Wednesday 7th August
Today, we ventured down to the fish market in a nearby village to see the fisherman returning with their catches, and to observe the haggling that goes on between fishermen and (presumably) restaurateurs.
We then took a tour of a tea plantation. This was conducted by a very knowledgeable bloke, who told us all about the planting, nurturing and harvesting of the tea, and then all about the processes required to turn the leaf into a product ready for the cup.
We then visited a sea turtle rehab centre, where injured turtles are nursed back to health. There was a turtle there who had lost a flipper to a boat propeller, and was awaiting a prosthetic flipper which is en-route from Germany! Cool use of technology! There was another who, due to another injury, had air trapped in his shell which prevented him from submerging. It was heart-breaking to watch him trying to dive, but not being able to. Sadly, this bloke will never be released back into the wild, as his inability to dive would mean he would simply cook in his shell under the equatorial sun.
We then found a nice hotel on the beach witch had an infinity pool and a restaurant.
We ordered drinks and lunch, and Cath had a dip in the pool.
In the evening, we found a little restaurant in the old Dutch quarter which had no patrons in it, which we inexplicably decided to try out. Half a dozen pots of food were brought out and put over little candles to keep the food warm. We suspect that the food therein was probably being reheated for the gazillionth time. For all that though, the food was lovely, and no, we didn’t get sick! Bonus!
After dinner, Cath was ready to call it a night, but I was interested in shooting some street photography. I said I’d drop her back to our Air B’n’B, and then return. I did that, but by the time I got back, the streets had quietened down to the point of desertion. So I grabbed a few images and called it a night.
