Day 7: Saturday. Daytrip to Coral Island with PhuketPowerTour.

Coral Island
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We pre-booked a trip to Coral Island with PhuketPowerTour for 800 baht each. We decided that this would be a grand idea, since we needed one day of our holiday where we could just relax. So far we spent our days by going on daytrips or by sightseeing on our scooter. We needed one day to do nothing but swim and relax. And as long as we were on the main island that definitely wouldn't happen. Coral Island was perfect for this though, only a 15 minute trip by speedboat and we were there. The island was beautiful; the water was clear and warm. It was quiet with far fewer tourists around. I'd be surprised if we were more than 30 people on the island, and everyone was minding their own business. Lunch was a buffet, included in our fare. We swam, ate, snorkelled and had fabulous time. We were both badly sunburnt that day, Dirk spent so much time snorkelling and he forgot that his back was exposed to the sun the entire time. I had a short nap after lunch, while Dirk befriended the island's only canine. A real friendly dog, lovable and playful.

Coral Island
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We left around 14:30 to go back to the main island. We jumped on our scooter and went back to Jungceylon mall for a waterproof canoe bag that Dirk had spotted the previous time we were there. I ended up making a spontaneous purchase and buying a smaller one for myself, it's a handy thing to have if you happen to be near water a lot (which we are). We stopped at the famous OTOP markets (opposite the new Hard Rock Cafe), because I had read a lot about it. It's what we would call a flea market, rows and rows of stalls selling everything you can think of. The difference is that street merchandise are probably at its most expensive here, because this is where a lot of tourists come to buy "cheap" stuff. Bargaining was hard and the sellers were pretty rude. Identical items could be purchased in Karon Beach for far less, so we left early on. No point wasting time.

...we needed one day of our holiday where we could just relax.

Lunch on Coral Island
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In the evening we went back to the travel agent where we rented the scooter; we had only rented our scooter for 6 days and were meant to return it before 10 pm. Instead we asked if we could extend our agreement for another day, for which we paid 200 baht. We then had supper at a small corner-restaurant two doors down from our resort. I'm sorry we didn't discover this little gem of a place earlier, the atmosphere was good, the food was priced well and delicious, they even serve you a free salad with every meal. I went for a Thai soup while Dirk had his usual burger. I tried some Thai dishes during our stay, but nothing that looked or smelled too strange. I was happy as long as I could identify it. Dirk, on the other hand, felt that he would rather stick with Western-type food. He made a good point: what if the Thai food upsets his tummy and he falls sick? He didn't want to miss a single day of the trip, never mind a few. He did occasionaly take a bite of my food and usually liked it.

Petting the island dog!
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Something that is immensely cheap in Thailand is ice cream. We ate lots during our stay, Magnum ice cream (like the ones we have in SA) isn't much more than ZAR5. Ice cream in a cup would be about R3 or R4. We supported the 7-11 across the resort very well and boosted their ice cream sales significantly!