Decided to stay at the Eco village for an extra day and do some volunteering. Was told to be ready for 8am, which was a dream come true at that point – a lie in!! Got up and showered in the cold rainwater before heading out to the main seating area. Realised quick quickly that an 8am start was ‘Indian’ time and not ‘European’ time… We could have probably snuck an extra few hours in bed!! Had to go searching for our ‘boss’ down by the river and, whilst he was out buying paint, we sat enjoying the view.
Jayne managed to get loads of photos of a kingfisher that was resting on one of the oared boast – he was absolutely beautiful and incredibly quick when hunting.
Our boss returned around 9.30am and told us it was breakfast time so we went back to the main seating area. The chef clearly wasn’t expecting tourists for breakfast and she looked quite worried as she plated up our breakfast. Couldn’t work out why we only had fried potatoes and chapatti when everyone else also had a vegetable curry and rice until we saw one of the locals fan his mouth and start gulping huge quantities of water – it was clearly super spicy!! Went back to the dock after food to begin our day painting the boat. The company had 62 tourists turning up the next day for a jungle tour over Christmas and they needed this slightly old and decrepit boat to work AND look pretty!
They seemed very grateful for the help, although most of the bits they wanted me to paint required me bent over the railing – a view that many of them appeared to enjoy for several minutes at regular times throughout the day! An early lunch before the next tour group arrived and then we were back on the boat continuing to paint. Made so much progress that he got us to paint new sections but, as there wasn’t enough paint, we just watered some down with white spirit!
Finished just before sun set and and went back to the hut to try and wash off the copious amounts of blue and yellow paint. Went back to the seating area to read books and cuddle up with Tiger and Blue (our two adopted puppies). Tiger fell asleep on Jayne and Blue slept on my lap for about 2 hours before we begrudgingly put them down to eat dinner. 
Stayed chatting to Om for a while about his day and the new tour group whilst Rakesh tried to convince us to go on a night boat ride with him… Fortunately, we were both too tired to head off into the darkness with a boat full of men and went to bed instead!
Wednesday 23rd December 2015
Trans Travels 