After 19 years, I finally returned to Ko Lipe, the Thai island I spent almost a month on in 2006. At the time, it was one of those super off-the-beaten-path destinations that few but most intrepid travelers visited, where the electricity only worked for a few hours a day, basic bungalows right on the beach cost about US$2, and there was definitely a last boat for the season.
There was a lot to do here, but that was the point. You hung out on the beach, read a book, snorkeled, went back to the beach, drank beers at the only beach bar on the island, alternated meals between the five restaurants and went to bed early.
It was paradise – and a place where many people got stuck. Here, days easily turned into weeks.
If you asked me what was the highlight of all my travels, I would be the time I spent on Ko Lipe. I made some amazing friends, hung out, got to know the locals, learned some Thai, and overall lived that idyllic backpacker life we all dream of.
Over the years, I have avoided returning to Ko Lipe because the memory of my time there is so strong that I didn’t want to ruin it. Any new visit would simply be trying to recreate magic that couldn’t be recreated because the people who specialize in it wouldn’t be there. I would chase away the ghosts of travel. And since I know that my sleepy paradise has grown considerably over the years, I was also too afraid that it would make me sad.
Tourism in Thailand tends towards the unsustainable. No island is really developing in the right direction. Everything is built, built, built.
And I didn’t want to see my Ko Lipe like that.
But as I prepared for my recent trip to Southeast Asia, returning to Ko Lipe made sense. I was heading to Thailand on the Indian Ocean side on my way to Malaysia and passing through there.
And since I was looking for somewhere lively for New Year’s Eve, this seemed like the best choice. I knew there would be travelers there and there were no other islands nearby that would work, especially since Ko Lipe has a boat to Langkawi, which was my next stop.
So, I sucked it up and left.
And I’m sad to report that Ko Lipe has adopted the Ko Phi Phi model of tourism and is now extremely overdeveloped.
This is unsustainable.
Most of the island is now paved, with the old dirt roads having become concrete for cars and construction trucks. Swathes of palm trees are now the site of upscale resorts with swimming pools (on an island with no natural water supply). The construction of new stations continues at a rapid pace. The coral around the island is dying, a victim of all the boats, anchors, pollution and overfishing. The beaches are now lined with boats whose exhaust gases spill into the ocean, leaving a shiny film that can be seen while swimming. And the restaurants cater to tourists looking for bad Western food, not good Thai food.
The island’s boom displaced many residents, who were forced to sell to mainland real estate developers, and much of the island’s workforce is now from the mainland. They see little of the benefits of this tourist boom.
Such is the case of Ko Lipe, another victim of Thailand’s all-too-widespread overdevelopment and exploitation of limited resources.
I met a lot of people there who loved the island. If this is your first time, I can see why you would like it. After all, the area is postcard perfect, the water is a perfect azure blue, the sand is a beautiful white and as you are surrounded by a national park, many excursions take you to remote islands.
And, in comparison to Ko Phi Phi, Krabi or Phuket, it’s less developed, so I can’t fault someone who walks in here for the first time and goes “wow!”
But, thinking about the island and its overdevelopment, I came to the same conclusion as Ko Phi Phi: people should not visit it.
I’m not against growth, but I am against this type of growth. It is not sustainably managed and going there will only further tax the island’s limited resources. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle and no local is going to say “sure, I’ll stay broke so you can have an idealized view of the world.”
But this is not the right solution.
And, with so many other well-managed islands to visit (Ko Lanta, Ko Jum, and Ko Mook, to name just three nearby), I think you should avoid Ko Lipe.
A visit there will only make things worse.
It pains me to say this because it was such a beautiful place and my first visit had a huge impact on my life. But if we want to be good stewards and good travelers, sometimes we just have to say enough is enough.
And Ko Lipe is a place where enough is enough.
Go somewhere else, better managed.
Because your choices have an impact.
In Thailand, elephants disappeared when consumers became aware of them. Eco-lodges have become big thanks to consumers. Overtourism is mentioned as much by consumers as by locals.
Maybe if enough people started doing something, Ko Lipe would change.
I doubt it but we can hope.
But, at the very least, by not going there, you’re not contributing to the problem.
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