"It's probably about time that we brought you up to speed with the adventures of Banana in the former kingdom of Siam. In Thailand, Thai is the main language and Thai writing is incomprehensible for the uninitiated. We needed to know how to translate the words on the screen of the ATM so that we could withdraw some of the essential baht (the local currency). The next challenge for us was to prepare the big family get together for the end of year festivities. Our first tour around some of the standard moorings in the Andaman Sea was very promising: Ko Roy Ko Lanta, the James Bond island, the beach from...The Beach. Choose your favorite. I'm not sure which great philosopher stated that one can only really know a country having tasted the food and the women...Let's start with the food. Thai food's reputation for being tasty needs no underlining, however, the crew of banana can confirm how good it is and there were no upset stomachs along the way.
I'm assuming that some of you will be hoping that I now turn my attention to the women. At the risk of disappointing you, none of the male crew wanted to test it out. However, Thailand also means Buddhism, the cult of the King, elephants, mass tourism, seasonal crew, long tail boats, tuk-tuks, fishing boats and... the pain in the butt motors on Banana, of which I shall spare you the detail.
Still, all good things must come to an end, and after all the children and friends had left, we prepared the boat for the journey to Sri Lanka: stocking up on supplies and servicing the motors before leaving. Saying goodbye isn't always easy. The weather is good, and we leave tomorrow at dawn with an 1100 mile journey across the Bay of Bengal ahead of us. We should arrive in Galle in around seven days' time.
The crew of Banana
