Island updates and observations

The island is a quiet place at the moment. Low season hitting and lots of rain and not lots of tourists means more excuses for bonfires (in our newly created bonfire pit), games of cards indoors and making use of my 50c jacket I bought in Vietnam back in March (for the first time since getting windchill on Barry). Even had a week off the alcohol.


About 6 weeks ago we got new neighbours, who moved into Anton's old house. They're totally badass to say the least. Alec is a friendly Russian giant and Sarah is the most hardcore lady I have ever met. So we see her zooming past on her scooter she goes;

Sara: "Mr Nathan! Bacon! (my name, close enough)"
      -points to her basket on the front of the scooter-
      -Inside is an inflated puffer fish-

Nat: Did you catch that?
     -nods-

Nat: Are you going to eat that?
    -nods-

Me: Is it still alive?
    -nods-

CAMBODIA!

Not to mention her wrestling some 1 1/2m Iguana Lizard thing from the doorstep; underneath the house, catching it, putting it in a cage to look at; then releasing it. Boom! Or her bringing over some fried Sting Ray for Nat to chomp on (and roasted sweet potato for me!) Or her totally accurate coo'ing to call in her chickens at the end of the day. Totally. Badass. Her kids are hella cute too, coming over to ask for "baby cat" all the time.

I returned back to my calling in life- working on the biggest pub crawl in Cambodia! Hearding people from place to place, starting a party, bad influencing people to getting drunk and calling it "work" and not to mention getting paid in free booze.

Little baby Klang is doing as good as ever! Bounced right back. From being sleepy and lethargic all day to non-stop play. Still has enough cute moments for me to snap these;





A funny story I remembered about my friend Sean from the last post, so he and my friend Petra went on a boat trip to see the bioluminescent plankton (too much joss in the water I think, or radioactive poisoning from our neighbours in China...or just nature being cool as!) and he slipped and fell and ripped himself a new arseho-... he impales his buttocks on an anchor... fair to say everyone was very sympathetic...ankorwat?

"I slipped and it fell into my butt"...nice one.

Me and Jay, he rocks my crop top better than me

This week saw some friendly faces from back home. George, Danielle, Beth and Josh came to Koh Rong so took them around the jungle, fell over in the park a little bit and obviously had my designer footwear mocked.

One of my good friends, Jay, opened up a hostel on the other (boring) island, Koh Rong Samluem. It's called Blue Dog and it's totally mint. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because after one-too-many cocktails (come on, it was my weekend off!) I forgot to take any on my newly acquired phone, but these are some of the snaps from Sarason's bay. Had a mint time at their opening party and I'm expecting some big things to come from there and I can see a few more of my days off being spent over on that side of the bay.

 I've had worse views whilst "waiting for the bus" (or the ferry) 

Other than these updates it has been a pretty tough week on the island for me. Had some bad news from home about my Grandad George; so I've keeping myself busy this week with the company of some of my friends and the day job of swinging through the jungle. Sending a lot of love in the direction of England to Grandma and the family and thinking a lot about everyone and remembering some great times me and my grandparents have had. I definitely wouldn't be the person I am today without my Grandparents. Maybe I caught the travel bug from them after being guided around London in the Summer Holidays every year, seeing things most people my age and from my hometown still haven't done. Gathering a thirst for knowledge after being shown the history and culture of our capital city, London. My good attitude towards life, my manors, respect towards everyone from the cashier in the local corner shop to the train conductor, to the person sitting next to me on the bus. Being told my (toy) pet rabbit would be made into a pie, looking after our little pet Gerbils, being taught woodwork in Grandad's workshop. My love for nature and birds; being shown around the wetlands to feeding Woody the Pigeon in the garden (or helping to prepare the waterbombs for the cats who pray on him). Chomping on tellytubby biscuits, reading the jokes on the tellytext and trusting my Grandad George would've washed the grapes before giving them to me. I'm still looking for the wizard, and the lady with a ring in her nose and all our other characters. Big love to you Grandad George, love your little pet.



"If I can go the whole of the Navy without getting a tattoo, I can guarantee you I wont be getting one in Camden today"

Some rare photo evidenceof the time of my life;

Today Is A Good Day To Have A Good Day

Funk Night with some of the faves

With the celebration of my tablet arriving back into my possession and a brand new phone (after my last one died after a phone call with my brother and lots of ear sweat, ew) I am back to the blog with lots of updates!

So what's new from the Island? Where do I start? My body is now 50% 31 Gold Khmer Whiskey, 10% Orange Fanta, the other is either Klang or Joss or Egg Fried Rice.

I had taken up a second job for a little bit of time handing people Klang for $1 and screaming SPIN THE WHEEEEEEEEEEEL at my favourite bar on the Island to help them out whilst they were short staffed. So I got paid in alcohol, creative control of the music in the bar and doing what I do best- encouraging people to get really drunk.

Clearly being responsible

behind the bar

On my second shift there Erin (the clearly intoxicated American redhead from the bar on my first night on the island if anyone read that blog post, haha) burnt her hand so I told her what to do to look after it (NOT putting ice on it) and that I'm a first aider so I ~kinda~ know what I'm talking about...FAST FORWARD TO 1.30AM (remember I'm getting paid in alcohol) and a girl comes up to the bar dripping with blood, I mean DRIPPING with blood from where a massive chunk has been sliced out her arm. So at 1.30 in the morning on a tropical island off the coast of Cambodia it turns out that I'm the most sober, qualified person to help this girl out -who clearly needs hospital treatment- Great.

It's one thing to look after a paralytic drunk person, and it's another to have to give first aid but put the two together and you've got a combo. But got her all unbleeding, bandaged up and infection free just in time to cash up at the end of the longest shift ever.

Foam Party Boat Trip. Personal Favourite photo.

Now whilst all of this is happening I'm surrounded by drunk people like

"OMG THERE IS SOO0o0o0o0o0o0O0O0O0O MUCH BLOOD"
"I CAN TAKE OVER I KNOW HOW TO DO STITCHES" (from a person who couldn't even stand himself up)

and my personal favourite -

"Call the ambulance."

Now I often get complimented on my patience but by this time I've been working since 8.30 that morning and my patience is thinning so I end up having this BIG OLD MONOLOGE with this one geezer who would not let the calling of an ambulance drop. After about the 8th time he say it I just lose it;

Adulting well

RIGHT MATE.
1.) Do you have a phone? A Cambodian SIM? With credit? And signal? Nope. Me either. Okay okay it's fine, we'll find one.
2.) What's the emergency service number for Cambodia? Good. Cause I haven't got a clue either.
Doesn't matter bro, somehow we've managed to get hold of the Ambulance and translate to them from Khmer to English that we are on Koh Rong and we need an ambulance and it's on its way.
3.) How will the ambulance get here becuase we haven't got a road on the island.
4.) Okay, now the ambulance is here she's safe and well. Where is it going to take her? The Hospital next to the famous Koh Rong Library or McDonalds? NO. BECUASE WE HAVE NO MEDICAL CENTER ON THE ISLAND.

He then follows with WE NEED TO GET HER A BOAT TO MAINLAND THEN. Okay bro, be my guest. Find me someone who owns a boat, can drive a boat and will take her to hospital now because we're the only place open on this whole island and I aint paying $1k USD unless you have it in your pocket.

but anyway! Managed to stop the bleeding and bandage her up and get her to bed okay...eventually.Since these events I have now got myself a little bit of a reputation as a medic on the island (great). One of the boys who works i the village comes up to High Point the other day and asks for my "medical advice" about his suspected broken arm...mate. I'm a FIRST aider, not a doctor. If you have a suspected broken arm I can help you until you go hospital but I can't diagnose it because even trained professionals can't...thus Xrays were created.


Now for me, apart from fighting a snotty nose and annoying cough for a couple of weeks I've been free from Tropical Island Disases. My headlice* are long gone, no fleas and no leg worms. Phew! Although my feet have taken a bit of a battering now it's been about 10 weeks since I last owned a pair of shoes and I like walking through the jungle in the dark.

*I actually used Dog Flea and Tic shampoo to rid them and got a compliment on how nice I smelt by someone in the village, I've been doing it wrong this whole time!

Weather is defo changing now as we fully enter Wet Season. Lightening storms way more frequently, week long showers, and obnoxious humidity. 

Skinny, gross, ill kitten. Day 1.

Old habits die hard. About a month ago I opportuned a baby kitten, just a few weeks old and was abandoned. Someone took her into Island Boys because they found her and she was sick and I quote:
"There are enough sick animals in this bar without an actual sick animal in the bar"
He's called Klang (after the beer) which was actually the perfect nagme because in Cambodian it means strong which is what he is. Been a rocky road up until now, but finally he's turned into a little kitten running about the place. No more worms, and a swift trip to the mainland after showing some very very worrying symptoms (a very bad case of cat flu), but after some proper kitten food and some nutrients he's all fixed up.

I did my visa run over to Vietnam for a lovely hour a few weeks ago. I am now the owner of a business Visa and even paid my first South East Asian Bribe for "incomplete paper work" aka Doughnut money for the office. But I've extended my visa now until December so looks like I'll be staying on the island a little bit longer

 Been partying loads, shocker. For my good friend and Amazonian Goddess, Petra, 's birthday we had a space themed party so everyone went all out dressed as Aliens, I was an astronaut fashioned from a concrete bag, my bike helmet, tin foil and silver spray paint. Didn't look too bad! Nat went a little more creative with a stylised suitcase into a giant Space Cookie. Another party was Adventure Adam's and it was survivor themed so of course Nat put a crystal ball on his head and a nappy and went as Destiny's Child. He's a survivor.

Destiny's Child.

We made a couple of really good friends in the past couple weeks, Andy and Sean from Southampton. They've been biking across the world and stopped by the island for a few weeks. Andy ended up becoming the High Point House Guardian and crashed with us and Sean just came over to party. He also fell on an anchor on a boat and ended up the butt (wakawaka) of a feww jokes for sure.

Space Cookie Nat