December 2010 - Langkawi, Malaysia - Koh Lipe, Thailand
My work friend and I went on Christmas vacation from our school in China to Malaysia and Thailand. After a few days in Malaysia, on December 21st, we caught a ferry from Langkawi to Koh Lipe and met a fun Australian couple on board who had some alcoholic bevies with them (a bottle of rum with some fruit juice) that they shared with us. As I'm not a huge drinker (most of the time), I didn't have that much, while the others indulged. We sat at the back of the boat but our company was quite loud and the rest of the passengers weren't incredibly impressed with the drinking behaviours. However, one of the ferry workers, did enjoy some sharing in of the drinking so we won over one person on the boat trip.
Upon arrival at Sunset Beach in Koh Lipe, our new friends, and my friend, were a wee bit drunk; it's vacation - it's allowed! :) We had to exit the boat from behind where the motor was pulled up with propellors exposed, but turned off, obviously. When the Australian female disembarked the vessel, she slipped and her ass bumped the propellor and she stumbled into the water a bit. She seemed fine immediately after and there was no sign of injury, it just looked like it hurt. Her boyfriend helped the crew to remove bags from the boat onto the beach and then the girl, we'll call her Sheila, said to me that her ass was really sore and asked if I could see anything wrong with it. Well, yes I could, once she lifted her sarong! She had a cut so deep that it hadn't really even begun to bleed, hence not noticing anything until she asked. I didn't show my reaction of shock to her, but I was shocked, however, my slightly intoxicated friend saw the wound and immediately exclaimed "Ah Jesus!" at the sight. Of course, Sheila began to panic a bit but I assured her it was okay and we had her lay on a blanket on the sand, with her ass up. My friend held her butt together with her hands while I held her hand and just talked to her to keep her calm. The propellor had cut pretty deep into her ass and all I could think was: a) Thank goodness she's drunk. b) She's so lucky it was her ass and not another part of her body, or else she'd be in more trouble! Keep in mind, huge open wound, on a beach, sand everywhere. Fortunately, there was a doctor on board the boat with us, we thought! She gave us a wet wipe and told us to just keep holding her wound together until help arrived. She then left us to begin her Thai vacation. B**ch wasn't a fan of Sheila on the boat so figured she had the right to just leave her with two Canadian strangers instead. Pretty glad she's not my doctor!
Her boyfriend started to panic and act like an idiot until help arrived; a 4-wheeler with a trailer hitched on back. Koh Lipe is a very small island, with no roads (well, some sandy, dirt, bumpy roads) and no cars. I doubt the medical facilities are very extravagant and was told there are limited or no police force as well, which is totally part of the charm of this paradise, but not in a situation like this. As we had just arrived from Malaysia, we had to go through customs, or in this case, have our passports taken from us to be stamped and wait for them to be given back to us. Well, Sheila and her boyfriend were carted away and we had been left with their bags (and ours) and we had to wait for their passports as well. They had a friend on the island and we were meant to find him. How hard could that be? After hauling both our and their bags through the sandy pathways that they'd call roads for a couple of hours, we realized it wasn't as easy a task as they had claimed. We asked loads of people but no one knew their friend or where we could find him. It was a bad start to our Thai vacation time. Booooo!
Eventually, we found their friend and this shop that was run by his Thai girlfriend. Moments later, Sheila and her boyfriend came by with a woman in the 4-wheeler with the trailer. They passed us, boyfriend yelling, and came back again five minutes later. Weird. Sheila was still drunk and now high on ether she was sniffing from a cloth...and had 18 stitches to hold her ass together. We finally got to walk to our resort and boyfriend offered to help us out by carrying our bags. On the way, we ran into the husband of the woman driving the 4-wheeler...actually, he had found us and followed us onto the beach and then encircled us with his friends. Apparently boyfriend also turned out to be an a**hole who yelled at her and husband was NOT happy. He then pushed him, screamed at him and tried to fight him. Great, could this get any better? My friend used the power of her persuasive talk to diffuse the problem, made boyfriend apologize and said he'd also find the wife to apologize. It was all ridiculous...and kind of unbelievable. My friend and I should have taken our cue to stay away but he insisted we have dinner and drinks with them and their friends who lived on the island, to thank us. Being naive, and thinking things can't get any worse, we agreed.
That night, we met up. We had some dinner, drinks and things were going well. We then went to this private beach bar that was really awesome and chilled out there for a while. Well, it was then we realized boyfriend was a real dirtbag. It turns out he was looking to buy some drugs on the island to bring back to Australia with him. We also realized that Sheila and he had only been dating a couple of weeks when she decided to take this trip with him. We tried to tell her she should probably leave and go back home without him, because he was a douche, but also because we didn't want her to get in trouble. She was quite a bit younger than us and pretty naive and he was in his late twenties, I believe. We decided to fly the coop and leave these guys to themselves. We saw Sheila again, she told us that he wasn't going to traffic drugs anymore (thank goodness!) and that she was going to break up with him when she got back home. I hope she did. We remained Facebook friends for about 5 minutes, until I realized, though it's a good story, I don't really want anything to do with my new Australian friends and their ridiculous dramas! :P
DISCLAIMER: Despite this negative (and random) experience, Koh Lipe remains my favourite island/beach vacation of all time. It is paradise there and I will return one day! On Christmas Day, two friends from Korea (Nova Scotia originally) met us on the island and we spent an awesome day together on the island together. Thinking about it, makes me smile. I wouldn't hesitate a second to recommend this place as a MUST visit place for any traveller looking for a relaxing holiday! :)
Upon arrival at Sunset Beach in Koh Lipe, our new friends, and my friend, were a wee bit drunk; it's vacation - it's allowed! :) We had to exit the boat from behind where the motor was pulled up with propellors exposed, but turned off, obviously. When the Australian female disembarked the vessel, she slipped and her ass bumped the propellor and she stumbled into the water a bit. She seemed fine immediately after and there was no sign of injury, it just looked like it hurt. Her boyfriend helped the crew to remove bags from the boat onto the beach and then the girl, we'll call her Sheila, said to me that her ass was really sore and asked if I could see anything wrong with it. Well, yes I could, once she lifted her sarong! She had a cut so deep that it hadn't really even begun to bleed, hence not noticing anything until she asked. I didn't show my reaction of shock to her, but I was shocked, however, my slightly intoxicated friend saw the wound and immediately exclaimed "Ah Jesus!" at the sight. Of course, Sheila began to panic a bit but I assured her it was okay and we had her lay on a blanket on the sand, with her ass up. My friend held her butt together with her hands while I held her hand and just talked to her to keep her calm. The propellor had cut pretty deep into her ass and all I could think was: a) Thank goodness she's drunk. b) She's so lucky it was her ass and not another part of her body, or else she'd be in more trouble! Keep in mind, huge open wound, on a beach, sand everywhere. Fortunately, there was a doctor on board the boat with us, we thought! She gave us a wet wipe and told us to just keep holding her wound together until help arrived. She then left us to begin her Thai vacation. B**ch wasn't a fan of Sheila on the boat so figured she had the right to just leave her with two Canadian strangers instead. Pretty glad she's not my doctor!
 |
| Amidst all of this, she wanted to see what it looked like so asked us to take a photo. It's pretty held together here, but initially, it was a pretty gaping wound! |
Eventually, we found their friend and this shop that was run by his Thai girlfriend. Moments later, Sheila and her boyfriend came by with a woman in the 4-wheeler with the trailer. They passed us, boyfriend yelling, and came back again five minutes later. Weird. Sheila was still drunk and now high on ether she was sniffing from a cloth...and had 18 stitches to hold her ass together. We finally got to walk to our resort and boyfriend offered to help us out by carrying our bags. On the way, we ran into the husband of the woman driving the 4-wheeler...actually, he had found us and followed us onto the beach and then encircled us with his friends. Apparently boyfriend also turned out to be an a**hole who yelled at her and husband was NOT happy. He then pushed him, screamed at him and tried to fight him. Great, could this get any better? My friend used the power of her persuasive talk to diffuse the problem, made boyfriend apologize and said he'd also find the wife to apologize. It was all ridiculous...and kind of unbelievable. My friend and I should have taken our cue to stay away but he insisted we have dinner and drinks with them and their friends who lived on the island, to thank us. Being naive, and thinking things can't get any worse, we agreed.
That night, we met up. We had some dinner, drinks and things were going well. We then went to this private beach bar that was really awesome and chilled out there for a while. Well, it was then we realized boyfriend was a real dirtbag. It turns out he was looking to buy some drugs on the island to bring back to Australia with him. We also realized that Sheila and he had only been dating a couple of weeks when she decided to take this trip with him. We tried to tell her she should probably leave and go back home without him, because he was a douche, but also because we didn't want her to get in trouble. She was quite a bit younger than us and pretty naive and he was in his late twenties, I believe. We decided to fly the coop and leave these guys to themselves. We saw Sheila again, she told us that he wasn't going to traffic drugs anymore (thank goodness!) and that she was going to break up with him when she got back home. I hope she did. We remained Facebook friends for about 5 minutes, until I realized, though it's a good story, I don't really want anything to do with my new Australian friends and their ridiculous dramas! :P
DISCLAIMER: Despite this negative (and random) experience, Koh Lipe remains my favourite island/beach vacation of all time. It is paradise there and I will return one day! On Christmas Day, two friends from Korea (Nova Scotia originally) met us on the island and we spent an awesome day together on the island together. Thinking about it, makes me smile. I wouldn't hesitate a second to recommend this place as a MUST visit place for any traveller looking for a relaxing holiday! :)
 |
| Me in Paradise! :) |
 |
| To date, still the best Chicken Pad Thai I've ever eaten! |
 |
| View of Sunrise Beach |
 |
| View of Sunset Beach from a cool bamboo walkway that brought you to a very private beach on the other side of the island! |
