This part of the adventure starts with a one hour speedboat journey where we are sure the driver was on commission based on a combination of the screams he could elicit as we launched into the air before slamming down on the water and the frenzied requests for sick bags (he only managed two but from the look on his face when he turned to look at the passengers he seemed quite happy with that).

Koh Lipe doesn’t have the majestic cliffs of Koh Phi Phi but the beaches and the sea are stunning. There is a walking street from one side of the island to the other but we were amazed at how many bikes, tuktuks and vans there were travelling around, particularly when Koh Phi Phi does not allow vehicles at all.

The island was probably at the lowest visitor level of the year and many bars and restaurants had shut up shop until the main season returned. On our first night we found a tiny local restaurant (shack) where I suspect tourists rarely visit. Although they gave us a menu they then explained we had to ignore it as because it was low season they only offered two dishes. No problem though as they were both delicious.

Despite being low season we only saw rain once in 3 days and it was the normal heavy downpour for an hour and then beautiful and sunny.

Unfortunately the low season did mean that the ferry to Langkawi had stopped in May so our journey there involved a much calmer boat trip back to the mainland, then a minivan to Hat Yin for an overnight stop, then another van to Kuala Perlis for another overnight before the ferry to Langkawi in the morning.

Kuala Perlis is definitely a place that survives on ferry traffic and people doing one night stays so the new shopping centre that had opened recently was a big thing there. It also gave us somewhere to kill some time in the afternoon, especially as we found a cinema where a discounted Senior ticket was available at 55 years plus, I am not a fan of getting old but this was an unexpected bonus!

Next stop Malaysia and Langkawi…..