m not sure. She is super intelligent and likes to chase crabs on the beach for fun. She also likes to hunt in tandem so if you point her out a hermit crab hole to dig, she will oblige you on demand. She must be accident prone because yesterday she stubbed her toe, (or got in a fight with a cat) and has the pad on one back foot ripped open and a long gash on her ankle. So she is hopping around on three legs everywhere, even though we tell her to stay at home and rest, she won’t sit still long. I figure it is a minor scratch compared to what she has already lived through. She is always hungry so we bring her scraps from our table. We also feed a whole family of cats that hangs out here.
I can’t come online much. The internet is on the other side of the island. It costs about $6CAD per hour. (In Rishikesh its about 50cents an hour). So one could say it’s a “little” expensive here.
We went kayaking and snorkelling. It was amazing. The water is the clearest and most amazing I have ever seen in the world. We took loads of pictures and videos, but due to aforementioned internet situation I will wait until i return to Canada before posting them. Perhaps put a few on facebook.
Grandma passed away the night before we left India. So that morning i dealt with that as well as having to say goodbye to the whole of Nakul’s family until god knows when next.
Life goes on.....