Mar 29, 2025
We’ve been very lucky and blessed with great weather all our trip, but this morning as we geared up for our last island hopping tour, it was cloudy and raining.
Eventually the rain eased off, and after some breakfast we all piled into some tuktuks, and headed down to the island touring jetty, and joined the melee.
Nothing wrong with the tour today – it’s just that others have been much better, so it seemed rather ho-hum.
The first stop was a beach we waded ashore to, but all there was to do was look at the sand castle sculptures, and be assaulted by touts selling shells. Most of the sculptures were good, with a few average ones thrown in, but if you wanted to take a photo you were asked to make a ‘donation’. Reminded me of ‘The Godfather’. No swimming permitted at this beach, so after 40 minutes we waded back out and moved on.
Second stop was a snorkelling spot a bit out to sea. Being cloudy and windy with choppy waves it was far from ideal for those keen snorkellers in the group. A few fish came around when the crew threw in some environmentally friendly bread to encourage them. Others in the group were not so keen to venture in, even though they had been reassured that the sharks hanging around were vegetarian.
Third stop was a very small beach that could accommodate only one boat at a time. The water was much calmer, but the snorkellers reported nothing to see. Basically the smokers waded ashore to dose up.
Fourth stop was lunch. The place had solved the problem of knowing when you were going to arrive – everything was cold. Cold fish, cold chicken, cold pork, cold noodles to go with the salads. Nice, but there was a huge amount untouched which is always an indicator of the group’s rating.
Back to the starting jetty, and a couple of tuktuks delivered us back to the resort.
Went out to an Italian restaurant with our wonderful guide Patrick, to say thanks for a great tour. Now a couple of days here without commitments just to laze about.
Sand sculptures at night
Our island outrigger
Yep, all the boats are going to the same place
Sand sculptures look great, but not too sure about vegetarian sharks 🦈🦈