Fishing at 5

arrived with no problems so the next day it was off to go fishing, we met up with Nick and Maureen at 5 in the morning at the Bali Hai pier, had a quick cup of coffee whilst waiting for Sean, Tip and Jamie to arrive, whilst out at sea it just chucked it down, the rain went one for more than a hour or so, the good news is that we all caught fish, I had two groupers and a golden trevely. Sun rise over Pattaya at 5 in the morning

Nick, Maureen and Diana.

and me! Tip, Sean and Jamie Diana, Maureen and Nick. Royal Cliff from the sea. Jamie with the fish of the day.

Me with the one that did not get away!

Whilst on the way back we passed the now defunct under water restaurant, if you look you will see a low concrete building in front of the beach, well the deal was a boat would take you out there, walk down the steps and have a meal under water looking at the coral reef through glass, trouble was the glass was to thin, when a tropical storm arrived, the whole place flooded and was never reopened. The bait we used was live squid, this is a picture of them in the hold. Nick having a good time another one that did not get away! Another thing I noticed on the way back was what appeared to be a wind farm on the back of Koh Larn, I thought out here solar power would have been a cheaper way to go, but then the "tea money" may have made a difference. we got back about 6 in the evening, then as it was Friday it was shower, shave and out for our usual Friday night meal.

On our way home

on our way home, great trip, and the rash that Diana had cleared up after 36 hours, whilst we were away it appears that some demonstrations have been going on in thailand, but we found no problems at the airport and arrived home safe and sound, the fish were all OK as Mark called in to feed them and make sure all of the pumps etc were all working, now back to normal. Last drink at the hotel bar

Meeting up with Glenn

we had a meal at the far end of town in a hotel/restaurant called Oasis, later we meet up with Glen and Mae for sushi in Atlantis and did some bar hopping, only one slight problem the next day Diana's arms and legs swelled up with a nasty looking red rash which she told me itched like crazy, so no more sushi for Diana! Diana's father showed up on the now solo motorcycle, we watched him wobbling off into the sunset!

Honda motorcycle

I decided to buy Diana's family a motorcycle and sidecar, so it was off to the Honda shop, great little bike 155 c.c. the good news is that Honda make this model manly for sidecars, it has a extra bracket fitted at the factory to take two extra rear suspension units if you fit a sidecar to take the extra weight.

Diana is all smiles as she signs the paper work. Strange thing is, this is the second shop we went to, the first one we went to had loads of bikes but would not sell us one as we were going to pay cash, they only sold to people who wanted to buy on credit, the price of the bike was 69,500 pesos (£ = 83.5) but in the end got it for 68,000 and a Hokey-Kokey model 3,000 mobile phone plus 2 T-shirts, the sidecar from Edgar's was 15,000 for the better quality stainless steel one, could not get anything off that but they threw in a tinted windscreen. Slight problem though, Diana's father has never had a bike with a clutch, so he forgets to pull it in when he stops so he stalls it all of the time, but by now I guess will be getting better, the sidecar once fitted has been taken off, it appears the bike should do 500 kilometers or so to run the engine in and then put the sidecar back on again Another 2 pictures of Donna.

Meal of Choice Jollibee!

well then time for me to go back to the hotel, I left the camera with Diana and gave her some money to take the family out, restaurant of choice? Jollibee, I guess the nearest we have would be a McDonalds, they all then went to the movies to see Double Trouble, a Tagalog movie, whilst Joe and myself took the scenic route along Fields Avenue, trouble was there were so many afternoon bars it took us ages to get back to the hotel!

but the good news is that all of the family had a good time Diana and her sisters