Happy Birthday to Jonno - Love From Juz

Friday 15 September

When I was swimming (another thirty lengths) this morning I noticed there were several dragonflies gracefully soaring close to the water of the pool. I remember Jeremy telling me in Guilin that when the dragonflies fly close to the water, rain is on the way. We would bear this in mind for the rest of the day.

Having breakfasted, emailed and blogged, we decided to stock up on supplies at Arnon’s Minimart and visit one of the many travel centres in the village to make enquiries regarding our visa run. We had been recommended to one round the corner from the Happy Elephant bar.

This turned out to be a small modern shop, with a couple of very nice young Thai girls. They understood our predicament immediately and showed us all the information we needed to know about renewing our visa on a run to Burma. Apparently the trip goes everyday now, except Sundays, and costs 1650 bahts each, with a 10US$ payment to get our visa stamped! (if we didn’t have 10US$, we would have to negotiate the price, and that would be more expensive!) We only need to book a few days ahead, although the downside is that it leaves about 05.00! – a very early start, which, for us, is a rarity lately. Whilst there we collected several brochures on other tours from Koh Samui which we are interested in doing whilst Jean and Ray are with us. Hopefully this will enable us to can work out a programme and decide which would be the best day to go for the visa. We got information on fishing and snorkeling - which we did last time we were here and had an absolutely fabby time dangling string over the side of the boat to catch our lunch - the National Park at Ang Thon, an island off Koh Samui which as some spectacular scenery, and riding the cables, elephant trekking and the waterfalls, all somewhere in the middle of this island oin the hills. Sounds like we could be busier over the next couple of weeks.

By the time we returned it was time for a swim, as we were both feeling very warm in the hot sultry air. The clouds were just beginning to gather, and no sooner had we got in the pool, than it began to rain – not so heavy as some of the other downpours we have had in recent days, but still heavy enough for the droplets to bounce off the top of the pool. The breeze had strengthened too, ruffling the top of the water to small wavelets, but it was still very warm. We stayed in the pool and jacuzzi until the rain stopped, about half an hour later, when we returned to our balcony, and decided it was time for drinks and a bit of relaxation – for me reading yesterday’s newspaper and doing the cryptic crossword puzzle – which was nearly as good as the Telegraph’s, which I am quite missing – it’s not the same doing crossword puzzles from a book – and for Colin an afternoon siesta – he really had exhausted himself today, what with shopping and swimming!

Having showered and changed, Juz and Dave arrived for drinks on the balcony around 18.00 - it was quite a party and we worked out how we can seat six, for when Jean and Ray arrive tomorrow. Our plan had been to go to Chaweng and visit Captain Kirk’s restaurant – though having read a report in the paper today, apparently there is no longer any memorabilia from Star Trek, just paintings by local artists, depicting Koh Samui and a view of the hills from the back windows (there were smelly toilets at the back as I remember it from last year!) – obviously another result of the modernization of Chaweng.

We walked through Bophut intending to go to the main road and pick up a tut-tut, but a taxi was parked outside Coffee Junction and offered to take the four of us for 200 bahts – a very reasonable price that we couldn’t resist. He dropped us at Captain Kirks, but as it was still only about 19.30, it was too early to eat, so we wandered along window shopping – Juz was on the look out for Christmas prezzies!!!!

The men soon tired of shopping and adjourned to Tropical Murphys, an Irish Bar, and ordered Guinness and KilKenny. Juz and I continued browsing, mainly in jewellery and bag shops as well as glancing at a few menus where the restaurants looked interesting – they all have touts outside trying to tempt you in. We returned to the men for Singha beers and set off to decide where to eat. Captain Kirk’s had not only changed its décor and ambience, it had also changed its food and prices! – like a lot of smarter restaurants here, they now provide fusion food – a mix of Asian flavours with European dishes. We like true Thai – very hot for Juz. And the prices appeared to be about double for each dish, compared to others nearby. We had eaten expensively on our other visit so decided to explore further. We chose The Chilli Restaurant – just the name sounded inviting – spicy food and we were offered a table in the middle of the restaurant, under a fan, away from the fumes of the street.

Colin was still sampling the Whiskey Sours – this one not as good as Rice or Happy Elephant – but certainly acceptable. We chose a range of starters including spicy fish cakes, deep fried wanton (which came with shrimps insisde), prawn pancake rolls and crispy chicken wings. Having demolished all of this, we set about main courses and ordered two portions of duck with chilli and basil (everyone wanted some of this), garlic and pepper spare ribs, beef with broccoli (Dave has been close to having broccoli withdrawal symptoms), and sea bass with a chilli and lemon sauce (Colin’s choice), together with bamboo shoots and shrimps, hot and spicy shrimp salad, chicken rice and crab rice as accompaniments. I must add that we had recckied the portion sizes and knew that they were not large, which was just as well, as the number of dishes filled the table when they arrived – but it did allow us to sample lots of flavours – including for Colin sea bass – much, much hotter than he was expecting – a bit like his butter chicken a few nights ago – exceedingly spicy. We ate our way through most of the food and felt very contented. Well – all but Colin, who sampled a pancake of the thick scotch variety – with honey – or rather half a jar of honey! He said it was delicious and honey is good for you! We followed this with jasmine teas, a cappuccino and a mango lassa – a yogurt and fruit drink Juz had enjoyed in Borneo – again not quite so good as before, but still very refreshing after a spicy meal.

There was only one problem – while we were gorging ourselves, the rain had arrived and fell in its customary bucketfuls - they had to drop the side protectors to keep those at tables near the edge of the restaurant dry. We hadn’t learnt from our previous soaking, we didn’t bring umbrellas, kagools, ponchos or in fact, anything waterproof. So we continued eating and drinking to pass the time until it eased, which it did about an hour later. Waiting on the steps of the restaurant (it was still raining some) we hailed a tut-tut (with the sides covered in) and he immediately agreed to take us to Bophut for 200 bahts for the four of us – quite unusual, as the village is quite a way from Chaweng there are usually some negotiations on the destination, as well as the price (I think Juz had bartered the price down). There were two other couples already in the dry haven of the cabin and although one lady (who in fact had been in the same restaurant as us – only sheltering from the rain with a coffee – and complained about it) was reluctant to move up, we all squeezed in – and squashed up even further when another chap hopped on for a short distance. The ‘miserable couple got out at the end of Chaweng Beach, but the six of us carried on to the Bandara Hotel – what a coincidence that this was where the other couple were staying too!

We had a nightcap with Juz and Dave in their Piano Bar, before wandering back to Smile, along the dark soggy roads – we didn’t meet any frogs, only a few motorbikes along the way, but managed to miss the puddles. By the time we were home, it was nearly midnight – very late for us. Is this training for when the “Oilvers” arrive?

We haven’t forgotten today is Jonno’s birthday and wish you many happy returns and hope you enjoyed your day.