Day 18

location:Perhentian Islands
summary:Which features all manner of exotic sea creatures, including giant turtles, and a selection of the author’s observations about the natives
trip:sea04
day:18

Day 18

Brindisi turned out to be quite a nice place, contrary to my expectations of a dirty port town where the water would be basically a mixture of oil and diesel. Emerging from the station was like suddenly being transported into the middle of Las Vegas, but during the daytime. Booking agents competed to produce the largest, loudest and flashiest sign advertising low fares on ferries to Greece.We were wary of these offers, as I’d read reports of many of them being scams. Someone else seemed to be concerned too, and was hanging around the station looking at the various signs. We joined forces and went to the first agent we spotted with an HML (Hellenic Mediterranean Lines) logo, but only to ask them where the HML head office was.

Day 18

Day 18 was a completely free day on the Gecko itinerary, but I had some pressing needs to attend to, such as finding something to wear on my feet. I walked over to the local village on the other side of the island with Lorna, with rope and shoes on my list. I needed the rope because I had bought a hammock in Sangkhlaburi that, as I discovered later, only had one piece of rope with it. The island had three major settlements. The one we left behind was the tourist village, spread out and fairly sparse. A path led across the island, through a big rubber plantation, and into the first of two local villages. This one was small, about the same size as the tourist village I would guess, although it was much more compact. Bits of old rope were lying about all over the place, but none were long enough for my hammock. I picked up a small fragment which I hoped might help me make my intentions understood when we finally found a shop. There were none in the first settlement, and we quickly left it behind, continuing on the path.

Day 18

No journal available

location:Sydney
summary:Met Deirdre & Geoff, my relatives, visited Palm Beach (set of Home and Away) and the Sydney IMAX
trip:australia00
day:18