Don’t Visit Ko Lipe

After 19 years, I finally returned to Ko Lipe, the Thai island where I spent nearly a month in 2006. At the time, it was one of those remote destinations visited by only a few of the most intrepid travelers, where electricity only worked for a few hours a day, simple huts on the beach cost about US$2, and there were last Boat for the season.

There was a lot to do here but that was the point. I sat on the beach, read a book, went snorkelling, came back to the beach, drank a beer at the island’s only beach bar, ate meals alternating between the five restaurants there, and then went to bed early.

It was heaven – and a place where a lot of people got stuck. Days easily turned into weeks here.

If you asked me what the highlight of my travels was, it would be the time I spent on Ko Lipe. I made great friends, relaxed, got to know the locals, learned a little Thai, and overall, lived the perfect backpacker life we ​​all dream of.

Over the years, I’ve avoided returning to Ko Lipe because the memory of my time there is so strong that I didn’t want to ruin it. Any re-visiting would simply be an attempt to recreate magic that cannot be recreated because the special people won’t be there. I will chase the ghosts of travel. Since I know that my peaceful paradise has evolved greatly over the years, I was very afraid that this would lead to my sadness.

Tourism in Thailand tends towards unsustainable. No island is really developing in a good way. It’s all build, build, build.

And I didn’t want to see my Ko Libby that way.

But as I was planning my latest trip through Southeast Asia, it made sense to return to Ko Lipe. I was heading towards the Indian Ocean side of Thailand on my way to Malaysia and was passing through.

Since I was looking for a lively place for New Year’s Eve, it seemed like the best option. I knew there would be travelers there and no other nearby islands were suitable, especially since Ko Lipe had a boat to Langkawi, my next stop.

So, I sucked it up and went.

I regret to inform you that Ko Lipe has taken the Ko Phi Phi model of tourism and is now very developed.

Unsustainably.

Most of the island is now paved, and the old dirt footpaths are now concrete for cars and construction trucks. Swaths of palm trees are now the sites of upscale resorts with swimming pools (on an island with no natural water source). More resorts continue to be built at a rapid pace. The coral surrounding the island is dying, a victim of all the boats, marinas, pollution and overfishing. The beaches are now filled with boats, and their exhaust flows into the ocean, leaving a shiny layer that you can see while you swim. The restaurants cater to tourists looking for bad Western food, not great Thai cuisine.

The island’s prosperity displaced many local residents, who were forced to sell to mainland developers, and most of the island’s workforce is now from the mainland. They see little of the benefits of this tourism boom.

And so lies Ko Lipe, another victim of over-development and exploitation of Thailand’s limited resources.

There I met many people who loved the island. If this is your first time, I can see why you’ll love it. After all, the area is postcard perfect, the water is perfectly blue, the sand is lovely white, and since you’re surrounded by a national park, a lot of the tours take you to some of the more secluded islands.

Compared to Ko Phi Phi, Krabi or Phuket, it’s less developed so I can’t fault someone who steps here for the first time and says “wow!”

But when I think about the island and its overdevelopment, I come to the same conclusion I came to about Ko Phi Phi: people shouldn’t visit it.

I am not against growth, but I am against this kind of growth. It is not sustainably managed and going there would only further tax the island’s limited resources. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle and no citizen will say, “Sure, I’ll stay broke so you can have an ideal vision of the world.”

But this is not the way.

And with so many other islands to visit that are so well managed (Ko Lanta, Ko Jum, and Ko Mook, to name a few, three nearby islands), I think you should skip Ko Lipe.

A visit there will only make matters worse.

It pains me to say it, because it was such a beautiful place, and my original visit had a huge impact on my life. But if we want to be good hosts and travellers, sometimes you just have to say enough is enough.

Ko Lipe is a place where enough is enough.

Go somewhere else that is better managed.

Because your choices have an impact.

Elephant riding in Thailand disappeared as consumers became more aware of it. Ecolodges have become big because of consumers. Consumers talk about overtourism as much as locals.

Maybe if enough people start doing something, Ko Lipe will change.

I doubt it but one can hope.

But, at the very least, by not going you are at least not contributing to the problem.

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