Today, Fiona, Chris and the girls chilled out at their resort while Simon, after sneezing most of the night got up early and headed off to the Eco office to continue with work.  After last night’s meal at ‘Yangs’ Si’s tummy wasn’t so good, so I stepped in for Simon and took a few DMT’s (Dive Master in Training) on a Coral Watch survey  (taking note of the lightest/darkest parts, and which type of coral it is, and then submitted it on line) 
After a very hot and sweaty day, we met Chris Fiona and the girls at ‘Hacienda’ (leisure park) around 7pm for dinner.  We ordered some Nacho’s to start with and then I shared a huge Ham and Pepperoni deep pan pizza with Iona.  Everyone else had their own Mexican style meal apart from Si, who had his usual veggie pizza 😀

Even before dinner the girls were very keen to play mini golf.  So how could we refuse 😀
The course was really well built, not easy in the slightest.  A few safari animals awkwardly positioned on the greens.  We only few disastrous holes where we all gave up after 8/9 strokes but apart from that, it was very entertaining.  Iona even managed to get a hole in one!

Last nights BBQ pretty good.  With all bbq’s, the food took a little longer than expected but Simon did a splendid job.  I don’t quite know how he did it, as it was so hot, we were all moaning about the heat.  He is amazing!!!   ..plus earlier on in the day, he’d made a delicious potato salad.

We’d invited a few folk over to join in the festivities, Tim, Steve, Linda and Chinese Mark who isn’t actually Chinese, he just speaks it.

This morning I woke at a reasonable time and ventured upstairs to find Si at the kitchen sink, washing up. We had no water last night, so we were unable to tidy up/wash up.   It always happens at the most inconvenient times.

Anyway, today we hired Crystals newest addition, a little fishing boat which you can hire out and go snorkeling/diving on.  With just 2 crew and the 6 of us, we set off around the island stopping at a few bays as and when we fancied.   The first bay we decided to stop at was ‘Hing Wong’  At first we all went for a bit of a snorkel and then Simon and I took Chris for a dive. 

‘Tanote Bay’ was our second port of call.  No diving this time but we all snorkeled.  Tanote Bay has a huge rock which you can climb and then jump off, roughly 10 or so meters high.  We saw a few hesitant jumpers and Chloe even managed to see a naked one.

Our Final stop was ‘Pottery’ a lovely and unappreciated dive site.  It’s very shallow and an ideal location to take Fiona and Chris for a lovely dusk dive.  We saw an incredible amount of life.  Moray Eels, Puffa Fish, Trigger Fish, Blue Spotted Sting rays to name but a few

I knew that the girls, especially Chloe were eager to drive the boat, so when Suk (the captain) handed the ship over, with very little instruction  ..we were all very nervous and ever so impressed 😀

Then it was time to head back… grab a Singha beer… and retire all very very tired…!

After pottering at home for an hr or two  …I hopped on my bike and cycled to Haad Tien.  It’s not too far but it’s pretty hilly and I usually turn up ‘fresh as a daisy’ not!! 
It’s been brilliant turning up, girls in the pool, Chris and FI have my lounger and fresh towel ready:-D If we get bored of the pool then we just snorkel off the beach looking for black tip shark and Terry the Turtle ..which we’ve not seen yet…

That evening we decided to have a bbq at our house… It was good to show the family where we lived and for them to put everything into prospective.