Christmas Day

We awoke and put our only Christmas card in pride of place. It was thoughtfully given by Carol and Ernest before our departure, so many many thanks.

Our treat for the day was a Thai massage each. We surprised Fraser with this gift over breakfast and he said he really enjoyed it afterwards. Fraser for his part had generously brought us a bottle of gin over (Bombay Sapphire of course darlings!), some of which we had shared with Kitty and Niall at Ko Lao Liang.

Once we'd finished our massages we took a trip down the island in a rented Tuk-tuk. For those of you that don't know it's a small motorbike with a sidecar. Sarah, unwilling to pay the hotel hire prices had negotiated with a local to rent theirs for the afternoon, a saving of £8. Unfortunately it was lacking good brakes, so we proceeded slowly with Chris valiantly at the helm. The three gears were tricky beasts, especially changing down into second when it jumped left. We didn't use the forth gear! We crossed the island to the east side, just missing a monkey crossing the road. Once over the mountainous central spine of the island we travelled down to the Old Town on the east coast. Here we parked up and admired the century old teak houses.

We settled on a traditional restaurant 'since 1888' and were lucky enough to get the single table at the end of a rickety pier, which could have been original. The sea was a still as a lake and with an overcast hue it seemed very serene. The dish of the day was Marlin fillet. Lightly fried with fresh green pepper, garlic and herbs. It was a sublime Christmas Dinner. 

We returned back to base to shower before the evening drew in and were cheered to receive a Skype call from Sarah's folks wishing us a Merry Christmas. Later we watched The Queens Speech on i Player. Sarah noted the Queen was wearing the same dress as she had for Kate and William’s wedding; the day Chris proposed. Maybe it was her subtle way of letting us know that she too is following our blog!

Tuk Tuk Timelapse