February 1st

Feb 1st
During the night we had thunderstorms and lightening. Monsoon rains were so heavy, we had to get up and stand on the balcony and watch. The rains turned the sand into a dark mud colour, but that didn't stop us from laying out on the beach.

Dark skies through out the day. In the right hand side of this photo you can see A.J. Hacketts Bungy Jump tower. The same company as in New Zealand.
This rain storm eventually made its way onshore and we got soaked. It was still very hot, so being soaked to the skin was quite nice. Later we went to a money changer down a lane opposite the hotel. I had read that money changers were notorious for ripping tourist off , so we were on our guard. We changed $100 New Zealand dollars, expecting 987,000 rupees ( so many zeros on their currency!). Derek counted the money twice, but when we got back to the hotel, we found that we were 100,000 rupees short. Derek said to let it go, but I wanted to go back and tell these guys that they ripped us of and that they should be ashamed of themselves. ( Me being the righteous one). I stormed back up the alley, and knocked on the whole in the wall exchange store. The two guys insisted that they didn't do us, and started smiling, which set me off and I started screaming at them, telling them that they were crooks and I was going to report them. I was really surprised that they gave me the 100,o00 rupees back, even as they were pushing me out the door. I bet not many tourist go back and rant and rave. Walked back to the hotel with a " Don't mess with me attitude !".