My First Trip: Day Six

Disclaimer: This is an edited version of my diary from November 2000. Some information contained may be incorrect, and opinions I expressed then are not the opinions of Aaron Rowe in 2006. I have posted it purely for the Novelty value.

Saturday 25th November 2000

No Work Today!

Well today was Saturday, so there's no need to get up in any rush. My alarm came on at 6:30 but I'd forgotten to unpack it the night before so I had to hunt around trying to find it. I grabbed a shower and managed to soak the floor because I didn't realise that the water pressure keeps changing because of people using showers over the house and the power fluctuations caused by the generator. After a while I noticed that the shower was now shooting over my head out of the Bath and onto the floor. The water had already seeped into my bedroom soaking the carpet around the door. I switched off the AC and opened a window. It would dry up in no time.

Breakfast

I went down for breakfast, nobody else was around, I found the table laid with fruit and toast as usual, and a heap of pancakes. I sat around watching TV waiting for someone else to turn up, Eventually a few guys appeared and we ate some fruit and pancakes. and eventually D... turned up from the Apartment. Today we had organised a boat trip with the brother-in-law of the owner of Planet 44. The idea being we were looking at purchasing a boat for the company. Something that hasn't even been discussed with the head people in Calgary, so it was all pie in the sky. Still it was fun.

Boats are cool

We were taken out to a place called Tarkwa Bay, and it was very nice. The boat was a 40 footer and so too big to land on the beach so we had to call over one of the kids on the beach to get a smaller boat out here for us. Eventually we were rescued by an Syrian Ex pat who helped us out by first shuttling us from the boat to the shore in his own boat, and then organising some beach chairs and a sun shade. We had to pay for them but it wasn't much.

It wasn't long before we attracted the attention of the people selling things. Mainly what they had was wood carvings and peanuts. There were some clothes and things, as well as fruit.

Beaches are cool too

This cheeky guy calling himself London Prince, a potentially bona fide name, demanded we take a photo of him in his tie, that a German tourist had dashed him, and then demanded we send him a copy. We might try but whether NIPOST gets it there is another thing.

After a few hours in the sun, a few beers from our ice filled cool-box, and taking a couple of photos. the boat arrived to takes us back. I had plastered myself in factor 15 so there wasn't much chance of me being hurt by the sun, but I could see that E... and K... were pretty red.

Back Home

We docked at the small jetty, and our faithful drivers, M2... and J3..., were ready to take us home. I just can't believe how good these guys are. They aren't just drivers, they are also our bodyguards, they negotiate the purchase of our fuel and exchange of our money in the black market, the only way to do that here, they are there to pick us up early in the morning and there to take us home late in the evening. I don't see anybody in Britain being as reliable as these guys.

We had planned to go to the Lagoon again after V...'s dinner but we were all a bit worn out with the heat on the beach. So we sat around drinking wine and watching telly. great.