Shack watching (by Joe)

We never did the shack watching trip (not our idea of fun, really - see left).

However, we did sign up for another trip which promised to take us swimming with sharks. With a combined total of 14 years experience working the London media and advertising industries, we felt this should hold no fears for us.

So, for the second time in a few days, we enjoyed a terrific snorkeling trip from Koh Tao, a Thai island famed for its diving.

We saw much wonderful coral, thousands of brightly coloured tropical fish and met some smashing people. However, though we saw a Barracuda (we think), there were absolutely no sharks to be seen anywhere. They had all vanished, apparently - disappeared 'miraculously' according to the tour guide.

Rather than put him down as telling a fisherman's tale (or in this case a tour guide's), we decided it was actually no great surprise: Laura pointed out that as a fully trained and qualified media auditor, she often finds that all the sharks have disappeared 'miraculously' when she goes looking for them.

Joe