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Koh Lipe

Koh Lipe (Thai: เกาะหลีเป๊ะ) is an island in the Adang-Rawi Archipelago in the Satun Province of Thailand.

Koh Lipe is a tiny island in the Andaman Sea located 70 km off the southwest coast of Thailand near the Malaysian border. The Thai name is transliterated many different ways into English. The most common names in English are Koh Lipe, Koh Lipeh, Ko Lipey and Ko Lipe. Koh Lipe is part of the Tarutao National Marine Park and is directly south of the larger islands Ko Adang and Ko Rawi and about 50km from the island of Tarutao. It was settled by a band of sea gypsies originally from Malaysia, known as the ‘Chao Lei’ people or also known as Urak Lawoi. This island has four main beaches: Sunset beach, Sunrise beach, Karma Beach and Pattaya beach. Accommodation from grass huts to air-conditioned bungalows can be found on these beaches. It is possible to walk around the entire island in little over an hour.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Thailand

Koh Samui

Ko Samui island of Surat Thani Province (or Koh Samui), or often, simply Samui as it is referred to by locals, is an island off the east coast of the Kra Isthmus in Thailand, close to the mainland Surat Thani town. It is Thailand’s third largest island, with an area of 228.7 km² and a population of over 50,000 (2008). It is rich with natural resources, white sandy beaches, coral reefs and coconut trees.

The island was probably first inhabited about 15 centuries ago, settled by fishermen from the Malay Peninsula and Southern China. It appears on Chinese maps dating back to 1687, under the name Pulo Cornam. The name Samui is mysterious in itself. Perhaps it is an extension of the name of one of the native trees, mui, or from the Chinese word Saboey, meaning “safe haven”. Ko is the Thai word for “island.”

Until the late 20th century, Ko Samui was an isolated self-sufficient community, having little connection with the mainland of Thailand. The island was even without roads until the early 1970s, and the 15 km journey from one side of the island to the other involved a whole-day trek through the mountainous central jungles.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Thailand

Ko Phi Phi Don

Ko Phi Phi Don is the largest of the Phi Phi Islands, in Thailand. It is the only island in the group with permanent inhabitants. Like the other islands in the group, Ko Phi Phi Don is a non-volcanic island largely made of limestone. It is almost separated into two islands, but a strand of flat land connects them. On this strand lies the largest town on the island, as well as most of the resorts.

Ko Phi Phi Don is now squarely on the tourist map, and tourists from all over the world (especially Europe, Japan, and the wealthier Southeast Asian countries) flock to the island. Accessible from Phuket and mainland Krabi province, all tourists must arrive by boat. (The trip from Phuket takes around 90 minutes.) This has essentially turned the island into a rush of day trippers who overpopulate the island from 11AM-3PM. The island still holds much charm that can be enjoyed in the hours that the flocks from Phuket are not there. While in former times, Ko Phi Phi Don was a serene paradise, parts of it (especially the Ton Sai Bay area) have been exploited for tourism. Restaurants, shops, internet cafes, and shanty towns abound.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Thailand

Ko Phi Phi Leh

Ko Phi Phi Leh (or Ko Phi Phi Ley) is an island of the Phi Phi archipelago, in the Andaman Sea. It belongs to the Krabi province of Thailand.

Ko Phi Phi Leh is the second largest island of the archipelago, the largest one being Ko Phi Phi Don. The island consists of a ring of steep limestone hills surrounding a shallow bay, the Mahya Bay.

Mahya Bay (or Maya Bay) is popular for diving, and has become even more popular after the 2000 movie The Beach was filmed there. According to the Lonely Planet’s Thailand guidebook, the 2004 tsunami dramatically improved the look of Maya Bay. This was due to the fact that the high waves had cleaned up the beach and removed all the landscaping the Fox production team had added.

Controversy arose during the making of the film The Beach due to 20th Century Fox bulldozing and rescaping of the natural beach setting of Ko Phi Phi Leh to make it more “paradise-like”. The production altered some sand dunes and cleared some coconut trees and grass to widen the beach. Fox set aside a fund to reconstruct and return the beach to its natural state, however lawsuits were filed as many believed the damage to the ecosystem is permanent and restoration attempts failed.

The lawsuits dragged on for years. In 2006, Thailand’s Supreme Court upheld an appeal court ruling that the filming had harmed the environment and ordered that damage assessments be made. Defendants in the case included 20th Century Fox and some Thai government officials.

Source: Wikipedia (under GNU Free Documentation License)

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Thailand

Bamboo Island