Day 113 - 121: Koh Tao

The night train (reclining seats and all) was probably more comfortable than all of the night buses (with beds) we'd taken on our travels. Sure, you don't get to lie down, but there's at least more leg room so you don't feel as much like a sardine, and the driver isn't pounding the horn every 5 minutes. I must have managed a good 5 or 6 hours sleep: a new record. When we arrived, we were ushered onto the transfer bus to the ferry pier, and then onto a high-speed catamaran at just after 8am. The catamaran ride was possibly the worst journey I've ever experienced. "High-speed" means hurtling over waves (sometimes literally) at breakneck velocity, whilst passengers in every direction vomit into bags. Gilly and I kept our eyes on the horizon and tried to control our stomachs (not that it would have made any difference to me if I'd wanted to be sick...) and, incredibly, managed to doze for a good third of the hour and a half journey. One woman to my right was being sick so much, I was half expecting part of her intestine to make an appearance at some point during the ride.

On the catamaran we met a rep from Ban's who was touting dive courses. We knew that Sunshine Divers (the place we'd been recommended by some people we met in Vang Vieng) was part of Ban's but had smaller groups, so we asked him about it - he was happy to arrange a free taxi to take us to the resort from the pier once we arrived and left the Sick Boat.

Sunshine Divers is basically an office surrounded by a few shaded verandas, a restaurant, a small bar, and a beach. They also have a dog, Huey, who has been there for as long as the centre has existed, if not longer. She is very protective of her turf, and will bark and howl at any dogs that dare cross into the area...when she's not sleeping, that is.



There are bungalows a few metres away, and you can stay there for free if you're taking a diving course. Just as well really, as they are dire. One of the instructors - Manuel - got us bumped up to the hot water bungalow for free (you usually have to pay £4 a day more for the privilege of not freezing in the shower), but even that didn't really help. The bed was uncomfortable, there was an overabundance of ants, and the room wasn't cleaned the entire time we were there. I guess the adage of "you get what you pay for" was in full force here. However, we decided to do the course regardless, and were glad we did. Our instructor Bastiaan was a PADI-certified Staff Instructor, one level below Master Instructor - the top qualification you can get. I think we were pretty lucky to get him, as he certainly knew his stuff. He also told us that the accommodation was actually nothing to do with Sunshine Divers - it's owned by a landlord who turns up once or twice a year and demands the rent. Also worth noting is the fact that if you decide to stay elsewhere, you get a discount on your course. We didn't learn this until we were about to take our advanced course, but it may be useful to anyone thinking of diving. I definitely recommend staying in a different place - we ended up moving to Sunshine 1, literally next door.

However, I'm jumping ahead. After deciding to do the course, we met up with Ally from Oregon who was also doing the course with us. Three of us with 1 instructor and a divemaster in training (Sarah-Jane) - excellent. the evening was taken up with watching DVDs  of the PADI course materials. Fairly unexciting, but necessary. The next day, we went to the pool at Ban's resort at 8:15am to get kitted up and start practicing our skills underwater. This wasn't the first time we'd worn scuba gear; we'd done a try dive in Skiathos 2 years earlier. That was pretty much straight in the deep end - gear on, dumped in the sea, swimming around a bit. I'm glad we did it as it wasn't a completely new experience. We had to tread water for 10 minutes, take our mask off underwater, get neutrally buoyant (so you effectively "hover" underwater, moving up and down solely by breathing in and out), and do a number of other skills in a relatively "safe" environment, which we'd then have to replicate later in the sea. Gilly had a few issues taking her mask off but by the end of the session was far more confident. In the afternoon we did our first knowledge review and test exam, which also went pretty well.

On our third day, we were up at 7:15am to go on our first two dives.



The first was to the Twin Peaks (known as the Twins), whilst the second a couple of hours later was to White Rock. We only practiced a couple of skills on these two dives, as Bastiaan wanted to ease us into the diving process, so we recovered a lost regulator, cleared a partially-flooded mask, and practiced being out of air which involves telling your dive buddy you're out of air, taking his alternate regulator to breathe from, then ascending to the surface. In the afternoon, it was more knowledge reviews and tests followed by a final exam which I passed with 90% (Gilly got 92%!) and that was pretty much it for the theory side of things on the standard Open Water course.

The final day of the course consisted of two more dives to the same sites in reverse order - White Rock, then Twins - where we practiced more skills. These included mask removal and replacement, weight belt and Buoyancy Control Device (BCDCESA) and towing a tired buddy on the surface.

During the dives we got to see a lot of fish: angelfish, parrotfish, bannerfish, clownfish, a school of barracuda, various wrasses, and a moray eel hiding in the sand. We were becoming a lot more confident underwater, although I had a tendency to use a lot of air each dive as I found it hard to keep my breathing slow and steady. We thought it would be a good idea to bed in what we'd learned at the end of the Open Water course by doing the Open Water Advanced course which would give us another 5 dives under our belt and let us dive to 30 metres, instead of the 18m limit which the standard course provided.

We did 2 compulsory modules (navigation and deep dive) and 3 electives - we chose night dive, peak performance buoyancy, and fish identification. The first day of the course was the deep dive at Southwest Pinnacle: we went down to 27.2m. It was pretty scary how easy it was to get down so deep in such a short space of time. When you get deeper, the amount of air you use up increases dramatically due to pressure - you can't stay down there too long. The next dive was navigation: we got dropped off with Ally at one point of the dive point (King Kong) and had to navigate our way to another point and record the depth on our dive computer. I was in charge of drawing and holding the map for the dive, Ally had the compass, Gilly was using natural navigation and keeping an eye on landmarks. Anyone who knows me will know that I have no sense of direction. I'd probably get lost in my own house if I was left unattended. So giving me a map and asking me to guide us to a location was possibly a mistake.

It didn't start well. I initially tried to take us in completely the opposite direction, but thankfully Ally was  competent with a compass and she pointed out that north and south were in fact two different directions. After some swimming around and not finding the point we wanted, she managed to guide us back to the buoy rope before we ran low on air. Bastiaan was pretty impressed that we surfaced where we started. I guess it's not the easiest task to undertake.

The final task of the day was a night dive back at the Twins. I wasn't particularly concerned about this. Some people have an innate fear of swimming in the dark, but I had complete confidence in Bastiaan's ability by this point - to be honest, he'd made things easy from the start for us - and I was looking forward to seeing some different fish and other nocturnal sealife. We were kitted out with torches and set off swimming. We saw a hermit crab, a Jenkins ray and a moray eel; we ended up following the ray around a bit, and it seemed fearless: it headed straight for us along the sea bed and we swam up a bit to let it pass. We sat at the bottom and held our torches against us so we were in darkness. It was the night before the full moon and we could see it peeking out through the water above. We did some navigation with a compass to a spot about 20m away and back, whilst the others turned off their torches to ensure we relied on the compass. There were no dramas - Gilly's torch stopped working immediately, but Bastiaan had two spares - and the dive was great.

The same might not be said for the following morning, which was the fish identification dive at Chumphon Pinnacle. We got down to 30m, the maximum depth we were allowed to dive to, and then started taking photos with a camera we'd borrowed from Bastiaan. This was great fun, and made me wish I'd bought an underwater housing for my camera as the pictures would have been better quality. However, I did get a few good snaps:


















Unfortunately, I somehow managed to burn through my air at a ridiculous rate. When I looked at my gauge, I had 80 bars left (Bastiaan treats 70 as "low" for safety) - a couple of minutes later I was down to 40, and signalled that I was running pretty low....by the time I got over to Sarah-Jane I was on 10 bars. We had to do an ascent with me using Sarah-Jane's alternate air source. She had almost 100 bars left, perhaps the result of experience, yogic breathing and some sort of superhuman lung capacity. So she theoretically saved my life, which was handy as we had a good 8 months travelling still to go. Unfortunately we surfaced a good 100m from the boat, a combination of coming up early and Sarah-Jane getting a tad lost, so had to do a surface swim. Bastiaan hates surface swims, and I can see why. My fins (I wasn't allowed to call them flippers) had been slightly too small for the open water course, and as a result my feet were cut and bruised. I'd switched to  bigger fins for the advanced course which was better, but doing a long surface swim is far, far more difficult than swimming underwater and as a result my feet were screaming at me by the end.

The last dive of the advanced course was "peak performance buoyancy" at Hin Pee Wee which trained you in controlling the way you move in water, which helps conserve air - something I was in desperate need of. It went much better and I came out with about 80 bars. And that was the end of our advanced course, so we celebrated with a Tiger as we got our cards:



I have no frame of reference to compare Sunshine Divers to other dive schools, but I can certainly say that we enjoyed our courses, felt completely confident in our instructor, and appreciated the small groups. We saw a couple of Ban's classes - they had 8+ people in the water at once. I'm no expert, but I think that's far too many people for an instructor to keep an eye on at once. There are plenty of other 5-star accredited PADI schools in town (and around the island), but I'm glad we went where we did - it was a quieter part of the island so we weren't kept up at night by late parties and clubs. I'd definitely recommend sleeping elsewhere and negotiating a discount on the course though. At 9000 baht for a 4 day course, you could probably get it for 8500 if you moved elsewhere, and be more comfortable. We did just that for the advanced course and moved to Sunshine 1 just next door which had hot water and a slightly more comfortable bed. After our courses were done, we moved to Infinity guesthouse (which had a massage parlour downstairs) so we were closer to the pier for our ferry to Koh Pha Ngan. It's owned by a Belgian and run by a Frenchman called Eric who was very accommodating, the pair of them drove up on bikes to pick us up free of charge which was appreciated. The taxis in Koh Tao seem to operate a cartel which keeps prices at a minimum of 100 baht per person (200 baht at night), and it soon adds up. The room was cold shower only, but wasn't an issue, and the beds were a lot more comfortable. However, there are dozens of guesthouses and resorts in the town - we just settled on the first one that met our needs and budget. If we came here on holiday we'd probably plump for something a bit more upmarket on the beach.

On the last night though, there was a beach band playing at Sunshine Divers, which was basically a jam session. It was a bit odd - the guitarist was good, the "drummer" played an over-sized box which worked surprisingly well, but the singer killed most of the songs and was sat down the entire time...and for some reason there was a flutist. He appeared to play the same notes in every song, and added nothing to the music. There was some respite when he fell off the stage onto the sand, but unfortunately he was able to resume playing. There were also some fire-dancers on the beach.





We are now qualified advanced open water divers, which means we can dive pretty much anywhere in the world, including the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Great Barrier Reef in Australia - all of which are firmly on the agenda. After experience water at 28 degrees though, I'm not sure I'd be able to cope with Blighty's chilly waters...

Of course, Koh Tao wasn't all about diving. We had some cracking food there too including:

- Tukta: Ally recommended this place but we were a little disappointed. The penang curry was OK but the fish was pretty tough and the food took an age to get to us. Ally went not long after and was also fairly unimpressed - she said it was much better a few years back.

- Toscana: We ate here twice. They do the hottest green curry (with roti bread) I've ever eaten. I'm not kidding; it blew my mouth off, and was the spiciest thing I ate since the first night in Bangkok (which, strangely, was also a green curry with roti). They also do cracking deep fried salt and pepper calamari. Second time round we went for the fried platter of wontons, spring rolls, "golden bags" and fishcakes, with a seafood fried rice. All pretty nice, but possibly not the healthiest combination of food to share - we felt pretty greased out afterwards.

- Cappuccino: Ate here twice as well, they do a decent sized burger and some good sandwiches. Gilly can attest to the quality of their salads as well.

- Taraporn: Just up a pier near Sunshine Divers, these guys do the best garlic bread we've eaten since we started travelling. The chicken satay and prawns were excellent too. And they have a very cute dog - what more do you need?



- Whitening: The best place we ate at on the island, with prices to match (almost £20 for a starter, two mains, a side dish and two cocktails). The fishcakes were excellent, as was the penang curry and the "exotic prawns". The mojito I had was superb.

- Nam Tok Shack: We ate at this little shack twice, on the left after Why Not? bar - it didn't have a name, but  the Nam Tok (BBQ mixed with a lime, coriander and chilli dressing) was cheap and delicious. Served with sticky rice, we got lunch there for two people for 80 baht. An absolute steal, and the lovely lady doing the cooking made us feel right at home, with water and plenty of ice in case the spice levels started to get to us...

- Fizz Beach Lounge: We had chicken satay and garlic fried fish here, both were decent if not particularly exciting. However, they have a great cocktail list, awesome beanbags to lounge about on, and a stupendous beach view for watching the sunset:



Koh Tao was a great island to learn to dive on. Sairee Beach would make a decent, if busy, place to take a holiday too, if you aren't interested in diving. Our next destination was Koh Pha Ngan, where we'd be meeting with Paul and Fi again, and also Colin and V who have flown over to SE Asia for a whistlestop 3-week vacation. I'd found a beach front resort called Lime N Soda which looks like it ticks most boxes and seems ideally located for town as well, so we're looking forward to catching up with friends again shortly.

Day 111 - 112: Bangkok, part two

When we first arrived in SE Asia over 3 months ago, we weren't particularly taken with Bangkok. We found the constant noise, smells, traffic and the relentless attempts to scam you were overwhelming. Now, after some time travelling around the good and not-so-good places in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, I saw Bangkok in a whole different light. The food smells on the street from the multitude of stalls which were previously overpowering were now delicious, the scam attempts were laughable, and the traffic was a doddle compared to Vietnam. I was able to appreciate the madness a lot more, and also take in some of the incredible shopping malls that the city had to offer. And they had a lot.

After arriving at the bus station in mid-afternoon, we ignored the fixed-price scam touts and took a taxi-meter to Hua Lamphong train station to get a night train booked for the following evening. We were hoping to get a sleeper carriage, but unfortunately it looks like they sell out far in advance so we were left with the option of a second-class carriage with air-con and a reclining seat. We got a combination ticket which included transport from Chumphon to the ferry, and the ferry ride to Koh Tao. With that bit of admin out of the way, we took another taxi to Ecotel Hotel after first printing out directions in Thai for the taxi driver, as it seemed that no-one had any idea where the place was. When we arrived, we were very happy with the place. Great location near Siam Square and the various other malls, lovely large room with all mod-cons, and breakfast chucked in as well.

We headed out to Platinum Mall to have a mooch about. Our main objective on this "shopping stop" in Bangkok was to find Gilly a replacement MP3 player; Bangkok was supposedly one of the best places for electronics in SE Asia, outside of Singapore, so our hopes were high. We didn't get too far that night, as the mall we'd chosen was a fashion outlet so I had to drag Gilly away before she blew our entire budget on dresses and bags. We saw some "candy chefs" making rock from liquid sugar which was fascinating and then, feeling hungry, went to the food court (which was so extensive, and had so many outlets, I actually lost the menu item I was going to order and had to settle for something else!). This was followed by a visit to Swensen's. They have more Swensen's in 2 square miles of Bangkok than I've seen anywhere in Asia. Some shopping malls have 2 or 3 in the same building. It is glorious insanity, coated in chocolate. The great thing about Swensen's is that they are always bringing out new promotional sundaes to try in addition to the normal menu. So we went for one:



Then we tried to find a cinema. Unfortunately, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol wasn't showing at any of them, so we decided instead to give the XD 6D motion ride experience a go in the Central Plaza mall. It was the most fun 7 minutes we'd spent on a "ride" for quite some time. Ostensibly a cinema seat with hydraulics attached, you are given 3D glasses, pick a 3D film, and then sit down for the ride of your life. Even though the ride we chose (a canyon mine cart rollercoaster) is completely computer-generated, the motion is so well done that you suspend disbelief for large portions of the time and it does actually feel like you're hurtling along a mine track. Absolutely fantastic: we had huge grins on our faces afterwards.






After a decent breakfast at the Ecotel, they kindly allowed us to stash our bags for 12 hours the next day whilst we went shopping. And shop we did; we must have trawled through a good 30 floors of mall space over the course of the day. We managed to get the closest thing to a decent MP3 player (a Creative Zen Style M300) in the last mall of the day - Panthip Plaza. If you need electronics or want to build your own PC, this is the place to come to. It has literally everything. I was in geek heaven.



With MP3 player and additional memory card in tow, we grabbed a meal at Best Seafood (I went for chicken...) and then got a taxi to the station to prepare for our 10:50pm night train to Chumphon. I enjoyed Bangkok much more second time around, and would definitely come back for another visit.

Day 109 - 110: Trat

I managed to get through the bus journey through a combination of not eating anything, and grabbing as much sleep as I could. We got to Trat at about 4:30pm and got a sawngthaew to Residang Guesthouse which we'd spotted in the guidebook but unfortunately it was full. None of the hostel websites had budget accommodation available, and we didn't fancy staying 10 miles out of Trat in a swanky resort, so it was a case of traipsing back up the road to find a different place to stay. By pure coincidence I spotted Patrick sat outside Pop Guesthouse! He recommended the place - they were paying 150 baht (£3) for a fan room with shared bathroom but we opted for en suite for practical reasons...I was still fairly ill. However, we were feeling well enough to get some food with Patrick and Cayleigh at Cool Corner Cafe in the evening, and shared a bowl of pad thai. I'd forgotten how much I love Thai food. I'd also forgotten how much I loved Thailand. Unlike Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, it has a decent infrastructure, with proper roads(!), decent amenities, and pretty much everything a westerner used to creature comforts could wish for. Patrick and Cayleigh were off to Bangkok the next day, which we'd have done too if I'd have been feeling better, but we thought it best to stay two nights and get a full day's recovery in Trat. We may catch up with them there; we have a habit of running into each other!

We had an early night and a lie-in and then went for a wander the next day. Trat itself was described by Gilly as "cute" and I think it's a great description. It's a bit like a miniature Chiang Mai, but with far, far less going on. Lots of winding, mazey little roads, and interesting shops and cafes here and there, but with a few department stores and some electronics places dotted around too. We found a couple of mp3 players which were not unreasonably priced, but thought we'd wait until Bangkok as they are likely to have more choice and possibly be even cheaper. Shamefully, I had a craving for some stodge (which on reflection wasn't too bad, considering I'd not eaten much for the best part of 2 days), so went for KFC at lunchtime. It was only the second fast food meal I'd eaten in almost 4 months, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much. And it tasted great.

We found a place called "Cookies" which sold...cookies...and bought 3 packs: fruity sliced, cornflake/oatmeal, and rocky road. Should keep us filled up on the 5 hour journey to Bangkok. I also traded in our Vietnam guide and phrasebook at a quirky French-owned bookstore called Tratosphere which offered a decent selection of titles in various languages.

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On Rob's Bookshelf:

I've read a few things over the last couple of weeks, mostly thanks to the extended beach time.

Press Enter (John Varley):More of a novella (~90 pages), this was an interesting blast of near-future sci-fi, with conspiracy theories mixed with some technobabble which I actually understood, but which made it slightly unrealistic. Fairly decent ending, and a couple of the characters had a conversation about the history of Vietnam and Cambodia which couldn't have been more apt given where we'd recently been.

Hawksbill Station (Robert Silverberg):This was paired up with Press Enter as a double novella book, and wasn't bad. It told the story of a group of prisoners sent back from a utopian non-violent future to the beginning of time, which acted as their "prison". Interesting premise, disappointing ending. I loved Silverberg's The Book Of Skulls, and I think Hawksbill Station was one of his earlier stories - and it shows.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner):
I remember my friend Mark reading this a fair few years back, and enjoying it, so thought it was worth a go. It was actually very interesting, and more about social anomalies and statistics rather than the number-crunching you would associate with economics. Definitely worth a look for a fun diversion from novels.

(Whilst I'm recommending stuff, if you're in the Bristol area and need a driving instructor, check out Mark's driving school).

I'm currently halfway through Consider Phlebas by Iain M Banks as well, a sci-fi novel which makes me wistful for Mass Effect. So far, very enjoyable, and hopefully it will continue. The next trick will be finding the second book in Thailand. Another friend, Wayne, recommended Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear which is what I exchanged at Tratosphere and am looking forward to leafing through.

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We decided to book a bus for 10am to Bangkok the next day, and also booked a room at Ecotel Bangkok for one night. Far pricier than we'd been paying since...well, since we started travelling, but it's only for one night and we wanted a decent location near Siam Square so we can go shopping the following day. We shared a Thai green curry at a restaurant across the road which Cayleigh had recommended and which didn't disappoint, before getting an early night to watch Mission Impossible 3 (I think I enjoyed it more the second time around); we may be heading to the cinema to watch the fourth film in Bangkok if it's still playing. Cinemas! Who'd have thought we would miss them so much? Perhaps it's more the "option" of them that we missed.

I love Thailand.

Day 105 - 108: Sihanoukville - Recovery, Beach, Illness, Farewells

The perfect hangover cure is obviously a western breakfast. I'm not partial to full English myself, preferring something non-meaty and not dripping in fat. However, Paul is not as picky as me so in Moonlight Rock the next day, whilst I opted for the "Mamma Cass" Burnt Pancakes, he went for the "Joe Strummer" Plate o' Grease which he polished off in double-quick time. The girls opted for French Toast (Gilly) and Some Sort of Salad Thing Which Shouldn't Be Allowed As A Breakfast Option (Fi).

And then we hit the beach. Otres beach is lovely. I would never get tired of waking up and seeing that across the road. We stayed there for the day, eating at Dany's for lunch and tea. Unfortunately, Gilly got hit with some sort of stomach bug which knocked her out pretty badly so she slept through the evening. The next day, we headed to town as Fi had also picked up whatever the illness was, and was also suffering. Paul and I left them in Monkey Republic and high-tailed it to the local pharmacy where we were effectively fleeced of a small fortune by the smiling pharmacist for antibiotics and anti-emetics. Things weren't much improved when we then found out on our return that Fi was allergic to penicillin, amoxicillin, and most other medications ending in "cillin". On the plus side, the anti-emetic seemed to do the trick and settled their stomachs somewhat, and Gilly was feeling much better in the evening.

We decided to head back to the beach again with a couple of bottles of red wine in tow, for another evening on the sand after a meal at Dany's. I'm sure we could have found somewhere different for food if we'd wanted to, but when the grub is so damn good, there's not much point. On top of which, Dany's was home to a dog and her 4 ultra-cute puppies, so earned bonus points. There was also a very angry turtle nearby.

The next day started similarly, but we checked out of the bungalows. I had a chat with Sane, the guy running the place. He has grand plans which include, but are not limited to: adding an organic garden, planting mango an coconut trees, converting the centre hub of the bungalows to look like a tree by covering the wood with bark, covering everything in orchids, putting a pond in one corner with a bridge across it, serving traditional Khmer family dinners to guests, and much more. Whilst I was there, he had settled on a name - Otres Orchid. I'm fairly sure the price won't remain at $15/night once it's all in place. His staff include his niece and nephew, the latter I provided some on-the-fly tech support to as his laptop was having some issues, and he also wanted to get an email account set up and get onto Facebook. Sane's laptop also had a couple of problems, but I sorted them out too. It's good to keep your hand in. 

We ended up back in town in the evening. We had to do a few "chores" (booking bus tickets, printing off the e-visas, etc). We had also booked back into Sunday Guesthouse, as the bus left from the tour shop at 7:15am and we wanted to be within walking distance in the morning, then headed into Monkey Republic for some pool. This soon turned into Torchlight Pool, as the electrics went out and the generator which was supposed to bring things back up didn't do its job, so I used the torch on my handy multi-tool (see also: opening wine bottles) to help us pot the balls. The girls claimed they got bored of playing in near-darkness. I maintain that they were outplayed by two professional pool sharks.  

After a meal at Seahorse (Coca-Cola ribs? Yes, they do work), we took Paul and Fi to the excellent Sisters Bakery (the twin of one in Kampot, and apparently there's a third in Phnom Penh). I was starting to feel a little queasy so we decided to head back to Sunday Guesthouse for a relatively early (11pm) night. There had been a bit of panic as we thought the visa may actually have expired on the 27th which would have put us a day over, but it ended up being on the 28th, which was a relief. Unfortunately, my illness only got worse - it was clearly the same thing that Gilly and Fi had, with the added complication that I couldn't actually vomit because of my fundoplication. Being sick is generally your body telling you that it needs to get some bad stuff out of it now. When it can't do that, it's both frustrating and weakening. I was almost in convulsions as I tried in vain to retch up whatever it was that needed to come out, only for my newly tightened oesophageal valve to say "Erm...no." I had to rely on the anti-emetics to get through the night, which was punctuated at 3am by a nearby temple blasting out chanting from someone at breakneck speed over a microphone. It was so loud, he could have been just outside the room. This went on for three hours. I staggered over to the pack and managed to fish out some fairly ineffective earplugs (note to any traveller - invest in high-quality earplugs. You won't regret it). Then it was time for some temple music. This continued until we checked out at 7am, by which time I was fully awake due to the hot-water shower not pumping out any hot water. I was not in the best shape when we left, and matters were not helped by us getting to the tour shop at the allotted time, only for the bus transfer that was supposed to pick us up at 7:15am not arriving, and a food stall lady telling us that it had arrived at 7am and left. Unsure what to do, we hung around, mainly because the tour shop receptionist had been explicit that we should be there on time and that the pick-up would be outside the shop. Well, we'd got there 10 minutes early, and as the clock ticked closer to the main bus's leaving time of 8am, we were starting to sweat - not least because the sun was now up, and we were slowly being cooked outside the shop. Fortunately, the tour shop opposite also had people waiting outside for Trat, so we took a chance and decided to hang on. At 8:05am, the main bus actually turned up. This is one of the most frustrating things I noticed about SE Asia in general - you get given a specific time to be somewhere, and then are left waiting around for the best part of an hour, which could have been spent in bed. I like bed. I especially like it when I'm ill, and have only had 3 hours sleep due to a zealot on a microphone. Sometimes though, you have to carry on, so we said our goodbyes to Paul and Fi (who we'll be seeing again in the Thai islands in a couple of weeks with any luck) and got onto the bus for a 10 hour hell-ride to Trat.

Day 99 - 104: Sihanoukville - Island hopping, Birthday and Reunions

It's been a busy week. The island cruise was a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side, we were on a nice boat and visited a fairly good snorkelling place as well as an amazing beach. On the minus side, the boat ride was rough and the snorkelling was spoiled by me having serious issues with my mask.

Let's start at the beginning. I don't usually get seasick. My constitution is solid enough to handle travel sickness a lot better than when I was younger; having parents that smoked on car journeys will soon teach you the meaning of serious travel sickness. The boat ride to the island was something else. It didn't just bob, it pitched. I can cope with front-to-back motion, but the sea was so choppy that it was throwing bar stools over at regular intervals. Thankfully one of the Canadian passengers had a tablet which seemed to work pretty quickly, and which I was very grateful for.

We stopped at Koh Pos and headed into the water to do some snorkelling. Almost immediately I got water into the mask and up my nose. I had the same issue doing a try-dive in Greece a couple of years ago. It's really frustrating, as it means I can't be underwater for more than 15-20 seconds or so. In Greece, the dive instructor adjusted my mask and did something that sorted the issue - there wasn't really enough time here for that. I must have an odd-shaped face; Gilly didn't have any problems, even when we swapped masks. Hopefully I won't have similar trouble when we learn to dive in Koh Tao. The coral I saw looked pretty dead. but there were still colourful fish swimming in it.

We had a decent buffet lunch on the boat which included some great fish amok and some dubious "garlic" bread, before the next destination.

The second stop was at Saracen Bay in Koh Rong Samlon, a picture-perfect white beach which was deserted other than us. We chose this boat because it visited here unlike the rest of the tourist boats which go to Bamboo Island and other more heavily visited areas. White powdery sand, warm turquoise sea...you couldn't ask for a more lovely beach.

Whilst there, our guide - Rain - gave us a 30 minute tour through a jungle marsh where we were waist-high in warm water, coloured brown from the olive and tea-tree plants nearby. I managed to get a photo of a bird which I haven't yet identified - if any ornithologists know what this is, please let me know!

After a peaceful two hours, we got back into the boat (I swam back, the water was lovely and warm) and headed back to Sihanoukville. It was worth paying a bit more to get to the island, but I would have got more out of it if the snorkelling had been better.

It rained in the evening, so we ran for cover in Seahorse Restaurant and I opted for chicken with Kampot pepper and chilli, the latter of which almost blew my head off. Tasty, though.

The next day we hung out around the Serendipity Beach area and in Monkey Republic we met Barry and Laura, two Dubliners who are working in Hanoi and came to Sihanoukville for a holiday, as well as Rick, a Chicagoan. After relaxing on Serendipity in the afternoon, we met them in the evening and went bar-hopping. The beach bars turn pump out music in the evening and have loads of drinks offers to entice you in. We went to the Dolphin Shack and played some beer pong, the rules of which differed from our games in Vang Vieng. As it was windy, it was pretty tough to get a ping-pong ball across a table tennis table and into a beaker, but Gilly and I managed to win one game. We stayed there until midnight and as the hour hit 12, the speakers pumped out "Happy Birthday" music and I hit the big 3-1.

Barry and Rick took us up to Otres Beach for my birthday proper the next day. This beach is far, far nicer than Serendipity. You get much less hassle from masseurs or hawkers, and it's much quieter and has a far more relaxed vibe. Add into the mix a nicer beach, better bars and food, as well as the perfect sunset spot, and we were smitten. We played pool, swam, sunbathed, and watched the sun go down before heading back to the town.

Back to Monkey Republic for a birthday burger and beer tower, then on to Dolphin Shack where Barry and I performed miserably at Beer Pong against two new Dutch friends, Garwin and Stanzi (who is so good, she can get them in with her eyes closed, literally).

A few games of pool later, and we were on the beach with two more new friends, Dan and Maddy from Hertfordshire. Despite being decrepit, I somehow managed to outpace Gilly who threw in the towel at about 2am. Barry, Stanzi, Garwin and I managed another hour or so, and I wandered back to the hotel...via a casino. It turns out that Cambodian casinos are a bit odd. They had a card game I have never seen before which seems to involve getting dealt two cards, showing them to the dealer, and either winning or losing. There doesn't appear to be any skill to it. Aside from eight such tables, a few automated roulette machines and a stack of slots, there wasn't much else in there. I chucked a few dollars into the machines, lost quickly, then made it back home for 4am.

The next day was predictably a write-off. Luckily, a baguette at Mick and Craig's followed by a piece of amazing fudge cake at Sisters Bakery helped sweep the cobwebs away. We were also fortunate to meet our good friends Patrick and Cayleigh again, who had been cycling just behind us for a few days and had now caught up. Their commitment to cycling Asia is admirable. I could barely cope with a few kilometres - these guys are putting in crazy distances, upwards of 150km on some days. We had a fairly good meal at Holy Cow in the evening, shared a bottle of wine, and caught up with their adventures (including losing one camera in a tuk-tuk, and smashing another during a manoeuvre worthy of Street Hawk). They will hopefully get a replacement camera in Bangkok, before heading into India...now that will be an adventure to cycle around. It may be the last time we see them before we visit them in Toronto in September.

On the 23rd we said goodbye to Patrick and Cayleigh, and hello to fellow Miltonites and super-awesome friends Paul and Fi. We hadn't expected our paths to cross before Thailand, but they sped through Vietnam and were keen for some well-earned beach time after a fairly torrid time in China. Since it was Chinese New Year, all the hotels doubled their prices for a few days, so we took the opportunity to move to Otres Beach. It was the best place to be in the day anyway, so it made sense to have it on our doorstep. It was a bit of a risk, as we just turned up on the beach front and hoped to find a room. It was looking pretty shaky until just before 12pm when we got lucky and managed to got ourselves and Paul and Fi a double room each at Moonlight Rock. We paid $14 for what was basically a small room in a large hut above the bar with a mattress, fan and mosquito net, and with a shared cold water bathroom. It was by no means ideal, but far better than the only other option we could find on the road - a filthy mattress in a shack, with rubbish and rusty nails strewn on the floor. The pair arrived at about 7:30, and as we were all hungry we headed to Dany's for a seafood and chicken BBQ which filled a hole quite pleasantly. We'd been well prepared and bought a bottle of red ahead of time, so sat by the beach catching up and drinking wine, beer and a few cocktails - bliss.

It was fantastic to catch up with friends from back home, and we'll be seeing some other good friends, V and Colin in a couple of weeks too, as they are flying out for a 3 week holiday in Cambodia and Thailand. 

We could only keep Paul and Fi's room for one night as the guesthouse had a booking, so on the morning of the 24th, after some pancakes and a plate of fruit, I did some recon on the bungalows to see if I could find them a place to stay. I was in luck - we'd found some new bungalows run by a lovely chap who had offered us a floor in his place if we'd been unable to find anywhere the day before. And on that morning, a couple of bungalows became available for both of us. One dollar more got us our own standalone bungalow, a big room with ensuite and hot water, and a deck with a hammock. The actual property was still in the process of being finished, but these bungalows were practically brand new and a complete steal. Having got our digs sorted, we spent the day at Otres beach and introduced Paul and Fi to the concept of "not doing a fat lot": something they hadn't had the opportunity to do (or rather, not do) for quite some time. What can be better than sitting on a sunbed, occasionally popping to the bar for some beers or food, and enjoying a great sunset? When you think "beach holiday", I expect Cambodia doesn't come anywhere near the top of the list. It probably doesn't even cross your mind to put it on the list in the first place. But after spending over a week here, I can definitely say that I would return in an instant to Sihanoukville if I wanted a relaxing fortnight on the beach. We had fish amok at Dany's beach house which was hands-down the best amok I'd eaten in Cambodia, and huge portions - more than enough for two people. So good in fact, we had it 3 days in a row for lunch. In the evening we took a trip to the Beach Road to meet up with Barry, Laura, Rick, Garwin and Stanzi. I had a pool score to settle with Barry which I did (but only just) and after some burgers at Monkey Republic, we headed to the beach front for some drinks where it proceeded to bucket down with rain for 45 minutes solid. We had a free drink at JJ's thanks to picking up some flyers from a drunken tout (the only thing worth going to JJ's for, as the place smells of vomit and the staff are pretty much all wasted), before moving on to an odd little bar next door run by a Korean family where the owner - who must be in his 60s - acts as barman and DJ, whilst his elderly wife sits at the cashier desk. A surreal experience. 

Then it was on to Dolphin Shack, where the body paint was out in force. Gilly got a pattern from a bar girl, I painted a star on Fi (or possibly a man: I like to leave things open to interpretation. As artists go, I'm a bit of a maverick), and Fi added a bumblebee to hers before painting a picture of...erm...something on my arm. Not entirely sure what, but it was a tremendous effort and I'm pretty sure if I'd cut my arm off and put it in a museum, it would have won the Turner Prize. 

From then on out, we were set for the night. Much partying ensued, as well as the obligatory "floor photos".

We also met up with a couple of Aussies, Darcy and Ben, who had beaten me and Paul at pool earlier in the evening. They were 19. I felt ridiculously old. It does help somewhat that most new people we meet have me firmly pegged at around 25. I can cope with that.

3am rolled around, and it was time to head home. The tuk-tuk driver was probably not in the best condition. He almost crashed immediately after setting off, and then when we were 15 metres away from our bungalows, he stopped, ran to the side of the road, and relieved himself. I guess when you gotta go...

We decided that it would probably be a good idea to take it easy the next day.