Boxing Day, Jon's birthday and old year

The days after christmas went something like this.....

Boxing day: Lots of looking for a 'big bike' but without much joy... what it did mean was that we got out and about on the Island a little... went to a place called Bang Bao which is a fishing village at the south tip... an interesting place as it's a bit like a mini Venice (only not so picturesque or grand I imagine!) as it's all on water... there's a concrete pier or jetty (about two foot wide) that all the buildings are ajacent too... I've never seen - or smelt - so many different kinds of fish/seafood in one place before. Most of it's still alive in tanks and buckets too.

Ban Bao on stilts

The joy of the place is jumping out the way as someone drives a scooter down the two-foot jetty from one place to another... I'm sure they must have lost one or two overboard, so say nothing of small children.
Jon's birthday: a day on the beach eating and drinking and having lots of fun (it's a hard life - honest!). We had a Thai massage whilst watching the sea and enjoying it's breeze... Jon enjoyed the presents and cards I had bought over from England and especially liked the present from his mum and a chocolate cake that we had on the beach at tea-time.

Jon eats cake

Even I liked the cake, which of course means it must have been good as I don't normally like cakes, sweets, chocolates, anything with sugar at all. In fact, it was a bit of a struggle to try it... really it was.... So, it was much enjoyed by all and precipated a bit more lying around in the hammock and drinking beer before getting ready for yet another (can you guess?) slap-up meal at the Treehouse followed by a few more buckets - I'll try my best not to mention them again but remember I haven't written about New Year yet! All in all, a good day I feel...

The next few days involved a lot of looking for 'big bikes' (with no joy in finding anything I would entertain the idea of - I have not come directly from the set of 'Éasy Rider') some diving (for Jon) and snorkelling (for me) a try-dive in a pool for me which I really enjoyed and seemed to take to like a duck to water - how wrong can you be (read on!) - and some 'travelling' around the island on an extremely dangerous moped/motorbike that struggled desperately with the hills, or rather, near vertical ascents which sent any self-respecting tourists and vehicles squealing in all directions (literally). We only managed to get anywhere through a combination of Jon's bike expertise, my utter fear and will to live and a lot of leaning forward and backwards depending on the incline..... it didn't help that on the first corner we took, we witnessed an accident that had happened seconds before. My confidence in the mode of transport we had taken rapidly waned. The stories of three 'farang' (tourists) killed the week before didn't help much either.... We survived despite the odds and arrived at New Year's eve...

We booked onto another dive trip for the day - Jon doing his usuall 'Í'm a dive master and therefore am very good at this and can pretty much do anything I want in the water' trick and me doing the 'Discover Scuba Diving' try dives with an instructor. All the stories of mis-haps and difficulties Robert (Norwegian - 'hello') and Jon discussed on the boat on the way to the dive site did not phase me a bit... in fact when another girl turned green and expressed (rather uptightly) that the tales we're making her nervous, I wandered what on earth she was on about. Discussing underwater signals and stuff I needed to know with the instructor was fine too... Jon had already taught me everything I needed to know and so I was well versed. Getting kitted up was fine too (suit felt a bit tight as did weight belt, but that goes with the territory right?) and getting into the water was text-book. My BCD (jacket) needed a bit more air and so was blown up to the point that I couldn't breathe properly but this is fine too - didn't want to sink at the wrong point did I? Then the instructor started to take me under the water. That was it. Panick set in. A panick I have felt rarely in my life. The sort where you literally think you're about to suffocate... After a little reasurrance from Ollie (instructor) and a few cheesy grins from the guy who was with us doing his Padi course, we went down. The whole way I was fighting the 'fear' that it was all going wrong and I was about to drown... We managed to swim (actually I was being dragged at this point) towards a sandy, shallow area and to try and stem the obvious blind panick I was experiencing, Ollie tried to point out some colourful fish and wonderfull marine life around us... The only thing I can say is I was thinking 'Sod the fish, I want to get out of here'. It was at this point it all became too much. I had to get out and so desperately waved my hands in the 'go up' signal. I went up. I got out. I was so relieved! I don't think I'll try that again in a hurry. Duck to water, my foot! I spent the rest of the day either floating in the sea trying to alleviate sea sickness or snorkelling. So ended the day time....

In the evening we headed out having got our glad-rags on. We joined company with a number of others and ate, drank, danced and were merry. Nearing midnight the bar further down the beach from us starting letting off sky laterns (or wish laterns - giant paper laterns that float from the heat of a candle lit and held at the bottom.... you can write wishes on them before letting them off). There was a constant stream of them for at least an hour and they were truly magical (sorry - the hippy in me coming out here!). The whole night sky was full of them stretching into the night. We also had fireworks (but no thatch burning this time!) sparklers and lots of good cheer.... The highlight had to be watching Jon dancing on a podium with a semi-naked Canadian who wore sparkly pants and a bow tie (alas - no picture!). So ended 2006.

Next step - Cambodia....

Fire twirling on Lonely Beach

Going to try and add a few pics to old 'posts' but technology in Asia keeps getting the better of me!