Baie des Citrons – Lemon Bay

Baie des Citrons – Lemon Bay – was the highlight today.

We picked up our car from a friendly local at Europcar who was so pleased to see us because we were the last customer before she shut shop. All businesses close down for the next two days on 31st December and 1st January so we stocked up at the supermarket. However, we couldn’t buy any wine. The rule is that from Wednesday to Saturday you can only buy alcohol before 11.30am. We will have to wait for our next opportunity!

We snorkelled and swam in the picturesque Baie des Citrons (Lemon Bay). Mike brought the snorkelling gear so he dunked in first. We saw pretty fish, purple coral and a sea snake! When we asked the information centre where we could purchase snorkels, she said: “Why would you buy them when you can rent them!” True enough, there was not one snorkel to be found in any beach shop at Anse Vata.

We had lunch at Uncle Ho Vietnamese restaurant in Lemon Bay but were confused about the bill. First, they brought out the wrong order. Then they served us tofu with noodles instead of the tofu salad we ordered. We hadn’t been sure if that was their version of a tofu salad. Mike disputed it because it was their error but they still charged us more despite their apologies. The food could have been tastier too.

We ended the day relaxing with the lapping waves and breeze on our little beach again. It gets dark pretty quickly by 7.30pm and it’s light early from 5ish! The sun drops and rises in seconds closer to the equator but the sky showed us pink and purple hues before it set.