When we got off the ferry this morning it was just breaking dawn, the hotel.taxi didn’t start until 8am so we decided to walk the 2.5km direct route to the hotel, how hard could it be?? VERY, up and down coastal roads, very hilly and as soon as the sun.began to make an appearance the sweat fest began. We both must have stank after all the travelling yesterday and then this walk with 12kg on our backs. We finally got to the resort and we were initially very underwhelmed. Reception didn’t open until 730 and there were mosquitoes everywhere. We dumped the bags near the reception building, we were confused because it was right by the road although we had booked a beach resort and the name also confirmed this. I went for a walk to find the so called beach and left grumpy morning David at reception. Once I walked through the the resort a bit it became clear that we were on the beach near all quirky beach bars and restaurants and there was also a pool. Sorted.
At 730 we were shown our room, second floor garden view. Clean. Spacious. Perfect I thought but David didn’t share the same views just moaning that it was no 5star resort….. This went down like a lead balloon with me because we discussed these options in depth when we booked, a 5star resort at the other side of the island and no restaurant or bar options, or a younger resort with options to choose from and we both agreed on the latter which was exactly what we got.
We headed straight to bed for a couple of hours and he woke up a bit more human.
The first stop when we woke up was the diving school, roctopus, on our resort. They came.across very well.and they are one of the top on TripAdvisor so we booked 2morming dives with them for tomorrow morning, at 6am much to David’s delight but the morning is meant to be slightly better than the afternoon as there are less people in the water.
The beach here is beautiful, white sands, colourful taxi boats.
After a quick walk to see what it had to offer we settled at our beach resort with a cold beer and a book for the afternoon. As we sat people watching we noticed that a huge number of people were walking around with big white bandages strapped to the knees and ankles but sometimes even their heads!!!what was going on?where had we come to? It looked like a war zone!! There could only be 2 explanations, diving injuries on the rocks or moped road injuries. Much to my relief we later found out it was in fact tourists in mopeds up the hilly roads, and after our walk this morning I can believe it!!! There will be no mopeds for us here that’s for sure!
As the sun got strong we migrated to the pool in the shade. David clocked that it was happy hour 5-8 and the pool bar was perfect for watching sunset. We got a perfect table for the first cocktails. The sunset was beautiful, the best we’ve seen here yet, and it set behind the sea which was a first. We stayed a lot longer than anticipated watching. Some people took the paddle boards out for sunset- now added onto our list of things to do!
By the time we went out for food it was getting onto 9pm and already feeling the cocktails. We ate at a restaurant called su chilli and we struggled!! The place was heaving and there was no Aircon. We ordered a panang curry, mine tofu, David’s vegetables. It blew it heads off it was that spicey and with the heat of the place too we got so uncomfortable we had to just pay the bill and leave straight away.
Morning dive tomorrow!
South East Asia 2019 