Island touring and beach lounging

One of the tours we booked onto yesterday was an island tour that shows you the main sites on the island. We opted for the half a day tour as the only thing extra you got with the full day was visiting a town over the other side of the island and for the additional money it didn't sound worth it. Our first stop was a very picturesque temple that was surrounded by a small lake. The sun was shining brightly which made many of the mosaic tiles on the temple glisten in the light. I had brought my wrap around skirt and shirt to put on before entering but another girl we were with was quite disrespectful and went inside in shorts when it states no to. Our next stop was to a huge golden Buddha on top of a tall mound with 75 steps up. The level of detail on the Buddha was very impressive as he sits on a bed of lotus flowers. We had a brief stop at a view point that overlooked the clear blue oceans below. Even though it was super hot by this point we were never out of the air conditioned van for more than 25 minutes so we were not overheating as much as we have been in the past. We stopped at a rather odd place which we didn't know what to expect in terms of looks. The site is called grandmother and grandfather rocks so we were naively expecting some traditional story with two tall rocks standing next to each other. This was not the case! They are called these names because the people believe they look like genitalia! Not so lovely to see I tell you! We'd specifically opted for a tour that did not include an elephant ride or a monkey show, the picture for which was literally a monkey riding a tricycle. I don't agree with these kind of things and never have, even sea lion shows at the zoo! This one however did have a stop to what they called a monkey show but our receptionist reassured us that on this island monkeys are trained and used to pick coconuts as it's safer and easier for the locals. We felt that if this is something that does happen then we could have a look and find out. Unfortunately we were too optimistic. We saw two monkeys changed to the bottom of trees, we pull up and get out and a man shouts at one until it goes up and picks and drops coconuts down. It then climbs down and is brought to stand on a post and demonstrate how it uses its front and back foot to twist the coconut until it breaks off. The money then returned to its area and that was that. We saw no water for them under their trees and there were huge bundles of coconuts picked together with a knife near by. It all felt staged and set up. The monkey also split 2 out of 4 coconuts when dropping them so it does not seem a logical method anyway. Luckily we weren't their long and we headed off to see another temple with a mummified monk before our final stop at a waterfall. We didn't swim in the waterfall but instead climbed over to the other side to a nice secluded spot to take in the amazing sounds and sight of this fall. Upon heading back we chilled out for a while and went and got some antihistamines for my bites before hitting the beach. It felt so good to get in the sea! We chilled out and had dinner there before coming back to look into accommodation for our next island. We managed to see so much by doing the tour and I'm so pleased that I can say that I've seen a pickled Pope in Rome and a mummified monk in Thailand!Read more