"I AM NOT THAI" - My first day in Koh Lipe, Thailand

What do I do when I'm on vacation? Blog.
Somebody better kiss my ass.

I'm walking down a short but steep slope, leading away from my hotel onto Walking Street - a bustling walkway overcrowded with well disguised tourist traps, overpriced restaurants, cafes of bind boggling nationalities and (what else?) tourists - when a hefty, furiously tanned (and I know this because he's half naked) man comes striding in from a fork in the road to join me on my slope.

 His voice hits me before the sight of him does - a deep, operatic tone bellowing tunes which are definitely not English.

 Because I'm me, I smile at him. And because he's him, he smiles back.

 "What language is that?" I ask.

 "Greek." He says. Wow. Greek. talk about foreign.

 "Oh and where are you from?" I grin just as it hits me: I ask really (and in this case, really really) dumb questions sometimes. My grin slips.

 He smiles, letting it pass. Or not. "I speak Greek. I am Greek. I come from Greece." then without missing a beat, he tosses the proverbial ball back. "And you? You're from Japan?" 

This time I smile. A real, goofy, makes-me-feel-good smile. Throughout the time I've been in Thailand, I've been called Chinese, Japanese, Korean (that guy obviously needs a new pair of sunglasses), Vietnamese, Indian (because I chose to wear a punjabi suit one night) and god forbid, Thai.

 "I speak English. I'm Chinese and I'm from Malaysia" which doesn't sound nearly as cool as what the man just said.

 We reach Walking Street and part ways with a wave. He goes left while I turn right. Just like that.

 Man, I love Koh Lipe, Thailand.

~xXx~

Although partially self sufficient, Koh Lipe still gets most of its supplies from the nearest town mainland - Pakbara.

The Thais load carts and carts of produce (watermelons, vegetables...beer) onto a huge ass speed boat which carries the supplies for 90 minutes across crystal clear waters until they near Koh Lipe's reef where the produce are transferred across a barge to a smaller, less coral endangering speedboat, brought to Koh Lipe's shore and tossed over to a group of people waiting waist deep in the water below to catch them.

That's probably the best description of my arrival to Koh Lipe, Thailand. We were carried, shipped and tossed over along with other boatloads of tourists at a timely arrival of one and seven p.m. sharp daily onto Koh Lipe's shores to feed the economy of the island's native population.


On our way to Koh Lipe, the speed boat stopped for a fifteen minute break at Koh Adang after I told them I had to cam whore for my blog.

This speed boat isn't stopping. Probably doesn't have a blogger on board.

Dammit...I  hate being single in these places.

Posing: like a boss

As soon as our boat hit the beach, my dad set off to find us a decently priced hotel whilst my brother and I went off to wreck havoc unto the unsuspecting natives of the island. (What can I say? We're two teenagers stranded on an island smaller than a quarter of Penang...Make that a fifth.)

Pictures!

But first, a brief (brief, haha, brief) description of Koh Lipe's geography. First off, its a pretty small island. And by small, I mean "Holy cow I just stepped on that piece of crap" small. Or maybe "I can't believe I lost my contacts again." small.

Okay, you get the idea. Small. So small in fact, that you can - like I have - walk across, over and around the island multiple times in one day, no sweat.

The main road cutting across the island is called Walking Street (kind of a no-brainer name if you ask me) which leads from Pattaya Beach to either Sunset Beach or Sunrise Bach (Two other no-brainer names) and branches off into dozens of tiny pathways which - if you dare venture away from the glitzy, white-man infested road - leads deeper into the island where the locals live and commune.

It's like there's some unspoken boundary line. One second you're surrounded by half naked white (or in most cases, red) people, then the next, locals. And their huts, fighting cocks and dusty roads.

Took a random shot of some random guy getting a random tatoo

This cock: Gets all the chicks

I found Forever Alone Guy's kid!!!

What to do when you see cute kids

Take pictures with them

Perfect timing

Life on the island...

...is really

...really...

...sleepy

Makeshift exercise rig

Not much for this post but I'll write more tomorrow...Crazy days I tell you. 

*Oh and just an update of my life, I've finally settled into a strict routine of waking up at six to write [I'm working on a novel!!! Applause please. Hopefully you will soon be able to own bragging rights to being the friend of Malaysia's second youngest published author (And I will have friends!!! *giggles*)] until breakfast, then take two hours off to blog and then the rest of the day is devoted to sun, sand, sea and more writing. 

Life is good. Don't know how many Coke Lights and mango smoothies I can take though. 

BIG QUESTION: How's your holiday??