� Simon's Diary

But maybe not. Swinging quietly in the hammock looking out beyond the coconuts and Casuarinas to the surf crashing in on the beach Australia, Bangkok and the busy life mile away. Not so for our hosts, there is always something to do. As I reflect on our time I realise how much I have done.

Every day there is the shrimp trap to check. This would have to be the most ingenious piece of fishing I have ever seen. We started by digging a forty foot trench across the beach causing the river to start flowing towards the sea. No mean feat with a simple hoe I can tell you! Then we craft a place for the trap to sit basically a one way street for shrimp. It is now up to the shrimps desire for open water. For two hours hard work the reward is half a bucket of shrimp - well worth it!

I have been invited to go rubber cutting with one of our hosts. It involves rising at 1 am and riding four km to the plantation. I learn to check the fuel tank and not the gauge as we walk the last km and a half! The next four hours are spent walking up and down the 400 rubber trees on the plantation. Each one is known in the way the old dairy farmers knew their herd. Who is going to give milk, who needs treating with kid gloves, the old favourites etc. It is hard work requiring physical strength and stamina combined with a keen eye and blade. By six o�clock we are looking for fuel for the bike. I return to bed at 8 am as the others head off to process 50 lbs of rubber. No sleep for them until 1pm

If it rains there can be no rubber cutting. If it rains before the rubber is collected the nights work is wasted! No matter there is maintenance to be done. In two weeks we concreted two bathroom floors replaced stumps on one bungalow and rethatched another.