The "resort", if you can call it that, bills itself as "the most pleasure resort on Lipe island." Nothing could be further from the truth! I have stayed in some pretty bad and dire accomodation during my time on this Earth, and I can normally take backpacker accomodation, but this "resort" certainly takes the cake as one of the worse I have ever stayed in.
Let's start with the positives. I think there's only one... the location. Located in the centre of Sunrise Beach, this to me is arguably the best beach in Koh Lipe. Not as frenetic or crowded as Pattaya Beach or as isolated as Sunset Beach. Good snorkelling on the beach, especially towards the small rocky outcrop of an island facing the beach and also just a short walk to the beach up north where the mountain resort is, which to me is the best patch of sand on the whole island. The "resort" is also hardly a 3-minute walk to the Walking Street, where all the shops and restaurants are.
The accomodation itself was not good .... at all. We stayed in a "Deluxe Room". so I shudder to think what a standard room would be like. The room had 24-hour electricity and running water, and A/C, which was good. But it had no sink, no mirror, and no flush toilet. The sitting water closet was the type where you had to pour in water via a bucket to clear the waste. Fine..... I can live with that...but did it have to full of yellow urine when I first moved in? Doesn't housekeeping check and cleans the bathroom before the next guest moves in!!! Not too much to ask?
The next shocker were the towels. At some earlier point in their existence, they were probably white. Now they were rather yellowish; okay I'm not squeemish, i can live with yellowish towels provided they are clean. But these ones actually had brownish and reddish stains on it...... May even have been dried blood for all I know... yucks
There is actually a television set in the room. What it is there for, I am unsure. There was no reception at all. All you got was blank static. Well who cares, I'm not in Koh Lipe to watch television. But makes you wonder, why bother putting a TV in the first place.
The bed was nice and big. No visible stains on the sheets... that was at least a relief. But it must be said this was the hardest "mattress" I have ever slept on in my life, and I have slept on wooden floors before! It was hard as a rock. Coupled with the fact that the chalet was directly adjacent to a sandy back-road, you could hear motorcycles whizzing up and down the road throughout the day and into the night. Surprised we could get any sleep at all, but that was probably due more to tiredness from the day's excursions than to comfort.
Compared to the above, the rest are probably very minor complaints, water ponding on the bathroom floor, stained water marks on the walls, almost unlockable front sliding door, lights not working and the list goes on.
I won't even talk about the unmotivated staff or the lack of a restaurant or the poor breakfast. Koh Lipe is a wonderful beautiful island still not overrun by the tourist hordes like the rest of the thai islands. I will definitely be back, but it won't be to the Tarutao Cabana.
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