Friday (19 June 2015)
We started with our by now normal weekday morning routine of getting up late-ish, having coffee on the patio while catching up on some reading, news and e-mails, then going to the gym for an hour, shower, have breakfast and then start our daily work for a few hours in the afternoon. By the time we start working it is normally somewhere around noon. After taking yesterday off from work and gym we decided that Thursday’s will from now on be our “off” weekday and will only work if some form of inspiration calls us to it.

Once we completed the day’s toil we biked via the ring road to the Chaweng area for our long awaited buffet supper at Fi, out favourite Greek Restaurant. We left a bit early as we still needed to do some shopping at Tesco, which just so happens to be right next door to Fi. We bought the normal stuff but also, I am happy to report, a bottle of Sangsom Special Rum, not bad at around 290 Baht. If you recall, yesterday Adri had a Thai rum cocktail at the Bamboo Bar, the main ingredient being Sangsom rum, the raison d’être for this purchase. Anyway, I will test-drink Sangsom and report back.

Now we were ready for that buffet. Those of you that know me, also know that I detest buffets. I normally find food at buffets tasteless, mass produced, not much thought or effort put into them, cheapest ingredients used, and heaven forbid, I always imagine that today’s food was just added to the bain-marie still containing the leftover food from yesterday, and the previous day… Now you may ask why then am I considering this buffet and the answer is simple, this buffet is way different from the run of the mills ones, believe me, read on…

Once the bike was all loaded up with the purchases, we rode next door to Fi at around 19H00. The place was abuzz with farangs but we spotted one open table. As we walked in, the Greek owner rushed over and greeted us like old friends with a “yes, yes, of course I remember you, not the names though, welcome back to the island !”. With a wave of the arm he said “you can sit anywhere” even though there was only the one table unoccupied at the time. Business was good.

Then his Thai wife appeared from the kitchen and also gave us a hearty welcome. Hell, it was great to be back. We ordered beers, took a few sips but then the hunger pangs revolted, felt like vultures churning in my stomach, so we relented and ambled over to the buffet table. Man, this was Greek heaven, even better than what I remembered. The table was laid out with moussaka, horiatki salata (Greek salad), Keftethakia (Greek meatballs), souvlaki (chicken, beef and pork kebabs), yemista (stuffed tomatoes, stuffed with rice and herbs), spanakopita (little feta and spinach pies), Tzatziki (plain yogurt mixed with cucumbers, garlic, salt, olive oil etc.), melitzanosalata (eggplant dip), kolokithopites (zucchini fritters), pita, small pieces of fried fish, Greek chicken and feta spring rolls, the list goes on… all this for only 279 Baht per person.

As you will notice from the pictures, the buffet table and serving dishes are not huge but they keep replenishing the dishes as they near their end of life, so you always get the freshest possible food. Even the souvlaki are freshly barbecued right behind the buffet table, and believe you me, they just keep on coming. They do serve a fruit desert but we were fully stocked up, so we’ll try that next time, as there sure is a next time penciled in on the mind’s diary.

We got home, unpacked the spoils from Tesco, but only until I reached the Sangsom. I immediately opened it up and poured us a couple with Coke and lots of ice. Delicious. Although it is a rum, if your imagination is healthy enough, you can make it pass for a brandy. Actually, trying to get a grip on the taste, I thought there was a hint in there somewhere of my old Greek favourite, Metaxa brandy, but I may be wrong, I’ll have to try it again just to make sure.

Searching for more information on Sangsom I came across, the apparent ubiquitous “SangSom Bucket”. I say apparent as I have not yet had the pleasure of encountering it on Koh Samui, but I am sure the opportunity will arise in due course. Anyway, the Sangsom bucket is sold, well, in a plastic bucket and contains a flask (half-jack) of Sangsom, two cans of Coke or Sprite, and a Red Bull, the Thai noncarbonated kind. These buckets go for about 150 to 200 Baht and it comes with several straws, as once it is all mixed up, you are expected to share this bucket with friends. I assume only with very good friends though.

OK, time for bed, and sweet Sangsom dreams.

Saturday (20 June 2015)
Woke up at 06H00 to the wind’s howling and the door’s creaking, it started raining, turned around and went back to sleep. I slept a comatose sleep, woke up much later, had coffee in bed, read, put on some music and lazed around for most of the day. We did plan to go to the beach for the day but decided against it as the clouds were still thick and heavy in the sky from the earlier show put on by Mother Nature.

At around 17H00 we went for a walk and decided to get something for dinner. Thought about going to the fresh produce market for some fresh fish to cook at home but decided against it. We walked along our street, about 400 metres from the apartment, and came upon an open air, very local, very authentic little Thai restaurant, housed under a gazebo. I use the word restaurant very loosely here and you’ll understand why if you refer to the photos. We see the place every time we scooter past but never really took notice of it, other than that there are always a number of locals that frequent it. No menus, no prices, no English spoken, only some pictures of the dishes on the outside of the counter, and that constitutes their menu.

A local would recognise the dishes and be able to order, a farang would not. We were about to move on when a local ordered a dish and we watched how the chef prepared it. Some rice was placed in a type of a wok, calamari was added, some fish, a couple of prawns, some stir fried veggies and finally a couple of sauces of some kind. This was cooked in the wok for a couple of minutes and then dished up, it looked delicious. I decided to order the same by pointing to the dish and then pointing at myself, then holding up one finger, which would have been understood in any language.

I later found out that the dish was actually called Sea Food Khao Phad (fried rice) which can be prepared with chicken, beef or pork, like most Thai dishes. Adri ordered a chicken Pad Thai which was delicious as well. Both the dishes came with a complimentary chicken soup/broth which contained tiny morsels of chicken, also very nice. We will definitely support this establishment again in the future. The total bill for supper was a measly 100 Baht.

Got home at around 21H00, settled down with a Sangsom, no bucket though, and watched an episode of Burn Notice. After that I watched some rugby, or that’s at least what it said on the TV schedule. The Stormers’ Super Rugby semi final against the Brumbies started off dreadful and ended up much worse. The Stormers were, in one word, appalling. If this is the best of the SA teams, SA rugby is in serious, and I mean really serious trouble.

Did a bit of reading and that helped me to escape my state of depression just in time before I drifted off…

Sunday (21 June 2015)
After coffee in bed and breakfast on the patio, we prepared for the beach. We always wanted to go back to the Ibis hotel where we stayed a few years back, really enjoyed their beach, sun beds and pool, although their demarcated beach swimming area left much to be desired. It felt mushy underfoot, not sure what it was though, was never brave enough to find out, but it felt a bit like algae. So we rode down to the Ibis hotel which is situated on the Western part of Bophut beach, exactly where we left it.

Because we know the place we made as if we were residents and proceeded confidently through the hotel lobby, I led us down the garden path, past the pools and plonked ourselves down on two conveniently placed sun beds, under an umbrella. I was not ready for a swim yet so Adri went down to the beach and proceeded, gingerly I might add, to walk in. She immediately turned around and gave me the thumbs down, underfoot it still had the same mush. Not sure why they do not do something about this. Anyway, everything else was still the same, same sun beds, same umbrellas, same bar, same cocktails etc. We had a pleasant time, went for a lovely cool swim in the pool and had a good read on the sun beds under the umbrella, protected from the scorching sun.

On the way back home we took a detour and went to the Big C supermarket for stuff. First on the list was, Coke for Sangsom, fish, ingredients to make a fish curry dish, bananas, dried bananas etc. The fish we wanted was not available so the fish curry will have to wait once more for another day. We looked around and found a pre-prepared grilled Saba fish with teriyaki sauce. We remembered that Nutty, our Thai friend we met last time, was crazy about this and decided to buy some. We ended up eating Saba with teriyaki sauce, chips and a salad that burned the living bejesus out of me. With my tongue stuck out while fanning my open mouth with both my hands, Adri responded to my antics with a cool, “I only added five chillies”. In retrospect, I think two will do fine, thanks.

We watched the news and saw that it was the first International Yoga Day which was declared by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 2014. Apparently the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in his UN Address suggested that the date for International Yoga Day should be June 21 as it is the longest day of the year (summer solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and has special significance in many parts of the world. Adri and I decided a while back that we would like to start doing a bit of Yoga, so maybe this day will give us a bit of an impetus to get started, just maybe.

I settled down to finish the one book I was reading. My beach reading still consisted of the paperback novel called Whiteout by Ken Follett which incidentally started off terrible and only got marginally better towards the second quarter of the book, still hoping it will become readable. My non-beach reading consisted of an e-book novel on my Ipad called Santorini by Alistair MacLean. OK, one word, terrible. Fortunately I completed this tonight so now I can move onto something more meaningful.

I must confess that I generally never read novels, not sure why I wasted my time on these, maybe just for some escapism, but do I really need that right now ? No. Now that we are in Thailand I started reading a bit more about Thailand, Yoga and Buddhism (incidentally, 94% of Thais are Buddhists). But usually I enjoy reading travelogues of some sorts, biographies, autobiographies, history, financials, science and so on. I spoke to someone at work recently about books and I asked her whether she reads novels. She frowned, looked at me with a scorned expression on her face and replied “no, what’s the point”, which neatly summed up my own feelings.

Monday (22 June 2015)
Today is cleaning day. We have now settled into a nice, general, rhythm, not planned, it just naturally happened that way… let me explain. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we gym and do some work in the afternoon and generally have supper at home. Thursdays we take off to mentally start preparing ourselves for the weekend ahead, so we give gym a rest, and would normally end up on some or other beach, or beach bar… Friday its back to gym and work, but Friday evening is definitely a night out on the town, i.e. supper or night market, or whatever. Saturday and Sunday are beach days if weather permits, but mostly doing as little as possible and stuffing our faces. Of course, if weather and willpower permits, Saturday morning we would start off with our early morning 5 km walk/run before we head out to the beach. And then Monday comes around… cleaning day.

But, it sounds worse though than what it really is. There is an automatic washing machine on the premises which you fill up with all your clothes that need washing (it can take up to 11 kg), you load it up with 70 Baht, close the lid and walk away. An hour later you go back, fetch your clothes and hang them up, as easy as that. We also do an extra sweep of the floors during this one hour waiting time and clean whatever else needs cleaning. Dishes we do after every meal so the place stays clean pretty much all of the time.

At around 17H30 we began thinking about what to have for supper, and decided tonight is the night for green curry with fish, rather than the normal chicken. Rode down to the fresh produce market but decided, at the last minute, we needed refreshments and continued further up the road to the Secret Garden pub/restaurant. We were lucky, we got there at the start of happy hour which is between 05H30 and 06H30, all beers are 70 Baht. I started on a Leo and Adri on a San Miguel Light, which I might add is light on calories, not light on alcohol content, so you’ll still get tipsy but not fat.

The wind was quite blustery but the view over the sea and out to Koh Phangan was just great. I soon enough finished my Leo and ordered a Heineken, ice cold as it should be. Adri and I discussed our schedule for the rest of the year and decided, for now, that we may stay on in Koh Samui until September, then go to Chiang Mai in the north of the mainland, and then return to Koh Samui in November. Maybe we will do Krabi in January. Anyway, that is the broad schedule for now, anything can happen, anything can change, our plans are still very fluid at this stage, as it should be. The music they played was sublime, I remember hearing Somebody To love (Queen), Sussudio (Phil Collins), Out Of My Dreams (Billy Ocean), Love The Thought Of Coming Home To You (Simply Red), and many more.

I noticed, after the two beers of course, (see, alcohol does make one more perceptive) a sign above the fridge located behind the bar that had a very deep, very intense, very profound message. It read “drink drink drink drink drink relax sleep”. Ah, what would Socrates say to that.

Left the Secret Garden just before the darkness closed in around us and stopped off at the market for fish, you will remember, the sole reason for the trip. We bought a whole fish, a little whole fish (not sure what kind or kindred) for about 80 Baht which the lady gutted for us. Got home and we needed to fillet the fish but none of us knew exactly how to. We so often buy fish, always fully prepared, never having the need to learn how to fillet it. I sorely missed some of my known fisherman colleagues at home who could have helped me along this darkened path. I eventually got some pieces of fish from the little blighter after butchering it into submission. We had our fish green curry and it was delicious.

Tuesday (23 June 2015)
Today we followed our daily routine. Got up, quite early today I might add, just after 08H00. Had coffee on the patio, caught up with e-mails and news, then it was off to the gym for a one hour session of walking, pedalling, trying to defy gravity with a couple of weights, sit-ups etc.

After gym we had breakfast which concluded with a couple of rambutans which we bought, just outside the fresh produce market, for 40 baht per kilo. Rambutan is a bright red fruit with greenish/reddish/yellowish hair, the inside contains white flesh around a pip. The flesh looks and tastes like a litchi, so, as the Thais would say, the rambutan and litchi are same same. Look closely at the picture of the rambutan, could be mistaken for a sea urchin !

I have one of those little Shox speakers, with a surprisingly big voice, which you plug into a laptop, Ipad, or whatever for amplified sound. Have had it for many years and used it often to listen to music on holidays and business trips. Tried it the other day on my Ipad and I thought it had finally given up the ghost, no sound, not even a peep or a bleep. Today I tried it again on my laptop via the USB port, and it worked perfectly. Turns out it just needed a good charge via that USB connection. Now at least we will have audible music via the Ipad in the gym from now on.

After supper we settled in for another episode of Burn Notice, ended up watching three. We still managed to get some reading done and finally doused the lights at around 01H00. You may have noticed that we generally get up quite late in the mornings, but taking into account that we usually get to bed between 23H00 and 01H00, is it surprising ?

Wednesday (24 June 2015)
Took the Ipad and Shox speaker to the gym this morning, should have done this a long time ago, listened, at high volume, to an 80’s album with songs like The Way It Is (Bruce Hornsby and The Range), Going Back To My Roots (Odyssey), Through The Barricades (Spandau Ballet), Rock Me Amadeus (Falco), and many more.

Got to work just after 12H00 and finished at 17H30. Adri works at the dressing/notebook table inside the apartment, I sit outside on the patio. My laptop invariably runs out of battery power within about two hours which is a signal for me to take a mandatory rest/snooze/nap while the notebook stocks up on some well deserved wattage before I can continue.

After work we walked down to the beach for a sunset viewing. I really do like nursing a cold one while watching a sunset but I remember Tommy the Irish on our first day here clearly saying that there were no pubs along this part of the beach. We walked along the beach, a bit further than before and came upon Plai Laem’s Sunset pier with its small harbour where
there are local fishing boats moored alongside a few luxury yachts. Took a few pictures and, as we turned to walk down a little road that connects up to the pier, we found a little makeshift, very local, open air pub, with the owner’s house right behind it.

A number of locals were drinking beer and Sangsom, and watching a soapie. Not sure whether any farang has ever had a drink here as everyone looked a bit surprised that we actually sat down, but with smiles all around. I can see why they call Thailand the land of smiles. We ordered two Chang beers while we were watching the last rays disappear behind the horizon. The soapie they were watching seemed to be a story of either the Yuan, Ming or Qing Chinese dynasty from a previous century intermingled with Star Wars type special effects, dubbed into Thai from Chinese. There seemed to be quite a bit of comedy also mixed in as they would pack up laughing from time to time, and we smiled along… It did actually look funny.

We paid our 80 Baht for the two beers and walked on back home. On the way home, an old man that was also watching the soapie back at the pub came past on his bike. He had his two dogs with him, one in the front and one at the back, waving wildly at us, as if old friends, with a wide smile on his wrinkled face. Why can’t all people be like this ?

Being in a local kind of mood we decided to have supper at our newfound very local Thai restaurant we discovered a few nights back. I did not see a picture of what I wanted on their makeshift menu but tried my luck anyway and ordered a Penang curry. No Penang curry the chef indicated, but he pointed to his head, meaning that he’s got the recipe in his head and he will rustle it up for me, no problem. Adri had the papaya salad and got a side dish of salad. I got my Penang curry with a side dish of chicken broth. All delicious.

We watched a movie called Welcome To The Punch starring James McAvoy, Mark Strong et al. The movie was OK but definitely not great, I have copied the storyline from IMDb below which I read before watching the movie and thought it might be quite good, I am sure you will agree.

Former criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London from his Icelandic hideaway when his son is involved in a heist gone wrong. This gives detective Max Lewinsky one last chance to catch the man he has always been after. As they face off, they start to uncover a deeper conspiracy they both need to solve in order to survive.

We were pretty disappointed though, I rated it 3 out of 5 on Netflix, in hindsight, maybe I should have rated it 2. I hate wasting my time on bad movies.

Thursday (25 June 2015)
Have been working on the blog for a while now but have found, or at least I should say I know, if you do not keep it updated on a daily basis from day one, you struggle to catch up, the situation I find myself in at the moment. Sometimes one never learns. So even if today, being Thursday and our official mid week “off day”, I decided to push through with work in the morning with the goal being to publish the first week’s activities during the day. We had such a lot planned for today but that will have to wait. I eventually tidied up the text, uploaded the photos and published the first entry of the blog just before 14H00 local time.

Just after 14H00 we left and our first task was to draw money. The ATM that I used previously seemed to only allow you to draw a maximum of 10 000 Baht, unless I missed the option to increase the amount, with the menus being a mixture of Thai and English. Each withdrawal comes with a service fee of 180 Baht, so obviously the larger the amount one draws, the less times one would have to draw, thus reducing one’s service fees.

I seemed to remember from the previous trip that the Krungsri bank’s ATMs allowed one to choose “other amount”, so you can specify any amount, meaning less ATM withdrawals for the month’s expenses. Although credit cards are widely used here I prefer to work with cash, just easier as there are many street vendors that we support who obviously don’t have credit card facilities. Anyway, we were on our way to Chaweng and stopped off at the Krungsri bank in Choeng Mon and used their ATM. I selected “other amount”, typed in the required amount, no problem, another issue sorted.

You will recall that I bought SIM cards for the Iphone and IPAD at the airport when we landed in Thailand on 4 June 2015. I bought the AIS Traveller SIM which the lady said at the time, I believe, is valid for one month, so I needed to sort something out before the fourth of next month. We went to the Central Festival Mall where AIS have quite a large shop. With it being in the centre of the main tourist area we anticipated that the assistants there would be able to speak good English.

I was thinking of getting a post paid contract for which the usage for the month is paid at the end of each month. I was advised, in Thai English that this option was only available for farangs with a work permit and bank account. I was advised that there was only one option open to me, I have to top up my pay as you go every month, and I can do that for one year after which the SIM expires. The assistant also noted that I could do the top-up now in one go, for the whole year, cost is about 20 Baht per month. I was then shown to another assistant, who spoke less English, to do something I am not sure of what. I assume he had to update the SIM to enable me to top it up for a year.

This done the first attendant came to me and asked me to follow him to the AIS top-up machine outside the shop, much like an ATM. I had to punch in my cell number and feed it 100 Baht for the first six months and another for the next six months. The system was extremely slow, we waited about five minutes with no response. The attendant offered to complete the transaction for me so I gave him the 200 Baht and off we went. About an hour later I received an SMS that my phone number will now be active until June next year. Cool. While in the shop I did not have the courage to ask about the SIM for the Ipad, that will have to wait for another AIS excursion.

We then went for our customary ice-cream in Chaweng, then, you guessed it, to the Bamboo Bar for a cocktail. Adri had her Sangsom Rum cocktail and I had a Mai Thai. The previous time we were here Lisa asked whether I wanted a weak, medium or strong one. Being polite I said medium. This time I decided to be less polite and asked Fon (Lisa was not there yet as she had to take her daughter home from school) for a strong one. OK, next time I will again be polite, that thing had the kick of a mule, an ostrich, a Thai kick boxer. But with a silly smile forming on my face I wasn’t complaining, it was good.

We had to pick up some tablets from the pharmacy as Adri’s stash was busy running out. We would have to look for a substitute as the exact same branded product would almost certainly not be available here. We did our research beforehand and found that there were a multitude of replacement products available. However, with the language barrier it is not such a simple task. Went to the Boots Pharmacy, nothing, went to Morya Pharmacy, nothing, but they pointed us to the Bangkok Hospital, situated on the ring road. After the cocktail, the strong one at the Bamboo Bar, we took a drive to the Bangkok Hospital’s pharmacy. The lady there was very helpful, but had to make a few phone calls to check for stock etc., so we left our contact details for her to contact us. Lesson learned, if it is not an everyday medical product, bring a supply with for the duration of your stay.

It was dusk when we pulled into Makro for our next stop, shopping. Was busy running out of ingredients so we had to top up with plenty fresh veggies, chicken, chocolate, cookies, pasta, coffee etc. We even got some rib-eye steak for the weekend, unfortunately there is no braai (barbeque) facility at the apartment complex, or none that we have seen, so may have to make do with a pan fried steak and chips.

Got home, lugged our booty up the stairs, and settled down with a Tiger beer for me and a glass of crispy ice cold white wine for Adri. We have not had any pasta dishes since we came here and tonight it was pasta evening, penne pasta with a divine chicken/tomato/chilli/garlic sauce, served with a glass of, you guessed it, crispy ice cold white wine. We watched another episode of Burn Notice after which my eyes were on automatic power down mode.

By the way, while we were waiting for the attendant at the Morya pharmacy, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a young couple, in their mid twenties, buying stuff but did not give them another thought, until we left the pharmacy. They had obviously come off their bike and the poor guy’s right leg was pretty grazed and bloody, looked awfully painful. His girlfriend proceeded carefully with the cotton wool and disinfectant they had just bought to clean off his wounds, right there on the sidewalk. This is something that one should be so careful to avoid, not cleaning wounds, but having an accident.

Below are some notes, and rules I follow when riding my bike here, whether they will work for you I do not know, thus far they have kept us safe:

•  In Thailand one drives on the left, so if you come from a country where you drive on the right, you need to be extra vigilant.
• Have respect for your bike. Don’t ever become overly familiar with it as you may become overconfident and make mistakes that could cost you dearly.
• Always treat other riders and drivers with respect. Rather give way to them if you are unsure of who has the right of way, or what their intentions are.
• Drive slowly. I ride a maximum of 40 km/h, slower would be better and safer, you are not in a hurry, you are never in a hurry here. Should you be involved in a collision, chances are that the faster you ride, the more serious the damage to you and your bike will be.
• Use a helmet. I hate using a helmet. I force myself to do so though. Will that half hearted excuse for a helmet, called the half helmet, protect your head 100%, probably not, but it will give you more protection than no helmet at all. In any case, it is law here to wear a helmet and you may get a fine if you don’t. Most locals ride without a helmet and don’t get fined, but maybe the police will concentrate more on farangs, probably for their own safety.
• Wear glasses/goggles for protection against insects. I wear prescription glasses as a matter of course so I do not really know how bad it is to ride without glasses, but I am assured that you will get insects in your eyes, so rather be safe than sorry.
• Breathe through your nose. No seriously. Put another way, keep your trap shut else you will have to contend with the odd bug that will find your pie hole and ask me, they don’t taste that good.
• Keep a straight and steady line when riding. In other words, do not swerve across the road, you will confuse others riders and will bump into someone who may be abaft or about to overtake you.
• Adjust your rear view mirrors correctly. It took me a while to get mine fine tuned, but this is very important in order to see what is going on behind you.
• Monitor your rear view mirrors often. You have to be aware of who or what is around you and who may be about to overtake you. On a number of occasions someone came flying past me without being expected, quite unnerving.
• Try and keep as far as possible to the left of the road. Not in the emergency lane though. This way you force other riders to pass you only on one side, i.e. to the right of you. It can be quite a harrowing experience when two bikes pass you at the same time, one on the left, one on the right, without you expecting it, groot skrik (big scare), believe me, it’s happened to me.
• Do not drive on white lines. Especially if they were freshly painted. It seems like the white lines on the road between Bophut and Maenam have been repainted in the not too distant past. I was forced to cross this white line a few times and every time felt the scooter do a little wobbly under me, so avoid if possible.
• Do contemplate other riders’ possible actions. In others words, do not only contemplate on how you drive, but also what other riders around you may be thinking of doing, or about to do, to circumvent a possible collision.
• Watch out for pedestrians, cats, dogs and any other UO’s (Unidentified Objects). Look out for these over and above watching out for other scooters and cars. Normally these are not a problem, but be aware. I have had a cat scream across the road right in front of me, no warning whatsoever, no warning run-up, nada, missed it by a cat’s breath (not breadth, it was much closer than that).
• Most importantly, focus. Focus on the way you ride, your position on the road, your speed, the road in general, be aware of your surroundings, never drop your guard, don’t sightsee while riding. Believe me, it is that one second that your mind and eye wanders that you hit a kink in the road, or lose your line that leads you off the road, and into whatever may be there, a tree, a car, a ditch, or whatever. Focus. Focus. Focus.

Now the above sounds quite ominous and not very much fun at all. But believe you me, one of our great joys on the island is getting on the bike and going for a ride, with the “cool wind in my hair” (OK, stole that line from Hotel California by the Eagles). Anyway, no need for despair, it all becomes second nature after a short while. As long as you follow the above rules or your own rules and are respectful, careful, vigilant and focus, you should be just fine.

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