The day had begun at 4 AM for us. There was a nagging worry in my mind - on account of Lekha - on two counts viz.:-
(a) the irregular sleeping times that we
have been following, dictated by our
travel/sight seeing requirements.
(b) the inter boat transfers involved in
today's outing.
We were ready on the dot, after breakfast.
The vehicle was anout 15' late to arrive. The drive to the Paddadda Pier took almost an hour because of the morning, office going
traffic. On reaching the pier, the grouping of the guests was done in a professional and systematic manner. The six of us were slotted into the 'Green group' - which allows the organisers to seat us in the boats for effective headcounts on transfers and for lunch.
We'd boarded a sleek ocean going yacht, with three decks, which ferried us for over two hours till a smaller landing craft into which we were transferred to head for the Long Beach Island of the Phi Phi group of islands. Tcraft had done an excellent beaching giving us a hard, dry ground to disembark but the clearance of the ship's ramp door, from the beach, was a bit higher than normal. Lekha had begun to step down when her left knee had bent and to my utter horror, I saw her lying on her back on the ramp door with her left leg bent grotesquely, with her foot dug into the sand. I grabbed her foot and released it from the sand quickly and eased her on to both her feet - thankfully, averting a disaster and a quick recheck confirmed that there was nothing to worry! Phew!
For the next two hours, we were on our own and we chatted about a whole lot of things, while our friends and the others were busy with other activities like snorkeling and swimming. Lunch was at a half past 12 and by a half past 1, we were transferred in small boats to load the landing craft which, in turn, brought us to the mother ship which transferred us to the pier by a quarter past 4. The air conditioning within it was uncomfortably harsh and I required all levels of control not to make it an issue. On disembarkation, each of us got a porcelein plate that had our photographs imprinted on it.
We returned to the hotel and after that, I'd gone across to a nearby bank, to exchange into local currency as there was a crunch in my valet for Bahts.
It was a quiet evening and we'd our dinner at our hotel itself. It was also an occasion for an early pipe down.
Tailpiece.
Surprisingly, both of us - Lekha and I - did not feel tired, the lack of the afternoon siesta, notwithstanding.
(a) the irregular sleeping times that we
have been following, dictated by our
travel/sight seeing requirements.
(b) the inter boat transfers involved in
today's outing.
We were ready on the dot, after breakfast.
The vehicle was anout 15' late to arrive. The drive to the Paddadda Pier took almost an hour because of the morning, office going
traffic. On reaching the pier, the grouping of the guests was done in a professional and systematic manner. The six of us were slotted into the 'Green group' - which allows the organisers to seat us in the boats for effective headcounts on transfers and for lunch.
We'd boarded a sleek ocean going yacht, with three decks, which ferried us for over two hours till a smaller landing craft into which we were transferred to head for the Long Beach Island of the Phi Phi group of islands. Tcraft had done an excellent beaching giving us a hard, dry ground to disembark but the clearance of the ship's ramp door, from the beach, was a bit higher than normal. Lekha had begun to step down when her left knee had bent and to my utter horror, I saw her lying on her back on the ramp door with her left leg bent grotesquely, with her foot dug into the sand. I grabbed her foot and released it from the sand quickly and eased her on to both her feet - thankfully, averting a disaster and a quick recheck confirmed that there was nothing to worry! Phew!
For the next two hours, we were on our own and we chatted about a whole lot of things, while our friends and the others were busy with other activities like snorkeling and swimming. Lunch was at a half past 12 and by a half past 1, we were transferred in small boats to load the landing craft which, in turn, brought us to the mother ship which transferred us to the pier by a quarter past 4. The air conditioning within it was uncomfortably harsh and I required all levels of control not to make it an issue. On disembarkation, each of us got a porcelein plate that had our photographs imprinted on it.
We returned to the hotel and after that, I'd gone across to a nearby bank, to exchange into local currency as there was a crunch in my valet for Bahts.
It was a quiet evening and we'd our dinner at our hotel itself. It was also an occasion for an early pipe down.
Tailpiece.
Surprisingly, both of us - Lekha and I - did not feel tired, the lack of the afternoon siesta, notwithstanding.
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