At breakfast we made a list of all the issues we've experienced during our KUONI trip, so we could relay them to Sam (the KUONI rep) and have him pass them on to head office. The list only underlined the fact that we should definitely be lodging a formal complaint to KUONI. The difference between the expectations set by KUONI and the reality of our honeymoon experience is striking.
We got in touch with Sam at reception (I think he had only just woken up at 10 am) and he was keen to meet up sooner rather than later to get this sorted as soon as possible. He turned up in reception at 10.15 am and we went thought everything. In the end we decided it would be easiest if we just sent our list to head office alongside the various bits of paperwork we had to sign and a covering email from Sam. I imagine we will still need to send a follow up letter to provide additional detail about each point on the list. For example, one of the points says simply 'Tea factory fiasco'!
Having dealt with this unsavoury task, we investigated the sea kayaking situation. Our package includes free use of the sea kayaks for an hour a day. We booked a kayak for a bit later on and went back to our water bungalow to get showered.
By the time we were ready to go kayaking, the weather had worsened and to cap it all it was raining. Given the choppy waves, the wind and the rain we decided to give kayaking a miss and went for a snorkel off the beach by Chill Bar instead. Visibility wasn't great, but we did see plenty of fish. These were mostly damselfish, with the odd wrasse, goby or parrotfish thrown in for good measure. Most spectacular were these huge orange triggerfish (Titan triggerfish), which we had been warned about by other snorkelers. Apparently the larger triggerfish get very aggressive in defense of their eggs, and are known to bite snorkelers. Judging by the size of the fish we saw, I'm not surprised people give them a wide berth. Seemed pretty chilled to me as I swam within a couple of feet of a few of them, but there are YouTube videos of them looking decidedly more aggressive. Amber was using me as a human shield every time one swam by!
Here's a YouTube vid I found of a Titan triggerfish 'attacking' a snorkeler.. Beautiful fish!
We couldn't believe the weather. Dark clouds, rain hammering down, rough sea, howling wind. It might as well have been the Peak District. We had a hot bath to get the circulation going and strolled over to Turquoise restaurant to have a big fat burger (and the obligatory sequence of cocktails - we had 10 drinks each!).
It rained buckets whilst we were eating. So much so that the staff had to deploy the floor-to-ceiling splash screens across the open front of the restaurant. Everyone was turning up for lunch either sporting the rather fetching Velassaru raincoat provided in all rooms, or at the very least cowering under one of the bright blue umbrellas. We'd managed to get to Turquoise before thee downpour, so we felt quite smug sipping our cocktails, watching everyone arrive looking somewhat bedraggled.
As the rain wasn't looking like it would stop any time soon, we spent a little while in the two boutique shops. One was full of the usual souvenir tat, with a few nice but seriously overpriced kaftans; the other full of very expensive, very ugly jewellery. The only piece worth looking at was a stunning sapphire and gold necklace priced at a laughable $12,000. Needless to say, Amber didn't walk out of the shop wearing said item.
The rain continued to hammer down for the rest of the day. We killed some time watching 'Wrath of the Titans', not the worst film I have ever seen, but certainly not one I will be watching again in a hurry.
Thankfully one of the TV channels is Nat Geo Wild. Thanks to the dire weather I am now rather addicted to the shows 'Gator Boys' and 'Python Hunters'. My kind of job: Getting paid to wrestle with alligators and humongous snakes.
We were lucky enough to succeed in booking an over-water table at the Sands restaurant for dinner. This was a private table sitting over the water on a platform with a thatched roof, accessed via a wooden jetty jutting out from the beach, where the main restaurant is located. In theory a very romantic setting. However, it was more like being marooned on a tiny island in the middle of a hurricane! At first we had wondered if they would even let us eat at the table, but when we arrived they had lowered splash screens on two side of the platform and we were given the green light to proceed with caution along the jetty (wearing our raincoats) to our table.
Amazingly the staff were more than happy to brave the elements, scurrying back and forth with menus, food and wine (which they eventually left with us to finish off). The Japanese lady who was serving us even brought us a replacement table light after the original one ran out of batteries, plunging us into darkness! Hilarious!
Apart from the wonderful comedy of it all, the best thing about the meal was that I was able to order half a dozen Pacific rock oysters as part of our Indulgence package. This usually requires a $30 supplement. I was slightly worried as to how fresh they might be, but they were fabulous, as was the rest of the meal. A great ending to an otherwise quite uneventful day.
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