Cuba

Cuba is a place I new very little about before we actually got there. I knew it was communist but not really what that actually meant. I knew the name Castro but not really who he was. We had bought the guide book but I am ashamed to say that even when we stepped onto the plane at Heathrow at the end of January I was yet to read the thoroughly interesting and enlightening section at the back about the fascinating history of Cuba. It therefore was more than a slight culture shock when about 15 hours later we stepped off the plane in Havana only to join the huge queue at the airport to exchange some Stirling into Pesos.

Before leaving the UK the five of us: James, Amy, Nick, Pete and myself had only done a small amount of research. Enough to know we needed visas and to book at least 3 nights of accommodation before we got there. During a planning dinner hosted by Amy we visited google and found a Casa Particulares in Havana, very similar to what we would call a bed and breakfast at home. So after standing for over an hour in a line to get our hands on some of the Cuban tourist currency we all jumped into a taxi and made our way to the casa. We actually extended our stay and spent 4 nights very near the centre of old Havana from where we were able to explore the city.

 Cuba is the most unusual place I have been. Very different from any of the other poorer nations I have visited. It was clearly once a great success, at the height of the sugar trade there was a huge amount of wealth around and they used it to build a capital city that would have been stunning in its hay day. I can only describe the buildings as similar to the most decorative in central London. Tall, white stone and very ornate. However that is where the similarity ends. Since the revolution in the early 50's there has been no money to speak of and therefore all of the once beautiful buildings have fallen into a state of disrepair I have never seen on such a scale. It meant there was a strange clash between the otherwise modern people in their western clothing and the surroundings of a previous time starting to decay. 

Perhaps one of the most surprising things were the cars. I knew of course that Cuba was famous for its old American cars but I thought they would be few and far between. As it turns out, I suspect about a third of the cars are around 60 years old and they have a huge amount of character. A third are boxy old Russian examples and the final third are modern imports used largely by tourists. As we later learned the cars are passed down the generations of each family. Most of them are fixed daily under the bonnet but the body work is largely origional. Therefore they are often missing door handles and the doors no longer close well enough to be water tight. They were all around before the time of seat belts and their owners have often made modifications, for example cutting a hole in the dash to add a tape player. Great fun though.

Nick, Peter, Me, James and Amy at Club Tropicana.
Click to see more pictures

We spent a lot of our time in Havana just wandering around soaking up the atmosphere and of course taking lots of pictures. We visited the Revolution museum, the Gallery of modern art, went on a guided tour of the old city in a horse and cart, ate a lot of very mediocre food, drank plenty of rum, toured New Havana in a horse and cart and most spectacularly spent an evening at the infamous Club Tropicana. The latter being one of my highlights of the whole holiday. We we greeted at the club with a flower for the girls and a cigar for the boys. We were then led to a table sitting right next to the stage. We ordered the most delicious pina colada cocktails I have ever had (and I am not exaggerating there) and then sat back to watch the most elaborate show I have ever seen. The costumes were nothing if not bonkers. The girls must have very strong necks because although they generally only wore a glitzy bikini with fish net tights they had extreme and huge head dresses. For one of the dances they actually had diamante lamp shades on their heads.

From Havana we caught a bus to Varadero for 3 nights in an all inclusive hotel right on a white sandy beach. This was meant to be our relaxing section of the holiday. A few days of reading and a bit of sunbathing. Pretty much that was all we did. Varadero unfortunately is not the best part of Cuba, though I am sure it is the only bit most British tourists see unless they venture out on a day trip to Havana. Whilst we were there we did go out on a large catamaran for a day to a local island and another beach very similar to the one at Varadero. We also went snorkeling which was distinctly average but unless you try these things you never know what you are missing out on.

On Varadero beach.

From Varadero we caught another bus to a City in the South of Cuba called Trinidad. It is a pretty, quiet town that has made it onto a list of Unesco world Heritage sites. It has very colourful buildings on cobbled streets with lots of local art shops and a square at the centre where people gather to Salsa dance in the evenings. The decor of the buildings was like a blast from the past. Many people had set up restaurants in their living rooms and it soon became obvious much of the furniture, crockery and decorations had survived from colonial times. The antiques road show would have had a field day. As in Havana we spent a lot of time just wandering, popping in and out of the art shops and looking at stalls set up with crafts aimed at the tourists. On one day we arranged to ride horses (incidentally my first time ever to ride a horse so slightly nerve racking) out of the town into the local hills. We sampled hand mangled sugar cane, which produces an immense amount of juice so we could see why it was so profitable. Then  made our way up to a small waterfall and pool in the hills for a cooling swim in beautiful surroundings away from the majority of tourists.

Trinidad was also close to another white sandy beach where we spent two afternoons. It is where we did a scuba dive. We sat and had a lesson to recap on our diving theory. Nick and Pete then paddled around in the water at the beach to practise breathing through a regulator before we got on the boat and motored to the site of a reef which had lots of brightly coloured fish and coral to see. All of us really enjoyed it and I think it was one of the nicest dives I have done. Not deep but beautiful scenery you couldn't fully appreciate with a snorkel.

An average street scene in Trinidad.

Again we stayed in a Casa in Trinidad that we had booked whilst at the hotel in Varadero. However when we had got off the bus there had been about 30 people holding up placards with pictures of their houses asking us to come and stay with them. We therefore decided that we would risk not booking our accommodation for our next stop and just find some when we arrived. It seemed an ok plan but when we came to pay for our Casa the lady asked us where we were going next. When we told her Vinales she of course said she had a friend there with a Casa and she would find out if there was space. Of course there was.

We hired a taxi to take us to Vinales. However the journey was eventful. We got stopped by the police because it seems the taxi driver was not insured to drive tourists in his hired car. Of course he just paid off the policeman like it was routine. As we neared Havana the taxi stopped again and another guy with a jeep and an American accent pulled up next to us. The story went that there was something wrong with the car so the driver had arranged for someone else to take us onto Vinales. In reality I think they wanted to save time and take the extra passenger we had with us straight into Havana rather than taking him to Vinales and back again.The advantage was our new driver turned out to be an English speaking journalist from Argentina and gave us an interesting insight to the way the country works from the point of view of a foreigner who had lived there ten years.

Vinales was a world away from anything else we had seen so far in Cuba. It is a town in the west of the country set amongst a lush, green, hilly landscape that is home to tobacco farming and is famous for its cigar manufacture. When we arrived we discovered we were in fact staying in three separate houses. One owned by an older couple. One owned by the mans sister set in his front garden and one by their friends across the road. Certainly for James and I it was the nicest place we stayed and the family were incredibly friendly. The man taught us how to play dominos, suggested day trips to us and helped us organise them. Whilst in Vinales we spent an afternoon wandering around the tiny town. The next day we went on a really long walk to the uninspiring visitors center and giant mural painted onto the side of a hill. We then caught a taxi to see what we thought was a big cave with a subterranean river at the bottom. We later found we were mistaken about its scale when we were advised to see a different cave the next day.

Our last full day in Cuba we saw some of the most spectacular scenery of the holiday. We had hired a taxi (old American car) for the day which all five of us fitted into due to the two bench seats rather than the normal 5 seats you would usually get in a car. We drove initially to the entrance of one of the biggest cave networks in the Northen hemisphere. However it hadn't yet opened so the cab driver went and had a chat to the guides and advised us to come back later. In the mean time we drove to the most stunning beach I have ever been on. Crystal clear blue water, fine white sand and a large amount of sea silvered tree branches laying all over the beach. As so few tourists know about the beach we had a whole stretch entirely to ourselves for the 4 hours we spent there. Just beautiful. We then packed up and went back to see the caves.

Strangely we stopped once again at the side of the road and a guy ran out of his house and jumped into the taxi with us. Turned out he was the brother of the guide. I am not entirely sure how official the tour of the cave was but our guide appeared to be very knowledgeable. We left the taxi at the side of the road and walked through a small wooded area. We then crossed two fields growing vegetables, over two low barbed wire fences and the up a mini mountain to the mouth of the cave. It did cross my mind, what if we are kidnapped? The cave though was well worth it. Enormous is an understatement. Quite literally cavernous. The route to it meant it was rarely seen by anyone other than locals and a hand full of tourists who were as crazy as us. We were given head torches and then entered to explore the glittering stalactites and stalagmites within the 500m we explored. With the beach and cave it must have been my favourite day of the holiday.

Our taxi to the beach and cave.

As always two weeks goes too quickly and we had to arrange getting back to the airport. Instead of getting a traditional taxi car we thought a minibus would be a more sensible option for the 90 minute journey. We arranged for it to collect us in plenty of time to get to the airport. Of course it ran on Cuban time and was 30 minutes late collecting us so a man from the taxi company came to reassure us it was on the way. When it arrived our faces must have been a picture. It was a minibus of sorts. A lime green old school car that had an extra door and extra row of seats. It was the most clunky looking American car we had seen. We held our breath whilst winding round all the hills on our way out of Vinales because the tires screeched with each turn as they rubbed on the wheel arches. We were not convinced we would make it to the airport until we actually arrived at which point the driver gave us a very smug look and laughed at us. It was a hilarious, though could have been a disastrous end to the holiday.

Although some would it think an unusual choice I think Cuba is the most fascinating place I have ever been. I am very grateful I went with a group of people who like to travel around a place and see as much as they can rather than just sit on a beach for two weeks. I am also very glad that Nick came. As our Spanish speaking representative he warned us he was very rusty and only spoke a little Spanish. Actually he was being very modest and was fluent which made the whole holiday much easier to organise and navigate. I would certainly recommend a visit to Cuba and would love to return if and when the government changes to see what happens to the country. The only really disapointing part was the lack of a stamp at the airport for my brand new passport.

Italy

Pictures from Italy

I don't know why, but I have always wanted to go to Rome. Finally I got the chance. I bought myself a travel guide and spent a week reading it and planning out our way around Rome. I got a little excited and tried to see everything in just two and a half days. James said his feet suffered and I think he got a little sun stroke but we saw lots. On the first day we had a wander around the centre of the city, walked down the Spanish steps then sat by the Trevi fountain which is even more flamboyant than I imagined. We had our best meal in Italy on our first day when we found a little restaurant on a back street away from the crowds of tourists that made amazing pizza. Our second day was Sunday so we went to the Vatican City. We saw St Peters square, had a look around St Peters Basilica and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the longest queue possible through the Vatican museums to see the Sistine Chapel. Worth the wait though. We finished Sunday at the top of a fort guarding the entrance of the Vatican city to take in the view of the Basilica.

I think Monday was my favourite though. We walked to the Colosseum where we skipped the queue (I'm very glad we bought tickets before we left the UK). It is so impressive. Its huge. Apparently it was built to hold 60,000 people sitting and 10,000 people standing. Considering it is nearly a thousand years old it is also remarkably intact, only one side suffered people stealing stone from it over the ages. Having read some of the information cards it seems the Romans had a brutal taste in entertainment though. From the Colosseum we moved onto the Roman forum. They are basically ruins of ancient Rome where people like Julius Caesar lived. It was odd walking around the same streets that Caesar would have walked.

On the Monday afternoon we caught a flight to Sicily where our friend Nick was kind enough to let us stay in his flat. Sicily was lovely and a lot more relaxed than Rome. Nick showed us around the local area. We spent some time at the beach, saw a nearby flock of flamingoes and ate a few breakfasts at a cafe next to a salt museum on a lagoon. They make sea salt there in the traditional way by evaporating the water in pools that become increasingly more shallow. They then shovel it into wheelbarrows and finally pour it into giant piles of along the side of the pools. The lagoon made a lovely setting to watch the sun go down with a gin and tonic.

One morning we made a trip to Segesta which is an ancient temple built on top of a hill. It was never completed apparently but was still very impressive. There was also a amphitheater at the top of a hill so there was an amazing view off the back of the stage. There was a spot in the middle where if you spoke it could be heard all around the seating area.

Our busiest day in Sicily was our last. We went with Nick to visit a town at the top of a hill called Erice. It is a pretty, old fashioned town with cobbled streets and quaint, white stoned buildings. We walked right to the highest point and ate a picnic lunch at the edge of a cliff with a stunning view of the coast.

Nick then dropped us off in Trapani from where we took a ferry to the nearby island of Favignana, whilst Nick went to work. Once we arrived on the island we hired two bicycles and equipped with a map we cycled around the east of the island. We found a lovely beach with crystal clear water where we sat and enjoyed the sunshine for a while. We actually were the whitest people on the beach. Everyone else was Italian and at the end of the summer they were all very tanned. We stuck out like a sore thumb.

It was great cycling around. We felt like we saw lots more than we would have done walking and didn't get so tired out. James enjoyed it so much that he insists that on any future holiday we hire bikes. We took the fast Cat back to Trapani as the sun set then had a wander around the old town, which had some beautiful architecture, before finding a pizza restaurant that had come highly recommended.

We both really enjoyed Italy. It was lovely to see Nick and meet some of his friends. My highlight was the Colosseum which was touristy but not to be missed. The ice cream or Gelato was incredible, particularly the coffee flavour and I am now a fan of tiramisu. The only slightly disappointing thing was the food which was not as great as expected. I think that is only because we do Italian food so well in the UK though. Also, it is just not fair that when we pay to go somewhere hot and sunny the UK gets temperatures of 30 degrees at the beginning of October! Oh well, we have just booked flights to Cuba in January. I bet the UK won't be so warm then.

Glamping in Devon

The last weekend of the summer, just before the schools go back, perfect time to go camping. Or in our case Glamping. There were eight of us that were going to desend on Croyde on the Friday, mostly after work. However Nick and I had the day off so we could spend the morning trying to solve the slight problem of how to pack a tent, 4 sleeping bags, three air beds, 4 pillows, 4 surf boards, 1 body board, a cool bag full of food and drink, 7 wetsuits, several bags of clothes, a cricket set and the obligatory twister game into the boot of a audi A3. Well, as we discovered it only works if you put the drinks in with the spare tyre and the wet suits in the surf board bags on the roof rack. Stupidly we managed to get to this point before realising the tow hook (needed to secure the surf boards to the roof) was in with the spare tyre, now under all our stuff. So after packing the car for a second time we were ready to leave by the time James and Amy made it home from work.

From Left: Beccs, Charlie, James, Nick,
Amy M, Trevor, Amy S, Caroline, Ben
More photos.

We must remember in the future that our predicted 3 hour journey always takes over 4 hours because the roads are rubbish. However we made it to the cherry tree camp site in plenty of time to make the other campers laugh with our squeaky air bed foot pump before wandering to the pub for some dinner. Amy, Trevor, Ben and Beccs arrived during the evening and had the fun of setting up the tents in the dark.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early for a cooked breakfast made in the kitchenette section of Amy and Trevors very large tent. There was fresh tea brewing in the pot (hence the glamarous part of our camping) and a selection of condements to go with the sausage, bacon, egg and beans. We then headed to the beach for our first attempt at surfing in over a year. I think it was a successful attempt too. I managed to stand up on my first try and I think I was more surprised than most. At least it made me feel less of a fraud having spent the first hour in the sea teaching Beccs how to catch a wave and stand (yes stand) for her first experience of surfing. By the time we got back to the tents it had clouded over and the heavens fell in so we zipped ourselves in to chill out for a few hours.

Charlie arrived to make us a party of nine. In true group camping style we had a game of rounders on some incredibly slippy grass which made it all the more fun. There was less skill and more sliding involved plus a very graceful face landing courtesy of Amy M before the game finished in time for dinner at the other local pub.
Sunday we packed up the tents, ate another hearty breakfast then made our way to Woolacombe beach. In true extreeme sport style James managed to get dragged along the beech by a kite, ripping his best pair of jeans in the process much to everyones amusement. Unfortunately I missed the whole spectacle but it does mean a shopping trip is now in order. A little surfing, some cloud bathing and a sandy BBQ later it was time to make our way home.

My 28th Birthday

This week has been a good one, I have been pretty busy but mostly it has been fun. On Monday Charlotte and I met up in Camden in London. Charlotte had been given a voucher whilst shopping in Colchester to have her hair and makeup done with a friend followed by a photo shoot. It seemed a great excuse to meet up and have a day out in the capital.

Photos

I was first to have my hair and make up done. I asked to have slightly wavy hair but not too boofant. Afterwards Charlotte said she wanted something simular but challenged the guy to get some volume into her hair. I have never seen so much back combing. It did look great though. We then had our photos taken. I think the lady took about 60 or so. We had taken our own clothes and we had about three changes of outfit. Some of the pictures were taken with us

together but most were individual. Most of them were incredibly cheesy but some were nice.

The most difficult it was choosing what pictures to keep and which to get rid of. We were able to have one free one each and naturally the others were pricey. The lady tried to do us a deal to make us buy lots but we were having none of it. Didn't really want to part with any cash. Eventually we came back with four. An individual one each. A picture of us together and Charlotte had an extra one.

From Camden we went onto Covent Garden where we had a wander around the shops. Charlotte knew of a good milk shake shop in the market area. I had a maltesers shake whilst watching the string quartet playing 'Arrival of the Queen of Sheba'. Afterwards we went to get some dinner. We made our way to a morroccan resturant called Souk Medina which is just off Neal Street. We both failed miserably to eat all of our huge tagines but they were delicious.

Dinner finished in perfect timing for us to wander around the corner to the theatre where we watched 'The Woman in Black'. It was amazing. The theatre was small but we had great seats, right in the middle near the front. The play is an old fashioned ghost story. There are only two actors and it starts off as a comedy but turns into a mild horror. There was a lot of suspense and it was quite jumpy but probably one of the best shows I have seen in the West End.

The next day was my birthday. I met up with Kelly for a light lunch and then James and I went out in the evening for dinner. We went to a new Thai resturant in Petersfield. The food was lovely, definately somewhere to visit again.

Wednesday I started my new job in Stroke rehabilitation. It is such a novelty being able to leave the hospital at 5pm each day and have most of my weekends off. A different world from working in MAU. I finished off my week on Friday with a BBQ in the back garden with a group of friends. I think in summary I seem to have eaten loads this week, perhaps I ought to go for a run.

France June 2011

At the beginning of June it was time to go back to the South West of France again to stay at Maison de Pruniers. This time I went with James, Charles, Sarah and Nick. Again it was an opportunity for the boys to drive their cars so we caught the fast cat ferry from Portsmouth to Le Havre and then drove over 600 miles along the auto routes to the house close to Moniestier.

For more pictures click here.

This year we were not so lucky with the weather as we have been in the past but we still managed to get out an about. We started the week by visiting a market in Duras where Charles suffered after eating some seriously strong cheese and Nick was ripped off by a market seller who chopped off an enormous chunk of cheese for him to buy. Sarah and I both bought ourselves a shopping basket each which seems to be what the locals use instead of plastic bags. That afternoon we drove to Chateau Monbazillac to taste some wine and replenish our stocks of their desert wine.

The next day we decided that considering it was our third visit to this house which is built on the grounds of a golf course that we must have a go at some golf. None of us thought we were good enough to play properly so we hired some clubs, some basket of balls and hit the driving range. It was good fun but just proved we were not good enough to play properly. I had to make several attempts before even hitting each ball and when I did who know what direction it would go in. I did get one to go more than 50m though which I was pleased with. Charles was our big hitter though making a distance of more than 300m. Though even he had no control of the direction.

One day we drove for an hour along winding country lanes to go for lunch at Sarahs uncles house. He retired out there in his early fifties a couple of months ago. His house was beautiful, a converted old farm house. They had added a tennis court, swimming pool, conservatory, summer house complete with bar and two areas where there family can stay when they visit. However it seemed her uncle was most proud of his wine cellar which was complete by a small table and seating area for tasting. Someone said when we got home that unless you see places like this then you have nothing to aspire to.

After leaving his house we wandered into the picturesque local town which was built on top of a big hill, from which we could see a huge house in the distance. That house turned out to be Chateau Biron which we wandered around later that afternoon. We were all slightly spooked by the torture chamber in the basement of the house until we found out it had been set up as a film set and was entirely props.

Sarah, Charles, Nick, Me, James.

We jointly decided that one day we would like to spend some time in Bordeaux. Charles has a friend who was a student there a few years ago and had recommended and area with some good bars and restaurants. We decided that we would get two rooms in a local cheap hotel so we could all enjoy some wine with dinner. The hotel for the five of us was cheaper than a taxi would have been. Before getting some food we went to see the fountain alongside the river which essentially is water over the pavements which reflects the ornate buildings behind it. There were lots of restaurants to choose from but we chose one that seems traditionally French. We all agree it was the best meal we had. Starting with a pate of choice, followed by either duck or pork with roasted potatoes, pureed swede and accompanying sauce and completed with profiteroles or crème brulee. Yummy! From there we wandered on and found a lovely wine bar with a difference. It had life size trees in the middle, overstuffed ornate French furniture and sold only wine. Just as well James had started to try some of the local wines and was managing to no longer pull strange faces.

On our way home from Bordeaux we made a stop at St Emillion for lunch. Unfortunately there were no wine tours that day but we had a wander and Charles and Nick bought some grape vines to bring home instead.

On Saturday we went into Ste Foy La Grande to the market. It was the biggest, busiest and best market I have been to in France. Lots of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and other stalls with clothes and jewellery. I managed to buy a bag full of fresh cherries for next to nothing.

On the Sunday we got up early to make our way back to the ferry port. The funniest bit of the driving was getting through the tolls. As there were five of us there was always someone in a car on their own making it pretty difficult to reach to pay.

James' 28th Birthday.

Trying to keep anything a surprise is nearly impossible. I decided to book an activities afternoon for the day before James' birthday back in February. Of course by the end of February he knew exactly where we were going even if everyone pretended he didn't. On Sunday the 17th April we Myself, James and a group of friends made our way to the new Go Ape course near Southampton. We were lucky to have beautiful weather for April. I'm sure the afternoon would not have been nearly as fun if it were raining.

More photos.

When we got there we were taught how to use our harnesses and how to link them to the safety lines. We also had the Go Ape mantra drummed into us: 'Always stay attached'. It didn't take long for us to realise why. We made our way around a course that consisted of wobbly ladders to climb into the trees, lots of obstacles to make our way over in the tree tops and several zip lines to bring us back to ground level. Possibly the scariest moment was just before doing a Tarzan jump. Basically I hooked myself up and jumped before I could chicken out. The rope had slack in it so I dropped about 3 feet before swinging several meters to land in a net suspended in the trees. I only discovered later that the deep breath I take before jumping only helps me scream.

The last obstacle was a series of ropes that you had to walk across, suspended up near the tree tops. One of my friends insisted that I had to talk her across because she was starting to feel sick being so high up and couldn't look at her feet in case she saw how far away the ground was. I think several of us discovered we were not as happy with heights as we thought we were. I think we all had good fun though.

To recover in the evening we made our way to Emsworth for a BBQ and birthday cake in the back garden. All in all a fun day though possibly not a surprise for the birthday boy.

Thailand

I think James and I have decided to make it a regular event that we go on holiday during February so that we can get away from the worst part of the winter and find some sunshine to make us cheerful again. This year there was no hesitation in deciding where to go. James' brother Stuart moved to Thailand at the end of last year with only 4 days notice to start a new job. Naturally Thailand became the perfect destination.

We flew into Bangkok where we stayed for the weekend. Inbetween suffering from a touch of jet lag and in James' case some food poisoning we did manage to visit the Grand Palace and Khaosan Road. This is an area visited by backpackers and we met a guy on holiday from Amsterdam and a girl from Eastbourne. We had a great night out in a bar with live music that overlooked the road. Unfortunately for James this inspired his street noodles which he classed as an Asian version of Kebab.

Click here for photos

On the Monday morning we flew to the island of Phuket. We were collected from the airport and taken by taxi the the Lim Han pier where we waited for a boat. The only way I can describe the first sight of The Village Coconut Island is if you imagine what paradise would be. I had heard about the island and seen pictures on the website. However for some reason I was still amazed by how perfect and beautiful it looked. They have a small pier which enables you to walk from the boat, across a white sandy beach, under the palm trees and to a golf buggy which we were driven to the reception in. We were then told about our upgrade. Thanks to Jess who had helped us book the accommodation in the first place we were upgraded to a three bedroomed villa complete with its own private swimming pool. Very luxurious. We did make use of the pool too swimming every day as a way of cooling off in the evening.

Every day was hot and we experienced some fantastic lightening storms during the evenings. The worst was whilst we were eating dinner at a restaurant at the Han Lim pier. This particular restaurant did not have walls only plastic roll down shutters which seemed designed to keep out light showers. Not torrential monsoons like we experienced. Most of the customers had to move seats to the centre of the dining room away from the rain whilst the staff got soaked fighting to keep the shutters in place. We waited until the rain stopped before going to get the boat back to the island. Whilst standing on the pier we saw some stunning lightening that spread horizontally around the sky several times. We found out from Stuart that one of the islands boats had been rescued from sinking and a couple of trees had also come down during the storm. My only casualty was the book I had left by the pool which took the rest of the holiday to dry out.

We went on a few evenings out with Stuart into Phuket and Patong. It was good because after several months living there he knows some good places to go. We ate some great Thai food played some serious Jenga and also had the best muscles I have ever eaten in a Belgian restaurant that specialises in European beers. Having said all that, my favourite food of the holiday was the Thai food on the menu at the Village where we were staying. Full compliments to the Canadian Chef who has been living there 8 years.

On the Wednesday we took a boat to the island opposite Coconut island. The beach there was perfect and as it was also the site of a pearl farm. Thursday we got up early to go on an activity day. In the morning we stopped off at an area to see some wild monkeys before going white water rafting. The rafting was slightly reminiscent of the River Rother Rafting Race. There must have been 30 plus rafts on the river and it was therefore like bumper cars on the way down. As the water level was fairly low in the river small dams had been built to collect water so they could be opened as the rafters go past. It was good fun.

Next was the Elephant treking. James and I were on the same elephant with its driver. However it was not long before the driver got off and let us sit further forward on the elephant. I was at the front and had to tuck my legs behind its ears. It wasn't the most stable I have ever been but the elephant did seem to hold its ears back while we were going down hill as if holding me in place. I was still greatful for James holding me on around the middle. All the elephants used for the tourist trade had been rescued from the logging industry. I think ferrying tourists around the forest must have been favourable to them than hauling logs around all day every day. Last on the agenda for the day was to ride a quad bike around the rutted roads of the forest.

On the Saturday we went for a kayak around the islands next to coconut island. We managed to find a deserted island with an old bar on it that had long since been forgotten about. We also found a empty beach that was worthy of a picture or two. We had been told to get the kayak back to the island by 5pm to account for the tide. Unfortunately we should have got back slightly earlier. We discovered that when the tide goes out the mud it uncovered is very simular to the mud found in Emsworth. Thick, black and sticky. Getting the kayak in did give the people on the beach a good laugh.

Sunday we set off early again to meet a boat for tour of the island at Phang Nga. We motored out to some of the most beautiful surroundings I have ever seen. The water was flat calm with a slightly greenish tint. Small islands rose out of the water almost like mountains. There were lots of them and we got to explore them in kayaks. I can only assume the landscape was the inspiration for the floating mountains in the film Avatar. We also went through some caves that led to an enclosed mangrove which was very scerene. As the tide was high we had to lie down at times to get through the caves in the kayak without bashing our heads. One of the islands was James Bond island which was filmed in 'Man with the Golden Gun'. As there was a small beach opposite it we were able to get some reasonable photographs. The only shame is how touristy the beach had become. It was lined with stalls selling cheap mementoes. The afternoon was spent on yet another beautiful beach where we were able to cool off by going for a swim and drinking pina colada out of coconuts.

The last day we went for a bike ride around Coconut island. Having managed to avoid being bitten by mosquitos for most of the holiday in the space of 2 hours I got thoroughly munched. We cycled (well walked) up the steepest hill ever seen, which is a lot coming from someone who has treked to Everest base camp. When we got to the top we found there was no where to go except back the way we had come. A lot of hard work but the reward was possibly the best view on the island.