Travurple

Finally a week’s blog actually started with Skiing! Monday we spent about 3 hours out on the slopes, enjoying runs we had already skied last week (Biollaire, Marmottes, Perce Neige, Marvel & Sairon). Back to the flat in time for a late lunch.

Tuesday, another skiing day, most of the same runs again, but did manage a new one, Combe, heading down in ‘Les Carroz” the next village along. At 6pm the ticket resale website opened for the Rugby World Cup (Union) in France later this year, so Rog spent 4 hours on the computer trying to get some more tickets, but to no avail. We do already have tickets for the semi-finals.

Wednesday, third day skiing in a row, we are slowly getting better and more confident, Rog possibly a little too ‘confident’ which results in a couple of moments “graceful sitting down”, at low speed or even stopped. Skied the usual suspects, as they all lead away from our closest Cable Car/Chair Lift, we did manage a new run, Blanchot, and Rog did his first Red run this year, Bergin, without sitting down! 😀

Thursday, we braved skibuses and their connections, which worked perfectly, we got the first skibus to Samoens, had a 10min connection to wait for the second skibus to Cirque du Fer a Cheval, which is at the end of the road up the valley. We were the only ones on the bus. The end of the valley is surrounded by high cliffs and many iced up waterfalls. The weather was not great as there were low clouds obscuring the top of the cliffs, but it was a magical place to walk around, especially as there was hardly anyone else there. We had a couple of hours before the return of the skibus, so we had a walk through the woods on a snowy track created by the snow mobile. As the track had been groomed recently, we could see that the only footsteps so far that day were from the local Chamois (wild sheep/goatie thing). Sadly we did not catch sight of them, just the hoof prints. As it was quite chilly in the valley, despite our layers, we then went to the restaurant for a coffee and a warm up. After that we headed over to watch a team of sled dogs being trained on a short course nearby, then retraced the steps of our earlier walk as we had time to kill, before heading back to the bus stop. When the bus arrived it was almost full, and everyone, bar one man, got off the bus, so there were only three of us on the bus back to Samoens, to make our connection back to Morillon.

On Thursday evening, after a long drive, Nic’s cousin and husband (both good skiers) arrived for a weekend visit bearing liquid gifts, it is lovely to be able to host!

Friday, the four of us spent a good few hours out skiing with a drinks stop, ‘Vin Chaud’ (mulled wine) does make ones skiing slightly more fluid. Had a really good day and made a lot of skiing progress.

On Saturday, the “Piste des Cascades” (Waterfalls) the longest single ski run in our area at 14km, opened. With our new found skiing confidence we decided to do it, as it was a blue run. In order to get to the top we had to do three new runs across to Flaine, some of which was in cloud. Once we made it to the top of a long cable car from Flaine we were above the clouds with views of Mont Blanc. Amazing! The run began as a wide open piste with lots of snow cover, then there were some flat and undulating sections, were quite tiring as, when you lose speed on these sections, you have to use your poles to propel yourself forward. Rog had his first proper “spill”, which could not be classified as an “graceful sit down” thankfully we ski in helmets, and Rog definitely fully tested his. No major injury but a bit of a stiff neck.

Even further down the run, on the way into the Sixt Valley, it turned icy and narrow, with hardly enough space to turn properly, it was also busy, so not very pleasant. Nic, not wanting to be left out, also had her first “spill” resulting in removal of skis and walking down the slope a bit before ‘re-mounting”. No sure this run classifies as a blue run! At the end of the run, after a quick restorative beer, the only way back to the flat was two ski buses, the first of which was not a nice experience, a big queue, then everyone was pushing to get on the bus! We made a quick connection for the second bus, then back the flat for a quick shower to make our table reservation for dinner.

We were back to “La Carline”, this time Rog had a burger and Nic had Tartiflette.

Sunday, our guests left us in the morning, and after a couple of heavy days skiing (by our standards!) we decided to have the day off, and went for a walk instead. A lovely blue sky day!

We can’t quite believe that Rog finished work 2yrs ago today! (Sunday 29^th)

On Monday and Tuesday, it snowed heavily at village level (700m / 2,300ft) most of the day, we decided not to ski as it must have been a ‘white out’ further up the mountain, and not that many ski runs were open. Sorry it’s another slow start to the weekly blog.

Wednesday we headed up the Morillon cable car (1,100 m), then up the Sairon chairlift (1,700m ‘ish) then down a selection of ski runs (the top half of Marvel, Vielle & bottom half of Sairon) back to Morillon 1,100. With that Nic had had enough, and headed to a café for a hot chocolate, Rog went back up the chairlift and did the whole of Sairon ski run.

On the way back to the flat, Nic was collateral damage in a school snowball fight, that sounds more dramatic than it actually was, one kid tried to hit his mate with a snowball, missed and hit Nic. The teacher was not please, but no harm done.

Late afternoon and early evening we had a couple of power cuts, the longest one lasted only about half an hour. As everything in the flat is electric, including the heating, any prolonged power cut would not have been pleasant. Ever since the power cut the street lights are on in the day and go off just as it gets dark!

Thursday, saw us going up the Morillon cable car again, carrying our skis, on getting out we headed to a chairlift, on which you do wear skis, Nic couldn’t get her skis on, the binding had locked up! So Nic went to get them sorted, and Rog went and did a ski run. Thankfully we were fairly near the ski hire shop, unfortunately Nic is ‘directionally challenged’ and despite the fact we have been to the ski shop twice before, she managed not to go the shortest route to the ski shop, and not even the second shortest route, but the longest route possible in a very small village, whilst wearing ski boots, which are not easy to walk in and carrying skis, and including 2 sets of stairs! Nic’s defence is that it all looks different in the snow?! Once at the ski shop she ended up with a different pair of skis. These new skis are not purple, but are a little narrower and lighter with bindings that work, so an improvement.

We skied in the same area we had skied on Wednesday, just to continue finding our ski legs and hopefully improve a bit.

Friday, another beautiful day, we woke to clear blue skies, and we are getting braver now, we skied over the top into the next valley, ‘Les Carroz’ doing a few more ski runs and chairlifts. As high as 2,118m through the clouds, at 1,740m it was ‘-13c’! so not sure what it was at 2,118m, but can best be described as “bloody cold”.

Just getting ready to go skiing and getting to the top of the first ski run is a lot of effort and takes ages: 

Preparing – make sure you have enough tissues, we usually take a thermal mug of coffee/tea and some snacks with us, and don’t forget your ski pass, then;

Dressing – Fighting your way into thermal layers, two pair of socks, outer ski gear, gloves, snood, hat, helmet and ski boots, then;

Walk – Carrying your skis and poles the 500m to the cable car, whilst wearing ski boots! What makes ski boots difficult to walk is that fact that you can’t flex your ankles.

Ride – the cable car, then put your skis on and ski 50m to the chairlift, up the chairlift, then;

Arrive – Finally you are that the top of the first ski run and ready to go. 

Skiing is a mad sport, or pastime, as we are not sure you call it a sport the way we ski. It also sounds like an line from Only Fools & Horses “I’ve got a great idea, get people to strap two planks of wood to their feet and then send them down a mountain, and charge them for the privilege, we’ll be millionaires, Rodney!!.” – don’t get us wrong we are having a great time and enjoying ourselves.

After 3 consecutive ‘days’ of skiing, we have a day off on Saturday, heading into Samoens for a little explore and some shopping. Back home via ski bus, followed by a walk down by the river, it is now very different with all the snow.

We tried the last of the three restaurants in the village, Yeti, another pizza and local specialities. Nic had Tartiflette again and Rog had a burger, both very good and we have finally learned from previous weeks, neither of us had a pudding. 

Sunday, Nic went for another walk along the river, whilst Rog when back on the slopes, but this time using Snowblades (mini skis – a £21 ebay special, brought in the UK and small enough to pack in a suit case) rather than normal skis. They were fun to use, currently Rog is undecided whether they will replace the normal skis for good.

A very domestic start to the week, as we’ve now got this Ski bus timetable sorted, we went shopping in Samoens, whilst waiting for the return bus we went to a small café /deli for hot chocolate and coffee, they had blueberry muffins and raspberry & almond tart on the menu so it would be rude not to try them! 

On the back of the toilet door was a sign, only in English, which read “If you get locked in, take the key out, slide it under the door, then knock”, the mind boggled – we can only presume that lots of English have been locked in the toilet. So maybe the French do not lock the door?

By the time we got back to the flat the weather had turned, so there was no putting off the housework which needed doing! ….Our interesting life, please keep reading hopefully it will liven up!

On Monday night it snowed!

We had a vague plan on Tuesday to attempt a ski bus ride to Sixt, a village further up the valley, despite it being only one change at the Grand Massif Express Lift, on the current bus timetables there was no easy connection! So we went up the Sameons Cable Car again to see the newly arrived snow, the place is starting to look like a ski resort.

We started walking towards Sixt, but after 1km or so the path turned into a bit of a bog, so we turned around, and walked all the way back to Morillon.

The local Ski Area Authorities announced that some more runs and lifts should be opened on Thursday, so that gave us hope that we could be skiing by the end of the week.

On Wednesday morning we took the Morillon cable car up to “Morillon 1100” to collect our skis, thankfully the  same very nice chap, who gave us the seasonal deal was there, so that made it easier.  He didn’t want any money today, just a swipe of a credit card, and we pay when we return the skis. Result!

Thursday, we took to the slopes! We had to get the ski bus to the Vercland cable car, as there were no ski runs open up Morillon. It has been 7 years since we last skied, so after a very tentative start, we did a nice long blue run called “Dahu”, we then called it a day – for any non-skiing readers, runs increase in difficulty from Green (easy/novice), Blue (nice, our usual choice of runs), Red (only occasionally have we done these), Black (only ever done one small section and never again!). 

So back down the cable car to wait for a ski bus, more drama, the ski bus didn’t arrive, then someone arrived at the bus stop letting people know that the bus had been in an accident! Our French is not good enough to understand any more detail, however the only option was to wait for another ski bus. Eventually a ski bus did arrive with a driver that was clearly trying to make up lost time! En route back to Morillon we did pass the unfortunate bus at a 45 degree angle in a small ditch, it looked as if it had gracefully slipped of the road. We were thankful not to have been on it at the time.

Friday, a few runs had been opened in Morillon, it is only 500m from the flat to the cable car, which is a long way to walk in ski boots carrying skis – so we got the ski bus from nearly outside our door. 

At the Telecabine/Cable car stations, the staff were keen to let us know about the limited runs available, as everyone else was heading for the Samoens area to ski more widely. Only the runs at the very top of Morillon 1100 were open, so after getting the chairlift up, and doing the top half of a really quiet ski run a couple of times, we called it a day and had to get the chairlift back down, which was a new experience for us! 

Our skiing is currently very tentative, occasionally terrifying and exhausting, hopefully only until we find our ski legs again.  After the first scary run, Nic christened herself Captain Snowplough, as this is the default position to adopt on skis in order to limit speed and stop. The second run was better with more parallel turns and less snow ploughing. Note for non skiers, snowplough is very tiring on the legs!!

We decided not to ski on Saturday, we went to find the International Ice Swimming Association World Championship happening in a lake in Sameons, (we hadn’t seen it advertised locally, Nic’s mum saw it on UK TV and told us about it). A 25m pool had been created in the lake, We only managed to see one relay race, before the break for lunch. So we had some “Vin Chaud” mulled wine, a couple of potato donuts (we decided they were more like potato pakoras) very tasty, then walked home again.

That evening we had drinks in the bar closest to the flat, two doors down from the Bakery, it was a very local bar, there was nobody in the place apart from a table of 4 playing cards, it turned out that one of the 4 was in fact the barman. So he broke off his game to serve us. Then all the locals arrived, there was some form of bingo/lottery happening on the TV, and everybody appeared to buy at least one scratch card, and someone even won something??. We were then slightly confused when a woman entered the bar to a round of applause, it was actually the bar maid, who appeared to be late for her shift. So we were never quite sure who the first guy was who served us, he went back to playing cards. This bar was 2/3 of the price of the one last week, and twice as entertaining!

After a couple of drinks, we moved next door to the closest restaurant to the flat, serving local fare, we had a traditional Raclette, which is basically cheese, melted at the table by a heated contraption served with cold meats, potatoes and salad. It was fabulous!, followed by a chocolate and blueberry fondant for Rog and Mango sorbet for Nic, again both fabulous.

Only a short stagger home!

Sunday, the weather is not good down in the village, lots of rain/sleet so had a lazy day at the flat, Hopefully it will be falling as snow on higher ground.

There is no snow here, which is a little bit of a problem if you intend to ski, the only topic of conversation on everybody’s lips, especially anyone here on holiday hoping to ski this week. According to the locals, this is the first time in 36 years that there has been no snow at this time of year, we pick our times!

Thankfully & hopefully, we will be here long enough to see some snow and do some skiing, but only time will tell. We are trying not to annoy everyone with that fact, but everyone asks us when we arrived, and how long we are here for, so we tell them, so far everyone has been nice about it, at least to our faces. It is a beautiful part of the world to be in, snow or no snow.

We could try and fight our way over to Flaine, the highest resort our ski pass covers as there are a few ski runs open, but they are mobbed, so much so, that they have stopped selling passes for that area. So we decided to stay local’ish and enjoy everything on our doorstep: walks, the cable cars and the ski buses, which are still running of sorts!

Our first attempt at using the Ski Bus ended in two “no shows” so we went home, via the Tourist information office, they had no idea why the ski buses hadn’t shown up.

Second attempt – called at the Tourism office before going to the bus stop, and they gave us a new updated timetable, on which they have smashed two ski bus routes into one, but not updated the timetables at the bus stops or online! We ended up sharing the new timetable with everyone at the bus stop, including a very disgruntled German with an American English accent. Before the bus did turn up, on time as per the new timetable, a guy arrived to replace the timetable at the bus stop, thankfully he replaced it with the one we already had. However he was challenged by the German with “Well I told them yesterday they needed to update the timetables at the bus stops, so why has it taken you so long? ….” Thankfully for all concerned the only response was a Gaelic shrug. Anyway, we got on said bus, heading to Samoens, talking to a women from Wales, who was meeting her family at the top of the Samoens Cable Car, saying it was nice weather at the top, so we joined her to travel up in the cable car, it was sunny with some snow, but as Paul Daniels used to say “…not a lot…” but some.

Third time using the Ski Bus from Samoens Tourist information office back to Morillon, firstly another “no show’, so we decided to get on the next ski bus that turned up to go back to the Samoens Cable Car, heading in the right direction. We spoke to the driver, got on the bus, then she saw the ski bus we wanted in her rear view mirror and told us to get off her bus and get the next one, result! we got home!

Fourth time using the Ski bus, it turned up on time ‘ish on the new timetable, so all good, we then walked back from Samoens, along the Nordic skiing tracks by the river. (with no snow but a little muddy and rocky in places).

We had pre booked skis to collect a couple of days after our arrival. As there is very little skiing to be had in the area we went to chat to them about what to do. After a few minutes of a mixture of French and English, and even some google translate action, we managed to a do a new deal on our ski hire. They have refunded us the two weeks we had originally booked, cut a deal on “seasonal workers” rates, on a pro rata basis, but only from when we collect the skis! Obviously we have not picked up the skis yet.

Our flat is 50 yards from a very good boulangerie (bakers), we are already working our way through all the different type of bread and pastries they sell. We have also managed 4 different super/mini markets, and there is a market outside the door on Sunday morning, so Nic is happy! 

Saturday, went out for a couple drinks at the local bar, then on to a restaurant, specialising in local dishes and pizzas. They were fully booked that evening, but found us a table on the agreement that we would give it back after an hour and a half. Nic had the Tartiflette, Rog had Pepperoni pizza, followed by Assiette of three desserts and chocolate mousse respectively, we both agreed we had eaten too much as it was all so good, thankfully it was only a short stroll back to the flat.

Sunday it is raining in the valley today, hopefully some will be falling as snow up on higher ground, but it is unlikely to be enough to open the ski runs any time soon.

Happy New Year everyone!

We had a great December, back in Pocklington catching up with family and friends.

Spent Christmas down in Kent with family, which was lovely. Despite all the doom and gloom about traveling, the drive to Kent and back was not too bad!

We have now moved on to France, via Geneva. We got the train from Geneva to Cluses, then the public

bus up the mountain, we were the only two on the bus, so a private transfer.

We are staying at an AirBnB in Morillon for a couple of months, hoping to ski. However there is currently no snow, it is nice just being in the Mountains, but can’t wait for the snow to arrive!

Think we have finally got over the jetlag enough to publish this blog!

Monday 5^th, our wedding anniversary was another rainy day, but spent in the nice hotel with breakfast delivered to our room. Our room rate included spa treatments, so we had another massage. Very nice.

The hotel restaurant was closed on Monday lunch time and is not open in the evening. Monday was Father’s day in Thailand, which meant some of the local restaurants were also closed, so we actually ended up with a take away from “Duck Noodle” a café/take away in the grounds of the Chinese temple.

Tuesday, breakfast on the patio, another spa treatment, a couple of hours in the sun near the pool before the rain started again! We had a late lunch in the hotel restaurant, chicken noodle soup and ribs. Both were fairly spicy, which was nice as some places strip all the spicy out of their dishes as soon as you order as a “westerner”.

We finished the day with a couple of drinks at our beach bar. As the weather was better than on Sunday, a few more people were in the bar. 

Wednesday, was a transfer back to the airport for a flight to Bangkok, the flight was delayed for a couple of hours, so we got free access to the business lounge, via our Revolut card. (their Smart Delay offering). Finally got to our Bangkok hotel, the “Bangkok Suvarnabhumi Hotel”, which they shortened to “BS Hotel” which we found mildly amusing. The hotel was great for a short stopover £25 per night, including 15 min airport transfers (both ways).

Thursday, 6am we were on the free airport transfer, for a 8:05am 12 ½ hour flight to Helsinki. A good flight as flights go, we had a spare seat next to us. Rog managed to watch 4 moves, Nic watch 3 moves and 4 episodes of Friends. We landed in Helsinki in a blizzard, thankfully the Finns know how to deal with snow. After a 3 hour layover we were on a flight to Heathrow, and a bus to the Premier Inn. There was a clock on the bus and Nic wouldn’t believe it was showing the correct time, unfortunately it was and we had been traveling for 24 hours!

Friday morning, due to the time difference, we were having breakfast by 6:30am, treating it like lunch, Rog had cereal, full cooked breakfast followed by a couple of pastries. We certainly got our monies worth!

Got the bus back to Heathrow, then the Piccadilly line to King’s Cross (£5.50 rather than the £20 for the Heathrow Express, which only goes to Paddington). As we were early into central London, we went to the British Library to their exhibitions on “Hampi: Photography and Archaeology of southern India’, “Treasures of the British Library” and “The Philatelic Exhibition” an interesting couple of hours.

Then a train from King’s Cross to York, an uneventful trip, picked up by family, back to Pocklington and to the same AirBnB we had last December. 

Spent the weekend catching up with family, watching the football and starting the process of sorting our stuff out again to get ready for our next trip. On 31 December we go to France for a couple of months in a ski resort.

Monday, A new charging cable was delivered for Rog’s bike, but unfortunately that didn’t solve the problem, so a replacement battery was delivered, result, problem fixed!

Tuesday, Rog was in need of a haircut, so this time went to a barbers on the main tourist road, Chaweng Beach Road, a more expensive hair cut!! It’s all about the fade!

Wednesday, we set off on the newly fixed bikes, towards a waterfall in the centre of the island, had to negotiate a ford, thankfully not too deep, we did stand and watch a couple of cars and scooters go through before attempting it ourselves!

But then the serious uphill started, the bikes did really well, but couldn’t get us all the way up, and the electric bikes are so heavy we couldn’t pedal them up without their power. We enjoyed the ride despite not making it to the waterfall.

The sky was also getting darker and darker, so we stopped off for coffee, and were really lucky with the timing, it absolutely threw it down whilst we were having coffee, and just about stopped as we got back on the bikes.

Lunch at a stunning restaurant called Kewin’s, serving fresh local fare, both the fish and beef curries were wonderful.

Thursday, back on the bikes to the north coast again, this time for a beach walk. But this beach had a really different sand to the other beaches, this was large sand grains almost pebbles, which made it really difficult to walk on, so we didn’t get far, before yep you guessed it we stopped for coffee. (Other drinks are available and Nic has never had coffee!)

Friday, was a bit of an admin day, cancelling our free Amazon prime membership, we’ve watched a few TV programmes on the smart TV. Rog had some KLM/AirFrance air miles to use before they expired at the end of the year, which we have not managed to use on a flight, so bought a solar charger!

There was an amazing storm overnight Friday into Saturday morning.

Saturday we awoke to no running water, the landlord arrived within the hour and fixed the water pump and reset fuses in the junction box following the storm.

The rain continued most of the day, we did manage to walk down to the beach for a massage in the local massage ladies newly constructed hut! I think we’ve funded a good proportion of it!

The bikes were supposed to be collected today, but that never happened.

Sunday, we checked out by 11am, the host was really kind, as it was still raining and gave us a lift down the road to a cafe we had booked for brunch.

Then we flagged down one of the endless supply of taxis, for a ride to our new hotel, about six miles away in Lamai. The Villa Nalinnadda hotel, is adult only, includes breakfast and spa treatments. We have a beach front villa… well it is our wedding anniversary, 19 yrs this year!

The hotel does not serve dinner, so we ventured out in the pouring rain to the nearest bar/ restaurant that the hotel owner had recommended. A few cocktails and local food, all for a very reasonable price….. we sat outside under the shelter of the roof above the bar, and despite the wind and rain, and being the only customers, we had a lovely time.

A relatively quiet week this week, a few outings on the bikes, mainly down to the beach for a morning walk and a drink somewhere. Nic is creating a league table of Mango shakes.

Spend most afternoon’s back at the villa, watching lots of wildlife from the pool, bird, butterflies, squirrels and the odd lizard.

We’ve managed to identify a few of the birds using the Thailand national parks website, so we think we have seen:

• Black Bellied Malkoha

• Black Capped Kingfisher

• Red Headed Honeyeater

• And Lots of “Little Brown Birds”

Friday evening we went out for a couple cocktails on the beach at Chalala Samui Beach resort, which is currently topping the mango shake leader board, and served a mojito of distinction.

Then we headed to Federico’s Italian restaurant for dinner, a nice meal.

The rear tire on Nic’s bike deflated by the time we got home, messaged the guy, who came out on Saturday afternoon and dealt with it!

Then Rog’s bike was not charging properly, so currently waiting for that to be sorted!

Sorry only one photo this week.

As you’ll have noticed, we had a week off blogging last week, so this one covers the last two weeks.

The main reason for the week off was that we have had lots of rain and therefore not done a huge amount. Can’t complain it is the rainy season here in Koh Samui, so we expected some rain!

Having said that, in the last two weeks we have managed to do all the following:

Cycled to the north coast of the island, thank heavens for electric bikes, to visit the “Big Buddha”, yes it’s a Buddha which is big !! It’s on a small peninsula, with the obligatory collection of tourist shops. Rog bought a new T-shirt.

On the evening of Tuesday 8th we went to “Loy Krathong” the Festival of Lights at the local lake, where “Krathong’s”, small floats made from cross sections of palm trees decorated with flowers and candles, are floated on the lake.

There was also the night food market, selling everything you could want from kebabs to cup cakes. We purchased from a few of the stalls for dinner.

We ventured south for the first time on the bike, down the coast road, lots of hills but the bikes coped. We went to Lamai beach, from the clean up operation that was under way, they had also celebrated Loy Krathong there too.

Rog had to test out the local doctors to treat an ear infection 🙉, £85 for a walk in consultation and 7 days worth of three different pills!! We just hope the locals get it cheaper.

Then the rain started, which gave us some time to become “savings rate tarts” moving some of our cash around to get the best interest rates (4% 12 month fixed with Nationwide Building Society and 2.25% instant access with Revolut) Every little helps!

We also had time to finalise more travel plans for next year, and deal with more flight changes!! Thanks EasyJet.

It rained just about non stop for 4 days!! We finally had to go shopping by taxi as we were running out of stuff!

Finally the rain stopped enough for us to get out on the bikes again, we headed north again to Wat Plai Laem, an interesting temple complex (see photos)

Then a coffee stop at La Fabrique a French (ish) cafe.

Friday 18th, we cycled up the hill near the villa to see where it went, we got as far as the local golf course before the road ran out and turned into a small track, which we decided not to do on the bikes, so turned around.

That night we went out, a couple of drinks, one at the “chill out bar” at a beach hotel 250bht for a cocktail (£6), we moved on to the Bamboo with happy hour cocktails for 99bht (£2.65). Then on to Siam restaurant for dinner. Rog had a jungle curry and asked for it a little spicy, but not too hot, it was spicy🌶🌶🥵.

Saturday, we went to Klao Hua Jook Pagoda. The hill up to it was so steep we had to leave the bikes half way up and walk the rest of the way! It was worth the effort, it had a fabulous view over the island, we could see most of the bits we had cycled and the airport.

Spent Monday & Tuesday pottering around on the bikes, up towards central Samui hunting out the deal for a boat trip to Angthong national marine park!

Wednesday, up early to be picked up at 7:15am for the trip to Angthong, despite agreeing to be pick up at the international school, just down the road, as it’s easier to than find the villa. The driver still didn’t make it to the school, luckily another couple were also waiting and they got a call, the driver was further down the hill!

After 3 other stops at hotels to pick people up, the minibus head to the Nathon pier at the northwest of the island, to meet the boat. We’d chosen the big boat trip, rather than a speedboat, so there was about 40 people on the boat, so not too busy.

It was 1 1/2 hours to the first stop, quite a lumpy journey in places, some of our fellow passengers did not have their sea legs with them. There was a lot of them trying to sleep with heads on rucksacks on tables in front of them ! Our first stop was the highest of the islands for a trek to the summit, to see all the islands spread out before us. A steep trek, up mainly rocky steps, in the humidity and heat, tough going, but worth the climb! Nic made a tactical decision to stop at level 5 ( of 6) as the last bit of the climb was in full sun, and did not look as if it would improve the view by much! While Rog made the last climb Nic shared her water with an Austrian who had slipped and bashed an ankle on the last part of the climb. He was very grateful as he had to make it down again, in flip flops, before getting it strapped at the first aid tent !

After the descent we had bit of time on the beach, luckily there is always a little shop selling cool drinks which were very welcome. Then back to the big boat, by long tailed boat, for lunch, a good spread.

Then kayaking, a double kayak for us, around the coastline, between rocks, through a short tunnel/cave.

Another steep trek to see the emerald lake, This time up staircases, more like ladders! But again worth the effort. We rewarded ourselves with ice creams after this one.

Then back to the boat for the return trip, lots of fun watching people trying to make, and carry, hot drinks on a lumpy sea journey!

Thursday, another beach walk at the north end of Chaweng beach. Stopped for drink under the shade of a huge tree. A 5 star mango shake for Nic, some of them have been a little disappointing in the more touristy cafes! More shopping on the way home, had to go to 4 shops/ market stalls to get everything we wanted at a reasonable price.

Friday, the weather was predicted to be awful, but it turned out to be not so bad, so we had a massage on the local beach, for 300bht each (£7.20 each) for an hour.

Saturday, the weather was terrible, it did not stop raining all day.

Sunday was not much better, it rained most of the day! We know we are not going to get any sympathy for the bad weather !! At least it is still warm here.