Day 1
5 am.
OMG, even with the noisy crowd right next door, I slept 10 hours ! That bottle of wine really did its job, LOL.
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| First signs of relief in my expression |
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| The crazy Italian's new restaurant |
Time to walk to breakfast .....
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| Where the Rich lounge.... |
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| The way back to my hut |
2 - 8 pm
Drinks with Julian
I'm floored by the exquisite taste of the Chicken Cordon Bleu, that Julian's wife managed to cook from scratch. Friggin AMAZING. The last thing I remember is finishing my Sok San Beach Tea, a well-mixed STRONG bastardization of the Long Island variety ;-)
4:30 am
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| There is a light on in my hut |
Breakfast at the French resort is already available at 7 am. 3 cups of their strong coffee make me not run for the hills but in search of the relocated toilet. Feeling much more relaxed, I call Grandma, who sounds alert and awake, but clouds my mood with tales of falling, of Nurses NOT appearing at all (unlikely, and I've heard similar stories from my demented mother), and of the elephantine nurses STEALING diminutive Grandma's clothing). Nothing new in the paranoid tone of those illusions but it reaffirms my decision of not calling every single day.
10:30 After shopping for cookies in town (LOL) and doing my second ocean laundry of the day, I'm bored.
Didn't Julian mention an Israeli restaurant 3 km South-East of here? Now there is something to do ! On y va !
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| Oh what punishment ! |
I'm overheating and I imagine my skin colour turning into that of a freshly boiled prawn. In this, I'm not TOO worried about my back. I can always lather it in thick swaths of Nivea. But I'm worried about my scalp. The ever-diminishing hair cover is providing ever less protection against sunburn there. And putting Nivea THERE just does NOT sound like a good idea.
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| A Styrofoam boat ! |
I'm back at noon. I'm baked. I'm thirsty. I'm HOT. I'm hungry.
A G&T and a Tuna sandwich quickly fix most of those malaises.
Back in my room I can still see the outline of the backpack on my back, by way of the areas that have not turned bright red.
1.5 hours of sleep resurrect part of my will to live.
Fighting the after-nap-grogginess with cold instant coffee
bears no noticeable results. I’ll go
buy more Panda Ersatz-chocolate cookies.
When I’m still 75 meters away from the store, something shapely in a
LOOK-at-ME blue dress with complicated shoulder straps pushes its hips and chin
into position and starts walking toward me.
Too Much, Girl is all I can
think, but have the decency to nod at her when we pass each other. She starts saying something but I don’t stop.
Not sure whether that’s because I just don’t like over-dressed women or whether
something about her throws me off balance.
My eyes forward again, I notice her family or friends sitting in a store
along the way side, eyes and mouths open, seemingly encouraging her with silent
“Go Girl GO !!!” encouragement.
I get 6 packs of Panda cookies. This store doesn’t have any orange juice. I find a freestanding glass
display case containing orange juice on the way back though. Complicated blue shoulder straps are visible
behind the orange juice Tetra pack. Here
we go again. But now my brain finally
kicks in.
HE turns the corner with a
flourish and a “Hello again !”. I
instantly think of his soul-sister in Manila. I'm very flattered, but: Why me? Yes, I’m gay, but I like
my men to look like men, LOL. Find yourself a straight man whom you can turn, Gurl !
Sitting on the pier with a glass of wine, I notice that today's new arrival is sitting at the next table. A conversation starts and keeps going for 4 hours. A 35 year old Italian working in Germany shares my feelings about both Germany and Asia exactly, LOL. He already has reached the same conclusions that I have only acquired recently.
Day 3
The crazy kids crowd next door comes home from their drinking binge at 2:15 am. But Julian's wife has turned off the electric lights for the bungalows (NOT by chance, me thinks ;-), so the kids hit the feathers very soon after.
11:45 Back home, one swim, a couple of G&Ts & mini naps later, it's time to switch to wine ;-) Maybe a Tuna sandwich?
14:45 OMG, I can't believe I slept so much ! I need COFFEE !
Naturally I switch to wine quickly. And I am confirmed in my habit of checking the BSFA & Arthur Clarke Award winner lists every year for new authors and books that might be worth reading. The long way to a small angry planet is a fabulous read. The description of a ship crew walking through a space port in search of needed provisions is an only slightly camouflaged quip at the experience of overly timid Western tourists visiting a lively local Hong Kong (or Cambodian or Vietnamese, etc etc) market street for the very first time in their lives. A good fun read.
The rest of the afternoon is spent reading, drinking, only interrupted by brief conversations and brief bursts of imagining, researching, and booking places to stay in the days ahead.
The fact that My Hotel in Phnom Penh is booked on the perfect day forces me to book a day later, which gives me the overdue opportunity to finally visit Takeo
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| Takeo; obviously NOT my picture (yet ;-) |
One of the girls in the Teenage British crowd shouts out and points at the sunset. Since I was just on my way to my room to get smokes, I bring the camera as well ;-)
Day 4
5 am is definitely NOT too early to get up.
My camera decides to malfunction just in time for the sunrise.
During my regular breakfast session (GREAT Americano and fabulous internet; amazing freshly baked chocolate muffins ;-) I answer my e-mails ('MY room" in Song Cau now has been taken off Booking.com for that December stretch just to be on the safe side ;-) but forget to call Grandma. Now that is something she will have to get used to; after all: how many people call their mother or grandmother every single day???????
I have my first G&T before 9 am. Hey, I've been up since 5, LOL.
10 am. That was a nice mini-nap ;-)
Time to switch to bottles of resort-owned wine.
10:30 Martino (a strange name for an Italian but he confesses that his mother named him after learning the story of the Cologne Roman folk hero of Saint Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier who cut his cloak in two to help the poor) leaves on an earlier ferry and drops by to say Good Bye. Yes, we should have exchanged e-mail addresses. But we didn't. STILL some maturing to do ....
Another terror attack in the US. No, not funny, but I know people who JUST returned from a visit to NYC but who would adamantly refuse to visit the much more interesting city of Istanbul because of terror fears. ts Ts TS !
Noon: The tender spiciness of a Green Seafood Curry prepared by Julian's wife fills my stomach and send me right back to nap # 2 or 3 today.
A lazy day.
I think what woke me up was the loud noise issued by the 2 village geese. The reason for their squawking becomes obvious when I stumble out of my hut and see two Cambodian kids (could they really be shorter than the geese?) chase fowl with short sticks. And they're having a GREAT time (the kids; the geese I'm not so sure about)
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| TOO many legs ! |
Later I see four of those diminutive kids in HUGE bright orange life-vests climbing all over a large block of Styrofoam that the wind blew into the harbour. Doesn't take much to make these kids happy.
16:00
My planned travel from Sihanoukville to Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam (less than 95 km as the crow flies) will take 5 or more days with stops in 4 mostly unknown locations. I just read online that a new Fast Ferry service will connect the two destinations starting in 2018. Estimated travel time? Can't be more than 4 hours, LOL. But I like the idea of taking the slow boat and road for now. It allows me to get an idea what these parts unknown look like. Once I know, I might be convinced to take the fast ferry next time.
ANOTHER nap? OMG, I'm turning into a SLOTH !
Upon becoming conscious, I order another seafood green curry with rice, jest around with Julian's wife for a while, and almost miss another decent sunset.
New guests arrive; 2 French couples with demanding and loud children about 7-11 years old. NOT my crowd.
I keep drinking, planning my next steps on this trip, and take a few pictures of the Moon.
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| OMG, check out how clearly the craters at the bottom edge are visible. Galileo would have killed for my Point&Shoot camera ! |
Day 5
Waking up almost every two hours is probably due to the
rickety noisy fan in my room but it gives me the opportunity to appreciate the
flawless display of stars in the sky above the ocean in front of my hut. It’s been a while since I was in a place
where the night sky can still awe a human being and I’m glad to be back in one.
Just looking at it forces one to understand why the ancients believed in a
giant glass sphere to which they believed the stars are attached. I can see that glass sphere in the sky right in front of me. But how it can hold THAT MANY stars is still beyond me. Vancouver’s display of ten or so
stars in its night sky just doesn’t cut it.
The teenage restaurant server starts her calisthenics again
at 5:30. She does it on the pier, so that rules out me
heading to the front of it. She seems to
take it seriously, like all teenagers.
My car/ferry ride for tomorrow is confirmed. I'm heading back to Sihanoukville tomorrow morning. The next 5 days are planned and booked; after that it's still Qui sait?
13:30
Time to board my Boat Excursion. This is the 3rd time I've been here and it's the first time that I board this boat.
What does that tell you?
Either it's not worth it or I'm still a buffoon. We'll find out today, LOL.
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| en route to WHERE ? |
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| Swedish co-passengers |
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| Behold a Cambodian Sea Eagle |
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| you need a dirty mind to see it (NO, it's a tree !) |
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| i LOVE Asian smiles. 'cause they're REAL |
After a while the boat just stops and drops anchor. Are we supposed to swim to the beach now? No one knows. The about 18 year old (maximum) captain and his about 10-13 year old First Officer hand us snorkeling masks.
Is that what we're supposed to do now?
Ah, what the hell.
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| Man overboard ! |
I put on a mask, jump over board and stick my head under water.
WTF ?!?
I find myself staring at an intricate coral reef maybe 2 meters below me. Large rock-solid-looking fin-like structures, HUGE brain-shaped rock-coral formations, topped by the waving hundreds of fingers of anemones.
Striped grey & white, almost circular and long fluorescent green tropical fish weaving their ways through the whole arrangement.
I'd be laughing hysterically, if I wasn't breathing through a narrow plastic tube. I've seen stuff like this on TV. NEVER would I have imagined hopping into the water ANYWHERE and finding myself right above such a thing.
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| I don't have an underwater camera. This is a stock photo ! |
I'd be laughing hysterically, if I wasn't breathing through a narrow plastic tube. I've seen stuff like this on TV. NEVER would I have imagined hopping into the water ANYWHERE and finding myself right above such a thing.
After spitting out 3 breathing tubes full of seawater, I climb back on board while the people equipped with water-proof cameras keep going. Time for my afternoon nap anyway ;-)
It's the boat's motor starting up that awakes me. But we don't go far.
Next we are small handed plastic drums with fishing line wound around them. At the end of the fishing line is a metal weight (mine is a big hardware nut) and a hook adorned with a bit of squid. Time to catch dinner !
To cut a LONG story short: The Swedish lady catches TWO fish. Her older daughter catches one fish. I feel quite a few nibbles and have to replenish my bait. THEN I HAVE ONE. I"M SURE OF IT. I pull in the line. THERE IT IS ! The beautiful brown and white striped fish is about 50 cm below the ocean surface when I give my line a sharp tug (isn't that supposed to make sure the hook stays in the fish?). That is it took to MAIM my fish but to also set it FREE. Fish swims away and I watch it go with a dumbfounded expression. It's NOT that easy to catch your dinner ! But I swear, it was THIS BIG !
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| My favourite actor, LOL |
My SPECIAL version of 'Catch & Release' must have been an OMEN. NO ONE catches any other fish after that. None of the guests, that is. The Captain & his 1st Mate (the two kids) were catching fish ALL THE TIME since we left port, LOL.
That becomes evident when we make landfall. The boat stops WAY AWAY from the actual shoreline at this shallow beach.
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| The First Officer (11 year old in PINK) giving instructions on how to take the beachhead |
Of course, since I also carry a bottle of wine in my backpack, I might as well be Captain Jack Sparrow !
Anyhoo, the entire landing party makes landfall without a single casualty.
Being from Canada, I can't resist starting to build a tropical Inukshuk as soon as my feet are dry ! No rocks here, so cuttle-fish bone, coconuts, and an old bicycle saddle have to suffice.
The Swedish-German bilateral landing party then starts collecting trash on the beach, separating glass bottles, light bulbs, and syringes into an old metal drum and dumping the rest of the trash onto some tarp the Mother of all Swedes finds on the beach (There goes someone's home).
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| Marooned ! |
Given that the FOUR guests caught THREE fish, the TWO crew members must have caught the AT LEAST SEVEN OTHER fish that are served to us because we have 10 fish in total on our plates.
Dinner done, it's time to kill some time until dusk ....
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| The First Officer (right) playing with his floating coconut (if you don't have a beach ball ....) |
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| The Captain inspecting the hull for damage from the landing assault ..... or peeing |
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| Sunset with Foot salad |
NOT, but splashing around in the warm moonlit ocean is great fun. And I had to pee anyway ;-)
Happy Bon Om Touk !
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