Stanley's pictures: Our Second Day,

on Koh Chang started early,

we were picked up before 08.00 in the morning as we had decided to go on a trip with Thai Fun,

the mini bus dropped us off at a part of the beach,

which you might expect was at that time pretty deserted,

except for the few of us that were up and had paid for the trip,

and this was where we were headed,

the Thai Fun boat,

so shoes off and a quick trip in the tender to the big boat,

Diana was all smiles as we had not thought of going nautical till we booked the trip on a whim the day before,

we slowly pulled out of the bay,

and headed out to sea,

Diana was trying out her new sunglasses,

there are three decks on the boat the second is the one we chose as it gave a better view, the top deck is open for sunbathing,

there were a few other vessels moored near by, but to be fair I prefer the ones where, 'full ahead both and bring me a pink gin!', is the usual command,

we made our way parallel to the coast,

as the sun started to clear the near by hills,

it was for all of us the start of a perfect day,

in the next bay we passed a moored fishing vessel,

and one of the other cruise boats,

there are a number of other cruise boats out here but Thai Fun was recommended to us by Frank who we meet in the hotel,

we made our way along the coast,

passing by different resorts as we went,

and some other tour boats,

we then slowed down and the tender was away,

to pick up some other passengers as we made our way south,

Maureen had kindly given Diana a hat to wear,

so it was time for a photo call,

and a few self portraits,

as we made our way along the coast our guide named all of the resorts we were going past,

and the cost of staying at them,

many though not all start at the 5,000 to 7,000 baht range for a basic room,

we made our way along the coast as the sun rose, now I did not know which of these two pictures I preferred, this one with more sea,

or with more sky,

looking back to where we had come from, White Sands, more clouds were rolling in,

the tops of the hills covered with cloud,

as we had picked up the last of the passengers Nok who was our guide gave a full and thorough explanation of safety features of the boat as well as keeping us all informed of local landmarks and places of interest,

the history of some of the islands,

like this one whose history I am afraid to admit I have forgotten!

relaxing on the second deck was enough for me,

we made our way past so many seaside hotels,

and secluded beaches,

I can not put names to them,

as I do not want to make a mistake and misname one,

I decided to settle for more sky for this picture,

and then I thought should it be portrait or landscape?,

all of this thinking wore me out!

after a few ZZZ's another tour boat came past,

as we then passed a few more islands,

and then pulled into a bay,

to make our first stop,

what a great name for a boat, the Sir Henry Morgan,

there were two choices to get ashore,

walk the plank and swim,

or take the tender,

which is what we did,

but it was still fun getting a little bit wet,

there were already a few people here, but it was still pretty much deserted,

Diana unlike me was trying to stay out of the sun,

there was a nice bar on the island an it seemed a shame not to use it,

I tried to strike the pose but I failed,

Diana made a much better job of it,

so far everything was going swimmingly well,

there was a shrine some way into the jungle,

I have to confess I do not know what all of the symbols mean,

but they are always immaculately maintained with fresh daily offerings,

I made my way back to the beach front,

where it was already becoming obvious to everyone except me that I was going a bit red,

now here is a public health warning,

if you managed to remove a beer bottle label from the bottle and decided to stick it to your hairy chest,

when the glue dries which it does very quickly it really smarts when you take it off!

next all aboard the Sky Lark,

and we are off back to the big boat,

as we started our cruise to the next port of call,

whilst we had been ashore the crew had started to prepare for the midday meal,

with a nice display of flowers and fruits on the table that the buffet would be served on,

we passed a couple of fishing vessels moored to each other,

as the food was served,

it looked beautiful,

and tasted even better and there was so much of it,

we made our way past different islands,

and resorts,

till we made our second stop, Diana decided to stay on board with Maureen,

but Nick and myself took the boat ashore,

to have a quick one at the bar,

and make sure that the Heineken was of the same standard as normal,

after another 45 minuets of cruising we parked up next to this cruise boat,

near this island as there is a nice coral reef here, the good thing about these cruises is that the boats all anchor using one fixed mooring, so no anchors are dropped that might harm the coral,

I thought that this was a neat touch for the adventurous, a slide, the Thai Fun does not yet have one, but one is being constructed, work has already started on the first phase,

then it was snorkels on and take a look at the fish,

I just love the swirling patterns made by the fish as the ripples distort their shapes,

when the crew feed the fish some rice,

the back of the boat is just mobbed with fish,

you can see the mooring line that the boats use,

another handful of rice,

and another shoal of fish appears,

Diana found all of this fascinating,

but there is a problem, she is not a very good swimmer,

but she was soon persuaded,

to put a life jacket on,

so off we went, we had a great time, but I think when we return to Pattaya a face mask and a pair of fins will be on her 'to buy' list,

returning on board the crew had been busy yet again,

preparing afternoon tea or coffee with biscuits and cakes,

well it had to happen,

just as we were getting under way,

a flip-flop came floating past,

another lost soul,

we had a great time splashing about,

we both really enjoyed ourselves as did Nick and Maureen,

we past another boat at anchor as we started our return,

and we finished our tea and cakes,

it was going to be about an hours run to return to White Sands,

but the time went so quickly as Nok gave all of the passengers mind games to solve,

but we had one last stop to make, to feed the monkeys,

before that here is a first, the first speed boat we have seen, I should also mention that there are no jet skies here as well, what a great way to guarantee that tourists will not be injured by them,

and here we are,

at the monkey feeding station,

there were about 30 or so monkeys there,

fresh fruit was the order of the day,

every one of them seemed to get a piece of the action,

so with a cry of 'see you tomorrow' from the crew,

we were off,

then it was our turn for some fresh fruit,

we made our way back along the coast,

of different islands,

with more resorts to look at,

until we reached the point where passengers had to be ferried ashore to their hotels,

we continued past a few more islands,

as the sun started to get lower on the horizon,

but here is something I missed on the way out,

the bat cave, it appears that as dusk falls a huge flock of bats comes out to feed, we were a bit early for that,

talking of missing things this is something else I had been missing all day, every so often a needle fish would 'tail walk' thinking we were a threat to it, the fish uses this technique to escape predators,

as we made our way back Nok had a pep talk with the crew,

meanwhile we just relaxed with a beer,

and watched the sun go down,

but the day was not over yet,

there were still a number of people to be dropped of,

the good news was that as soon as the tender was loaded we continued on our way the tender playing catch up to pick up the next group of passengers to be dropped off,

as we made our way past the catamaran,

I saw this silhouette, although this is a natural rock formation it some how reminded me of the shape of Urquhart Castle which sits beside Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland, strange but there it is,

it was now about 6.00 in the evening and it had become dark,

we made our way slowly to the shore,

the lights in the distance were from beach side restaurants,

the trouble was there were so many to chose from,

we said our goodbyes to Nok and the crew and made our way onshore, we all agreed that nothing could have been more well organised as this cruise, the crew, the service, food and drinks were just spot on, we had a ball,

a last look at the Thai Fun boat,

then the evening got even better,

we decided not to go back to the hotel,

but eat here on the beach,

a brief look around,

and this one hit all of the buttons,

lots of shellfish,

fresh fish,

plus meats,

and kebabs were the order of the day,

all of the food is cooked on the beach just behind the seating area,

the big decision of the evening, what to drink,

and what to eat,

we all went to the food tables and chose a few things,

it was then just a question of time when it all arrived,

and there was lots of it,

Diana decided on a cocktail,

then it was eyes down and tuck in,

I guess I should have taken this before we ate most of it,

the food was excellent as was the price, with 3 glasses of red wine, 4 or more beers and Diana's cocktail the bill was just under 2,000 baht which we all thought very reasonable,