Fun on the Banana Boat

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Geo: 12.8, 99.9667

Woke at 6 and dozed off and on until 6.45. Got up and ready for a swim. Wrote a note for Nana – "gone swimming at 7am". We were about to walk out the door when Nana posted a note under our door. I posted mine to her at same time!!! Pa beat us to the beach – just. Mel made it into the water – up to her neck!! Well - only if she sat down!!! It was low tide. Mel took it one step at a time and made it out. She even dog-paddled for a while. We all stayed in there for ages. Finally back to the hotel. Quick dip in hotel pool then changed and off to breaky.

It was the usual fair - although I was upset – they didn't have any croissants! Right near the end of breaky they arrived (thank goodness). I was tired so after breaky I came up to room and had a sleep for an hour or so. Mel did a schoolwork sheet. After I woke up, we went and joined Nana and Pa at the pool. They were reading/puzzling (Royalauto/Sudoku). Mel and I threw the balls to each other for a while. Jumped out of the pool and had lunch in hotel room – didn't have as much stuff today – breaky was very quiet so it was a lot harder to acquire food!!! Waitresses always were hovering!! Got ham, tomato, cheese, couple of bananas, 2 picklets and 1 roll. Also had fresh pineapple, donuts and choc sponge roll from market last night and cake and cheese left from yesterday (and 2 slices of bread). With our fanta/choc milk/ ice coffee. We ate like kings – sort of!!

Met Tim and Vicky (another lady from the tour group) in the lobby and headed off for a banana boat ride. Mel desperately wanted to go but I thought it was too dangerous for her. Tim thought we only needed three but he got a different story when he tried to get us one. Helen was going to join us but wanted to go shopping instead (not at all surprising). He collared Vicky as well as two boys on the beach who were playing with their dad!! BHT100 each for 30 minutes. It started off calm. On boat we had driver – boy – boy – Vicky – me – Tim. Seems to be the people at the front of the banana get the smoother ride. The further back the bumpier it got – possibly because the boat is moving sideways more at back. Tim sat on edge and trailed in the water – possibly keeping the banana a bit lower in the water by hanging off it. Twice I was thrown mostly off. Vicky and Tim had to help me back on. Don't know how they did that and stayed on themselves!! At one stage we caught a fish – about 5cm long. Only I saw it as it vanished between seat and side 'legs' of banana. I wasn't able to scoop him out – don't know what happened to him – hopefully he enjoyed the ride. It was a great way to see the coast line! We went down as far as the fishing village we went to on Wednesday and a lot further down the other way. My legs were so so sore from trying to grip on. My hands were sore. The handles we had to grip onto were covered in plastic tubing that was slippery. I tried to hold on at the sides where it was made of material. Don't know if that helped or not!! Somehow, no thanks to me, we didn't fall off until the ride was over. He came into shore, Vicky, Tim and I went over and the two boys stayed on. Driver had to do another spin to drop them off. I had jelly legs on standing – had trouble getting the life jacket off and had two huge blisters on my hands. Blood blister on right hand where my ring were and normal blister on same spot on other hand (no rings there) I had a drink then just sat/floated in sea water. I didn't want to move, just trying to let my muscles relax. Hopefully Nana got some good photos. Mel also come into the water and stayed for ages with us. Unfortunately her skin started to 'itch' (salt water and possibly mozzie bites or just 'because' – much much later found it was probably a jelly fish sting). I bought her back to hotel – rinsed sand off feet and made it into hotel room before she started to cry. She had a shower but that didn't help. Cried herself through the shower. I had a shower then asked Nana what she thought. Her only suggestion was to use phenergan. It has antihistamine. Gave her 10ml at 5.15. By 5.45 - 6pm itching had stopped mostly – whether by medicine or of its own accord, I don't know.

Asked Mel what she wanted for dinner. She suggested a restaurant we had previously eaten at. Unfortunately Nana wanted to go to same pace as last night and Mel didn't. Someone cracked it (and it wasn't Nana). Didn't know what she wanted to eat – enjoyed glass noodles last night – do you want tonight? “I don't know” I think she is just tired and phenergan wouldn't have helped!! She got a plate of fried rice - we had wanted it to share but Mel was given a whole large plate for herself where as we all got a plate of plain rice and the other dishes to share. Mel not happy. We all had a taste of her fried rice – beautiful. She ended up eating the whole plate (less tomatoes) all by herself. Perked up by end of it (Mel that is). We bough an ice cream on way back to hotel. Ate that up to room and pretty much straight to bed. Mel fell asleep very quickly. She wanted to sleep with me and already she has more of the bed than me!!!

Mel bed ~ 8.45. Me bed ~ 9.45

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