L-urchin Forward (see what I did there?)
Trip Start
Nov 12, 2008
1
9
49
Trip End
Apr 30, 2009
Bamboo Island,
Cambodia
Saturday, December 6, 2008
We hired a fishing long boat and went out into the seas. Snorkling in the warm waters, we managed to see a sum total of nothing. Hoping our luck would change, we decided to enjoy a spot of fishing. No high tech aluminum rods for these boys no no. Nothing more than a line of fishing reel wound around an empty volvic bottle with a bit of shrimp on a hook. Hours later, the Razman had not bagged the great white he was hoping for. The boat boy on the other hand was filling a bucket with more different types of fish then you could believe. Despite the fact they were clearly of different species, Raza was confident in identifying at least half of them as 'mudskippers'. Eventually he himself snagged some whoppers, a couple at least over a gram each, easily big enough to be cooked using half a cocktail stick and a lighter.
Whilst swimming, it was my bright idea to swim the 150 m or so to look at some island. Started out as good idea until we hit the rocks. Raza decided the best place to put his foot down was right on top of a huge spiky urchin. He then decided the best way to rectify this error was to swipe with his hand the back of a huge spiky urchin. Needles to say he ended up with two feet looking like they had been shot by very small black painball pellets and a spiked hand. This was the cue to drag up every bit of knowledge we had about the natural world drawing on such luminaries as Bear Grylls, and David Attenborough. The answer was...we had no knowledge. Were they poisonous, were they not? Do you pull the spikes out, do you not? Luckily, non-english speaking boat boy decided he would take the lead and beat Raza's feet with a snorkel. He didn't get my joke about american soldiers, Iraqi prisoners and Abu Ghraib prison, but he carried on regardless. The answer to the question is pull out the big spikes, beat the little ones into the foot, the body just eats them up.
The rest of the day was spent sunning ourselves, swimming, visiting a little island and generally seeing if we could induce any slightly brighter shades of red upon my already sore back. The answer was clearly yes...
We liked the island so we decided to book a bungalow there for a night. Very deserted, right on the beach, no proper showers or western toilets. There were however, hammocks. We decided that we would test whether these really could support a days sleep. Like the back question, the answer is yes. A whole day lazing in the hammocks, Raza looking very much at home, me looking somewhat like an octopus caught in an onion bag. The night time was spent chilling out, playing cards, listening to the sea, and other tree-hugging hippy like activities.
We're off to Siem riep tomorrow to see Angkor Wat, its about time I saw the place named after the local beer...
See Y'all later...
