My wife and I had been to Koh Samui before. On our previous visits we had stayed at Chaweng and Lamai. These are the main tourist areas of the tropical Thai island and we thought they would be the best places to stay.
They had beautiful beaches and plenty of good restaurants but the nightlife had a decidedly seedy element to it that we wanted to avoid. So this time we chose a less developed beach on the other side of the island, Lipa Noi.
When we arrived at Lipa Noi we were happy to discover an absence of a ‘main strip’. Lipa Noi is just a beach with a few resorts, restaurants and bars. The main road leading to the beach just had a random selection of local shops and a coconut souvenir place.
From our point of view it was perfect. If we wanted something we could hop on a Koh Samui bus called a Songthaew and we would be in Nathon within 15 minutes with its big selection of shops and markets.
We stayed at Lipa Lodge Beach Resort. We choose it because it only had 11 bungalows and so we felt it was bound to be quiet. The room was comfortable and near the beach. The service was good and the food in the restaurant was nothing special but not too expensive. And we were right in our surmise – there were very few people around the resort swimming pool. It was a very peaceful place.
The beach at Lipa Noi was virtually deserted. It was great for taking walks. The sea was not brilliant for swimming as it never seemed to get deep. The fantastic sunsets, however, made up for this deficiency.
There is very little commercial activity on the beach. The main attractions are Big John Seafood that had excellent snapper on the menu and the Samui Dharma Healing Center where people go to fast and have colonic irrigations.
After two weeks staying on Lipa Noi my wife and I had a good suntan and we felt refreshed and very relaxed. We really didn’t want to leave this little piece of paradise behind!
