Last night was the final day of the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta. The regatta is a big deal down here, but as I have no interest in boats I wasn’t particularly excited. I was told many times that the final party of the regatta is meant to be a bit special. Pretty much everyone I’ve met in Phuket was there last night at Kata Beach Resort and the after party by the beach. The party was a lot of fun, but it served as the cause of my hangover during the weekend’s other boating activity – dragon boat racing.

A dragon boat is a 45-foot long boat that sits 16 people and a drummer. People sit in pairs and paddle away. I had no idea people took dragon boat racing seriously, but apparently they do.

We entered a team from work in the Phuket International Dragon Boat Challenge held at Royal Phuket Marina. We got off to a good start and won our first race, but after minimal sleep we all began suffering.

We lost our second race and came second of three in our final race. Dragon boat racing is something that I’d never done so in that respect I enjoyed it, but I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day – how unfit I have become. I was surprised to meet a number of people from work whom I had never seen before. How is it possible to work in a job for six months and not know everyone there?

So that was my weekend – nothing but boats. Saturday was spent at work all day printing, folding and putting together 400 newsletters for the regatta. It really has been a boating weekend. I’m hoping someone did something not involving boats that they might like to share.