Wow! Long time since I had the chance to write something. Internet in our resort is too slow for google's quite heavy user enviroment.
Lot has happened since last time.
I had to do a visa run to get my visa changed into a so called business visa, which can be extended up to 6 months. I had already decided to make it to Thailand so I can pick up some fisherman's pants with me. Take a bus to get to Koh Kong and cross the border there, take another bus from the border to Trat. Quick and easy. Not. The morning I plan to leave I go to buy bus tickets only to find out that all the buses are full. Fair enough, plan B. back at the guesthouse I see couple of Finnish guys packing their stuff, aiming for Phnom Pehn later on. And these guys are selling their bike. I didn't buy the bike since I really have no need for it on the island. But I did borrow it for a couple of days.
Road to Koh Kong from Sihanoukville was interesting at times. There had been rains in the past few days so I found myself easing my way around muddy ponds size of a kid's swimming pool. Or following in a column when there is no pavement for couple of hundred meters. But the bike was still the better solution anyway. Because I saw the cars really struggling at some points where as I could just weave my way around the potholes and pools.
When I reach the border I find out that I am not allowed to take the bike across the border. So I have to store it in a local guy's house while I'm in Thailand. So I still need to take the bus on thailand side and of course I bought my bus ticket from Cambodian side when I could have saved couple of dollars buying them from Thailand side.
There border on Cambodian side is full of hustlers who offer to do the customs for you. If you give them your passport you will have to pay them and basically all they do is fill out 1 piece of paper. And they claim that you have to pay to get the exit stamp. Which is false too.
In Thailand I go look for my luxury bus to find out that it is a minivan. Of course. Should have not expect anything else.The five minutes we were supposed to wait for the van to leave turned in to a nice half and hour and we were pissing ourselves laughing when every time one of the westerners would ask about the departure the answer from the locals was either "one minute" or "soon".
Trat itself was a nice small town with good food from the markets and it acted as a good access point to other places in the country
Caro came to meet me there with the intention to come spend another month in Koh Rong. So the next day we went to take a walk around the markets to see if we could find what we wanted to buy. We did find a shop that sold wax strings suitable for macrame making. And lots of wooden and plastic pearls. A shop we found and I bought 30 pairs of pants to sell at the guesthouse. Then we came up to a shop called The Reggae Shop. The owner was a really nice local guys and they sold some hand made clothing made by his wife and lots of stuff in red, gold and green. And with Bob Marley. He invited us to come back around 6 o'clock to enjoy a bowl full from a shisa. And offered to come with us because we didn't find a place that sold cotton hammocks. He had some really tasty apple flavoured tobacco to put in the shisa, they went out to get some snacks and beer and we ended up having a really nice night out at the night market eating fried crickets and worms(!) and still not finding any hammocks.
Way back to Sihanoukville was better than when going the other way since the road had had some time to dry out.
Couple of weeks later back in BHGH and the reception phone rings. "Hello. This is Mikko speaking. Do you have any vacancy?" After I finished the call I thought: "Hmm... That sounded familiar..." Few hours pass and I see a long-tail boat coming in with a guy with long blonde dreadlocks standing in the front. And my suspicions got confirmed: it was indeed a Mikko I already knew. We had worked together in Levi five years a go! Week later we are again working together.
December came and one day I'm walking up from the beach bar when all of a sudden a girl walks down towards me and shouts: "Juhis! What the fuck are you doing here?!"
It is none other than Maiju, who used to be my flatmate, again back in Levi, same season. Talk about coincidence! And she had just checked in our guesthouse.
So good times and old friends in a piece of paradise. Christmas happened with out much off a hassle.
Then came new year.
The owner of the guesthouse, Mr.Jones had bought in a small warzone worth of fireworks. We made fire to the beach and set 18 roman candles as tall as me, couple of dozen small torches and bangers, 1 medium size barrage and 1 big one. And a firecracker string abt. 2 meters tall.
When new year hit I was on the other end of the set-up, Mikko on the other end and Jones waiting to light up the big ones. And we all had a burning cigarette. Next couple of minutes was frantic running around trying to light up everything at the same time. What good fun! Khmer workers screaming and laughing and all the guests from the guesthouse gathered up at the fire.
Now we have finally finished the extension to the beach bar, have built a deck for the grill and everything is rolling on nicely.
Well, that's it for now. Lets see when is it when I have a chance to come back here again. So have a wonderful start to your year and I will see you next time!
ps.Pictures has been updated also
