Dec 28

O K I was right, there was no computers or cell phones on the beautiful island of Havelock. so on Xmas day we were up at 5:00 am to jump a boat to the remote island of Havelock , it was sort of crowded getting on the boat and you can see the class system at work many ( entitled or upper class) just walked past the queue and onto the boat, no one seemed to mind except me Mr fair and responsible. There were several cabins. Some with air conditioning some without. Ours was with air con and everybody was trying to push their way in .I started asking some guy for his ticket and my loving wife was yelling at me"who do you think you are to tell someone from his own country what to do".after 2.5 hours we arrived in a very primitive port,( I hope I can get some pictures attached in Delhi it too long 25 minutes to try to load one pic, and I gave up) Our taxi driver picked us up and drove us on the narrowest paved road I have ever been on, and it was often treated as a 3 lane highway.Our resort was called Sandy Beach it was an oasis in the jungle .We had a quick breakfast then vegged out on the beach, reading and sleeping we are still jet lagged, later in the afternoon we went to Rathanhangar beach the best in the Indian ocean and it was great ,big, wide, but a little dirty for my liking, the sunset there was spectacular. We then went back to our place had a beverage(Kingfisher beer is 650 ml and 125 rupees in the best of restaurants approx $2.50)and had lobster for Xmas.
Dec 26 The next day we we went in a small boat to elephant beach it was really crowded were the boats landed but we walked a little way down from the crowds and set up for the day the coral and snorkeling was great especially as you got out farther off shore by the drop off there were lots of fish. We then headed back at 4:00 ish and cleaned up, making sure the beer was still cold. We had dinner that night and we were feeling a little adventurous, because up to that point we had been eating pretty safe western or Asian food.We had flat breads, beans, lentils and a yogurt cucumber, onion, tomatoes mix. It was a great meal and cost only 12.00.
Dec 27 we awoke at 2:00am , 4:00 and every 5 minutes after that doing an anniversary cleanse,(Dec27 is our anniversary, this year 26 ). We basically holed up for the day rotating between the bed and bathroom. I foolishly went snorkeling at a great place The Lighthouse that had spectacular coral, but I might have thrown up several times before I got on the boat. As we left and were waiting for our ferry, we noticed a private ferry, which cost 12.00 vs 1.00,we were on the fast air-conditioned private ferry in 2 secs.We returned to the very comfortable Fortune Bay resort, were we had a gourmet dinner of water bread and a bit of jam.
Dec 28 we must have each slept 10+ hours last night, we felt great so we had a bit more bread and jam , water and sprite. We were picked up at 9:00am and were scheduled to go to North bay and Ross is. It was a zoo people pushing, yelling, crowds were intense but after 1/2 an hour we got on the proper boat and headed to a very crowded beach, snorkeling was poor compared to the last 2 days. We went to Ross Is which was an old British outpost and during the ww2 a Japanese bunker system and I think POW headquarters, were set up there. It was great saw some deer and wild peacocks. Tomorrow we head of to Jolly Buoy an Is with good snorkeling, Jan thinks that my continued snorkeling, in less than clean ocean water may be contributing to my slower recovery. we hope all is well, the weather as usual is just over 30 morning noon and night. So deb I hope the skiing is good say hi to Johnny Ben Katie Jack Russ and Nadine, I really want to get some pictures up hopefully in Delhi, also power outages are common here, 4-10 per night Hi Caits Zubeen and Jojo it was great to talk with you this morning.