Goodbye to the islands and on to Singapore

Sunday 7th June
Today we took the water taxi to the small island. This is far more commercial and we were interested to see whether it would be any better as a place to stay. We arrived on the jetty on long beach. The hotels and restaraunts started immediately and we soon spotted the dive school Quiver that we had e-mailed but to no effect ie no reply. It didnt look as impressive as the one we had chosen. We wandered along the beach which had very little shade and had us soon scurrying for somewhere to get a cold drink in one of the bars bordering the beach. By coincidence this also turned out to be one of the ones that we had tried to contact and again had been full. The chalets looked comparable to the ones we were staying in. The beach though was very hot so we searched for the path over to the other side of the island. We struggled to find it so asked two English women sitting at a table nearby. They had not been here long so couldnt help. In the course of their conversation though they bemoaned the fact that the electricity was turned off in the early hours of the morning and didnt come on till 7pm in the evening. This confirmed for us that the decision we had made to stay at Bubbles had been the correct one.
We eventually found the path which was bordered by lots of rubbish and building. The other side of the island was cooler with some more shade. Coral Bay as it was known was the area that all the boats came into from the mainland so the government had built a huge jetty which somewhat marred the view. We spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun and taking an occasional dip in the sea. By the time 4.00pm arrived we were ready to go back to our island. We sought one of the many water taxis and a young lad drove us back to the resort. After dinner we wandered down to look at the full moon reflecting in the water: very beautiful. April came over to say that a turtle was already preparing her nest if we would like to see...Wow, once again we had struck lucky. We were able to get quite a good view of a huge green turtle preparing to lay it's eggs: this is very hard work. She uses her fins to scoop out a deep chamber. This took over an hour and she seemed oblivious to the gathered onlookers. We were very impressed by the children who came to look: they were still and quiet and completely absorbed in watching. Suddenly we heard the sound of a boat and shortly spotted several men from the fisheries, who'd come looking for turtle eggs. This is part of the government's conservation project and is quite hard to watch. No sooner had our awesome turtle laid her eggs than one of the men knelt down and with his whole arm buried in the sand scooped out her eggs. One of the young volunteers was very upset and really lost it when one of the newly arrived tourists, who'd missed April's talk, used his flash to take a photo. Throughout the whole fiasco the turtle continued to work hard to cover the eggs she thought were still there. This took another hour or more and we were privileged to be close enough to hear her laboured breathing in between her work.

Monday 8th June
Our last day on the island was a quiet day of reading and lazing about, giving our feet a chance to recover from the damage done to them by the fins we wore when diving. Our last meal was a bit disappointing and we felt ready to leave the next day.

Tuesday 9th June
We did not leave the island until 4.00am so had plenty of time to pack our belongings and say our fond farewells. It seemed that everyone was genuinely sorry to see us go. Our dive instructors and the family who owned the business all stood on the beach to wave us away.
The little resort boat took us to the edge of the island where we made a mid water crossing to the larger fast boat that sped us to the mainland. The driver was a bit of a maverick though trying to race boats and speeding into the harbour entrance at a ridiculous pace. We were relieved to get off safely. On disembarking we were told by the taxi driver who met us that they had been unable to get tickets for the overnght bus BUT fortuneately had tickets for the sleeper train. This involved an hours journey to link up with it. luckily we had lots of time before its departure at 9.00pm and found a cafe to have tea. The journey by train was our first sleeper experience. No place for bags so had to sleep with them. For me the smokers where a problem. Managed to get some sleep though and the journey continued smoothly to Singapore.

Wednesday 10th June
Arrived in Singapore about midday. Taxi from station to MRT. MRT to Orchard Rd where I did a successful recky to find the YMCA. The building was very posh. We settled into the room. A little luxury after our time on the island. On our last visit to this city we were in Chinatown. Now we were staying in the heart of the shopping district surrounded by malls – had a very different feel and could have been any large western city. We made the most of the facilities and replenished some of the supplies we were low on. In the evening went to the Quay area and had a few very expensive drinks.

Thursday 11th June
Had a visit to the Botanic Gardens today. Beautifully laid out. The highlights were the orchid gardens which had the most fantastic blooms.The humidity was very high and we wandered around at the pace to which we had now accustomed ourselves. Had a quiet evening around the hotel making the mistake of buying an expensive burger. Looking forward to seeing Simon.