And the next day ...!

I've been home five days now and I'm finding it a bit weird that I'm still waking up around 5 a.m. and getting up around 6 a.m. (although long may it last). I go to bed around midnight as usual but surely jet lag should have worn off by now? Who knows, but in any case I'm quite enjoying it! After yoga on Monday I went grocery shopping and when I came back I decided to check my engine again. And wouldn't you know it but the bloody weasels had been back visiting my car while I was away - or at least that's what I'm gathering from the chunk of baguette I found where the two slices of brown bread were last time. I think I might make an appointment to get my snow tyres taken off soon (which would seem to be an absolute guarantee of more snow) and ask Ford what I can do about my visitors. I also ordered 1,300 litres of heating fuel and the guy said he'd be here sometime between 10 a.m and mid-day today - and crikey, didn't he show up at 10.01 a.m.!!!! Talk about efficient! Then today I met Jen and Charlie in Bonneville as I wanted to buy Charlie some new shoes for his birthday (he'll be in the States for his birthday) and afterwards we had a wander round the market and then stopped off in a restaurant to eat. Well just as we'd finished eating the power in the entire street went out so it must have been hell for the owners/waiters trying to keep up with heavy demand and no electricity. That being said, everyone starting singing "happy birthday to you" when everything went dark, so it was all taken in good part!

Anyhoo, I think I left off my last post where we'd just arrived in Koh Hai, apparently the least inhabited of the islands. The bungalows on the beach looked really nice, but in truth they needed a good bit of TLC as they were pretty run down. Kelly left a comment on my previous post and as I said to her, while the hotels are all perfectly fine (and often better than fine), on occasion they can be a bit shabby, and this was one of them. That being said, it was spotlessly clean and the shower was hot so beyond that I don't really care. I travelled with Explore.co.uk and like them very much - small groups and good service - but given how reasonably priced they are I think it would be foolish to expect 5-star hotels too. Also, as the name would suggest, these holidays move and so would not be suitable for anyone who didn't have a degree of stamina/mobility. Of course we always had young men to help us with our luggage but on occasion we'd have to drag it down the beach to the boat or down a bunch of steps so (a) it's essential to be somewhat mobile and (b) you learn pretty quick not to pack too much stuff (I'm getting better but it's still a work in progress)!

Our first afternoon on Koh Hai was free so a few of us went down to the beautiful beach (about 100 metres from our bungalows) and either swam or lazed around reading. As a side note here I am sooooo glad I took my kindle and have recently signed up for Audible as it was a great way to pass a few hours. I loaded up on sun screen and insect repellent and parked myself under a tree thinking I'd covered all bases, but apparently not, as I still managed to get somewhat sunburnt, although not terribly so! Still, lesson learned yet again - that sun is fierce!

There were a couple of small resorts along the beach and a few of us decided to eat at a local bar which seemed to be family run. The food was good, their kids were adorable and the barman fascinated me as I thought he looked just like Confucius with his long straggly beard!

Confucius!

I guess the reason for staying on this island was to be able to visit the Emerald Cave, which is located (I think) on the island of Koh Muk. The tiny beach you discover at the end of the cave was apparently discovered by locals who were out bird-nesting and was then used by smugglers to hide their ill gotten gains. In order to get to the beach you had to swim through an 80 metre long cave in the dark so I was having serious misgivings about this. Apparently we would need to snorkel (not gonna happen, I hate snorkelling) but there would be a rope through the cave that we could hang on to. Well neither of those proved to be true in that there was no rope (yikes) but it was possible to simply swim through the cave following our young guide with his head lamp. I wouldn't know the logistics of it, but several of us agreed it must surely be possible to put some form of lighting in there, but who knows. I almost chickened out but then I got mad and gave myself a stiff talking to. You know, "what the hell did you come all this way for if you're gonna wimp out?" kinda thing. Anyway, I did it and it really wasn't too bad, although I have to say that there being only 10 of us it must have been easier to manage everyone. About 10 minutes after we got to the beach groups of maybe 30 were coming in and I honestly don't know how they managed to keep track of everyone - maybe they were tied together - who knows. You know, one drowns they all drown kinda thing (a horrible thought I know, but it did cross my mind)!

Our group!

Looking straight up!

After that adventure, it was back to base camp for a couple of days of doing not much before catching the speedboat over to Koh Lanta to continue our trip!