Island visit

Today is Sunday, and we wanted to visit the local Baptist Church. We tried getting in touch with them by email, but one address was not working and we got a delayed response from the other address without much information. It has been absolutely pouring with rain here today, which is OK with us as we are recovering from our island visit yesterday. Nicole got terrible sea sick, Stan got burnt really badly and has a bad cut on his foot and finds it painful to walk. Having said all that, it was still a fun day. It was $15 per person and included breakfast, lunch and a boat trip to the islands.

We started the day at 7:30 and then waited until 8am to be picked up at our hotel and taken for breakfast. Nicole had negotiated a morrning "pick-up" because we had no idea where to go. At 8 am, a van came and picked both of us up and drove us to the restaurant where we'd have breakfast. This, embarrassingly, happened to be 75 meters from our hotel. So the whole street saw us get picked up in a big white van, driven 75 meters, then dropped off again. We had a toasted baguette with jam, butter and an iced coffee for breakfast, then walked down to the docks. As soon as we got there, it was obvious that the water was very choppy.

Pulling a boat next to the dock.

Boats were pulled next to the dock and then we had to make a perilous jump onto the deck. This was quite hard as the boat was bucking up and down in about a meter and a half swell. Occasionally it would bang against the dock with enough force to crush any part of you that was between the boat and the dock. So timing was critical as you got on the boat. It took about fifteen minutes to get eight passengers on.

We then took off towards the island which was about an hour and a half away. Five minutes later Nicole was hanging over the side and asking if she could swim back to shore. Just after Nicole was sick another lady on the boat started hanging over the other side. The rest of us enjoyed the long trip to the island.

Feeding the fish.

We got to the island and Nicole promptly went to lie down with a terrible headache. We were told this was a popular place to go snorkelling. Stan and a Japanese girl decided to go and see what was out there. We went in and looked under water and couldn't even see our hands stretched out in front of us. There were a lot of sharp rocks in the water too. We then tried walking to some other parts to see if it was any better, but it was the same everywhere. There has been quite a lot of heavy rain and the water has been stirred up too much to see anything. Some time during the attempted snorkelling Stan stepped on a piece of glass or very sharp stone and cut his foot open. It was in the water and a very clean cut so he didn't notice it much at the time.

We went back to the beach for lunch and had some beautiful barracuda steaks. Nicole was still lying unmoving on the beach and wouldn't touch any food. After lunch, Stan and a number of others walked through the jungle to the other side of the Island. Here was a beautiful beach with some great waves as it was on the seaward side of the island.

Stan and Greg (a Queenslander who has married a local girl) then spent about an hour in the waves doing some body surfing. There were some really good waves occasionally reaching two meters. Along this beach were some bungalows and a shop that sold cold beer. You can stay here for about $8 a night. Stan would have loved to have come back here for a couple of days, but it is very likely he'd have had to go without Nicole.

After a great time on this beach, we went back to the other side of the island to go home. Nicole was still lying down and didn't want to get back on the boat. She asked if she could go back to the mainland by the shortest route then get a taxi from there back to Sihanoukville. Unluckily for her, this was impossible.

If anything, the return trip was rougher than the one out. Again Nicole spent much of the time feeding the fish on the way back. Stan reminded her that if she sat in the middle of the boat, she wouldn't move as much. After she sat in the middle, she felt a bit better. We tried to take some photos of the swell, but this is always very hard to catch in a 2D picture.

You can just make out two other boats travelling beside us. Because it was so windy, we couldn't draw the canopy above us. Stan got badly burnt on the way up and back.

The two boats again when we are both on top of waves.

We are both suffering today because of the trip. Nicole is still lying in bead with a headache. Stan is in pain from his sunburn and can't comfortably walk far on his cut foot. However, Stan at least had a great time and would recommend the trip to anyone; a sore foot and sunburn is really just a result of bad luck and poor preparation. If the day had been a bit calmer, even Nicole would have enjoyed the trip. Anyone wanting to have a couple days away from civilization would enjoy the bungalows on the island.