Another beautiful day and we drive to the north-east corner of the island to one of the tiny bays there way off the beaten track. Although this is a small bay with only few people here the sea is rocky in parts and it is not as picturesque as some we have visited. Small scale, unsympathetic development has spoilt the look of the bay and there is an ugly unpainted concrete wall fronting part of the beach. It’s lunch time when we arrive and we stop and have something to eat at a table sheltered by a bamboo and thatch shelter. A rather unappealing concrete path snakes around the edge of the headland to some bungalows set just above the rocks, put here by someone with no sense of aesthetics. After lunch we have a quick dip – the sun is scorching stinging the skin, how do people lie out in it all day?. It must get unbearably hot here in the summer.
Late afternoon we drive on with the intention of finding a the next tiny beach round the coast, but miss the turning and arrive Choen Mon. We had been here last week when the winds were blowing and the tides were high and we’re surprised by the transformation. It is low tide and the sea has receded a long way making it possible to walk across to the island just off shore and giving the bay a totally different character. The sandbags and tyres still remain lending it an untidy, scruffy appearance spoiling what is otherwise a pleasant beach.