I Lipe You (or The One With Anthony’s Video of Koh Lipe)

I Lipe You (or The One With Anthony’s Video of Koh Lipe)

posted in: Koh Lipe, Thailand | 9
Taking the ferry from Koh Lipe, our island home for the last three weeks in the south of Thailand, to the mainland, where we’ll catch a 4-hour van ride north to our next destination, Railay beach. Sad to be leaving our little beach heaven. We are sharing Anthony’s headphones and listening to the iPod as he shuffles songs. So far his winners have included Somewhere Down The Road by Barry Manilow and Didn’t We Almost Have It All by Whitney, both in honor of our time here. I’m too tired to swat the iPod from his hands.
We had two hours of sleep last night, thanks to the friends we’ve made on Lipe. My girl Aye (her real name is Vanvisa Nurapakdee, so logically everyone calls her Aye) made it so hard to leave. I met her first volunteering at Trash Hero, then went to see her at her work, OMG bar, and met the owners Oh and his wife Sue. We spent many nights partying with them til the early hours of the morning, along with friends we met at our resort who were traveling as well. At Elephant Cafe, owned by two Americans named Jessica who came for a visit five years ago and never left, we played guitar and sang with Yaoman, who jams every night and invites everyone to join him. Beach bars were open even later, and one night at 5am, when we were ready to call it a night, I learned about the ham and cheese toastie at 7/11. I don’t know why we don’t have these things in the States. But thank the gods of microwaveable foods that our Irish friends introduced us to these. At first I couldn’t believe that something like a ham and cheese from 7/11 was representing America in far-off lands. Then I bit into one, all gooey melted cheese and thin ham inside two slices of toasted panini-like bread, and I shut the hell up.

Last Sunday, we went out for the day on a gorgeous catamaran, manned by two crazy south African men I can only describe as pirates. These guys have been on the water all their lives, sailed around the world 4 times, and would make an amazing reality show. They were delivering the boat from Thailand to Australia and were trying to make a few extra bucks taking tourists out on the water. When we first met them, they were wasted. Completely annihilated. And then two days later, our friend said, “Remember those guys with the boat? I just ran into them, they were still drunk, and I think we should go out on the boat with them. We can drink beer, catch fish and just relax.” So we did. We drank beer and caught fish and the sails were up and we had a great meal on board and just relaxed. And the guys were hilarious. And the ocean was beautiful. We ended up spending 12 hours on that boat — yes, 12 hours!! — and at the end of the day, when we were finally so close to land, the dinghy broke, and we realized we would either have to swim back to shore or sleep on the boat. Our friend Em, who works with Aye, happened to call the captain to check on us, and when the capitan told Em our predicament, our lovely friends sent a longboat. It is very surreal to be sitting on a sailboat off the shore of an island in southern Thailand with a South African crew and your United Nations of friends around you and have the captain hand you the phone, saying, “it’s for you.” So we were rescued. As we pulled away from the boat, the skipper was passed out in the dinghy with an empty bottle of Thai rum next to him. (Update: Our friends are meeting up with the pirates in a few days to sail with them the rest of the way to Australia.)

BTW we are down to 3 pieces of luggage + 1 half guitar. As we were packing to leave this morning, I saw a pile of clothes on the floor, including the blue Pumas I gave Anthony a couple of years ago, and asked, “Is that the purple Dior shirt you got in Paris??” “Yeah… The one we got for 5 dollars in the secondhand store… I don’t need it, I have another shirt and I’m trying to lighten our load. I figured I’d leave it for someone who works here.” (I wish I could show you my eyeballs popping out of my head) “It was TWENTY dollars, that shop was VINTAGE, and it’s DIOR. DIOR from PARIS. For TWENTY DOLLARS. And you want to leave it for the longboat operator to wear to work??” The shirt is continuing the journey with us.

I will miss Lipe. For a little more than three weeks we swam, snorkeled, kayaked, lazed in hammocks, read books, saw friends, stayed out all night, slept late, woke up and got massages. We Trash Hero’d three times and it changed how we look at simple garbage (I swear to never use styrofoam again — that is the worst offender). I dived, yoga’d and even somehow taught a yoga class. We learned to cook Thai food, took long walks and got to just chill out and enjoy. For the first time since we left the real world in January we felt like we were on holiday. An actual vacation, from our vacation. Our Thai visa is about to run out, and while we could extend it, we know there are other places to see. So now we move to another beach. But we are so glad we turned what was supposed to be a 3-day stay on an island in the south of Thailand into almost a month in a little paradise. I loved it so much that I almost vomited as we boarded the boat to leave the island today. Saying goodbye to Aye and our piece of heaven made me physically sick. Or it may have been all of the tequila last night.

This is the video Anthony made of our time on Lipe. Hope you enjoy watching as much as we did making it.

 

 

 

Where we stayed:

Castaway Resort

 

Where we ate, and liked:

OMG! Sports Bar & Restaurant

Elephant Cafe

Castaway Resort

 

 

9 Responses

  1. Great times! I’m glad i met you! Anthony – movie is awsome! Don’t stop making new ones and keep me updated! Good Luck guys. Hope to see you again one day!

  2. Looks and sounds like Heaven!!!

  3. So awesome!

  4. That happened to us in 2006 we were supposed to go for a few days and stayed a month. Have been going back every year since then because of the people.. the scenery isn’t bad either!

  5. love, love all of it. Wish the video were longer, I wanted to see moooore

  6. Gina Artese

    You all just are an inspiration. KEEP ON KEEPIN ON! Enjoy every single place & know you are loved!

  7. David Florez

    Omg u guys r too cute for words! I love it

  8. Wow, I had to go through this update twice. How wonderful!!
    Loved the video too! Stay safe. love yous

  9. U 2 look wonderful, beautiful pic’s, be safe & keep in touch, all my love jserrone4@gmail.com.

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