Yes Maureen, I'm back in Lipe...how could I not come back to this lovely island..it was a hard choice, remembering my visit with my friend Maureen , three years ago was it? And it was the most beautiful island I must say, I have ever been to. and that's saying a lot, Ive been to many. the hard choice was actually do i want to remember it for how perfect it was, or see the changes and the growth that i had heard were happening in beautiful lipe. But i just had to come and see it again, i had traveled so far deep into Thailand that it was too close to not go again.
Yes, Koh Lipe has changed a bit, There are a few more resorts, but not a lot more . it takes a long time luckily to move building materials across the sea by small boats! the biggest changes that Ive noticed is the small village that is a dirt path ( it still is) that passes thru the island from the main Pattaya beach, to the beautiful, quiet sunrise beach has quite a few more shops and restaurants than just the Thai Pancake Lady, and the occasional bead shop.  But i have to say that the end of sunrise beach, also called Karma beach, is the most beautiful beach in the world, in my opinion! more on that beach later with lots of pictures so you can see too! i will be moving over to that side of the island in a couple days.
for now i decided to stay on the "happening" side of the island, the main beach, Pattaya.Ive been on some pretty quiet islands , and its nice to be around people once in a while! I'm staying at cute place called Paradise Bungalows, or Paradise Resort its known as too. its down on the left side ( if your facing the beach) and its the more quiet side, and its a great price of 800 Baht . its run by a nice Italian man named Paolo, he came here 11 years ago on vacation and never left. I love people like that. He also brought some friends over and they have an Italian restaurant in the front and make really good wood fired pizzas, How about that.
The beaches, and the water here are amazing. the sand may not squeak, but its like white baby powder, its beautiful.
This place still has a nice hippie vibe, especially at night when they put out rugs on the beach and short tables in the sand and light lots of candles for ambiance, there's alot of Bob Dylan, and Bob Marley and more beer than buckets . There are lots of great fish barbeque's on the beach with tables set up in the sand, and the music rarely goes past midnight.
The travelers change i notice as i go down south. Up north it was all Germans, they seem to like the more laid back islands, down south its alot of Italians and people from Spain and Sweden. but still no Americans. On this whole trip so far i have met 3.
This island is small , You can walk across in a half an hour. there are a few dogs, since they have no spaying or neutering here they just mate with whomever! And there are some interesting breeds to say the least! I will have to take some pictures and share with all of you.
So on the night of my last island , i got sick. now i know some of you are not interested in hearing in detail about my digestive problems, but actually its my most asked question by those interested in my travels,," what do you eat? do you ever get sick? aren't you afraid of getting sick?"
Well, it happens, but rarely. I'm either lucky, or i make good choices, maybe a little of both. So i will tell you what happen to me, in little detail since Ive been told that too much information is .....too much information, lol
I woke up in the middle of the night, knowing something was wrong, i couldn't make it to the bathroom fast enough, you all know when you've eaten something bad, your body wants to get rid of it usually within 3-6 hours after. Well , it was horrible, i was up all night. the next morning i had to take a boat ride to my next island! My bungalow was booked to someone else, and i had to go. So i toughed it out and went. the ocean was smooth that day, i think it was because i didn't take too many shells off the island and it was being nice back.
I'm feeling better, its been two days now, haven't eaten much, but my budget is way down! less money spent on food!
But i love the food here, and i cant wait to eat again. it can happen anywhere, in fact Ive gotten sick off my own airplane food in the good old USA many times, i found out that it was the fried rice that was the culprit. i went to the other resort for lunch that day.three other people in my resort went there too and were sick as well from eating the same thing, small resort, word travels fast! you know i knew something was wrong when i got my food that day, it just didn't smell right, but it tasted great! i ate it anyway , go figure, lesson learned, trust your instinct. the oil was bad the women at my resort said, you should always eat here next time. i wish i would of gotten that advise earlier! no mom, I'm not coming home early just because I'm feeling a little sick! the sun is shining, and soon i will too again.