Today We Decided To Take A Break From Home,

and have a trip out to the islands, we parked up the truck at Bali Hai pier for the walk along the jetty in the distance to the ferry,

I am not sure how often the ferry runs, but I would guess about every half hour or so,

stock up with some fruit for the 1 hour or so journey, and fried things on sticks as well, all of this is at the end of the jetty just before you board the boat,

the boat/ferry we were on looks just like this one,

Diana, not a good sailor as she says her head swims when the boat goes up and down, the trip incidentally is 30 baht per person one way,

then we were off, rapidly being overtaken by the much faster Koh Larn Travel boat,

though not packed there were still a good number of tourists on the boat,

the skies were looking menacing over Pattaya,

and it did start to rain on the way out, I thought we might be looking for umbrellas from the rain rather than the sun when we arrived!

you can also hire a speed boat to get you to the islands a bit faster, I think about 2,500/3,000 for both trips,

my worries about the rain were unfounded, as we approached the island the sun came out,

all along the island there are lots of small beaches, but our boat continued to the jetty,

seeing these three fun lovers on a jet ski I wondered if the marine police would in force the three on a ski rule like the sign I saw yesterday about not having three people on a bike,

then we rounded the island and entered the big bay,

and made our way to the jetty,

a dive boat anchored to the right of the jetty, it was there that we went the last time we visited the island,

the bay we went to last time in the distance,

and nice it was too there,

but this time we decided on a change, so as we walked along the jetty we turned left instead of right,

although this was where most passengers went to, there were not many places taken,

now where shall we sit? decisions, decisions!

we finally made our mind up to sit here,

so book, beer and food, it was just yesterday, it felt we were on holiday again!

the cost of two plates of food, a beer coke and the chairs was 270 baht, being that every thing has to be brought from the main land I thought it would have been a bit more,

Diana decided to have a swim, as you can see so did the lady beside her but she was taking no chances of getting a sun tan,

fresh coconut 20 baht, but if you buy one from the guy that walks along the beach as apposed to the deck chair vendor they are 30 baht, 50% more!

Diana had to have a couple of pictures in the sea,

the good news is that the sea around the islands is generally quite clean compared to say Pattaya beach,

now if only I had brought my tripod along,

Diana and myself could both be in the same shot!

Diana in a pose for the camera,

just after 3.30 we decided to make our way back for the 4.00 ferry to Pattaya, this is one of the local shrines,

one thing I did notice that I had not seen before was these floating jetty's, they just seem to clip together, modular fashion,

such a neat solution to the wooden ones that always seem so dirty and so often need replacing, think of the trees it saves too!

after the hour or so steaming back from the island we arrived at Pattaya, it looks like this boat is taking school children back home to the island,

then I saw The Flying Dutchman, not quite the same one as in the Pirates of the Caribbean though,

home at last after a really nice and not expensive day out, we will be back!

after watching some of The UK budget news we settled down for Gulliver's Travels, it is in two parts as it has an over 3 hours running time, but what a treat, the acting, cast and locations all spot on, but although Diana enjoyed it immensely it would have been nicer if it had subtitles, then a last Cadfael for the evening, St Peter's Fair, a dispute between Church and State over Fair fees leads to a brawl and the murder of a prominent visiting merchant and a few more besides, then off to bed.