These posts are coming too infrequent. I need to check back on older stuff to see what I wrote last time. The Island is getting a good grip on me. :D
So almost five months I have been working in BHGH and it has taught me a lot. I forgot to tell you that I ended up managing the whole place since before new year already. That will look good on my CV. But managing a 10 bungalow resort on an island with minimal staff (3-6 western, 2-4 Khmer) is hard work. Everything has to be ordered and shipped from mainland. And when I mean everything, starting from gas bottles and coal for cooking, big pieces of ice (around 25kg each) for keeping everything cold, drinks and food and all that you could imagine you would need on an island. And more.
When the delivery comes it's not on a pier where we put them on a cart and push to the restaurant. Instead we wade in chest deep in to the sea with or with out the help of a small boat to load the stuff on and carry all to land. And then we carry it to the storage on our shoulders. By experience I can tell you that 50 kg of rice 30 meters up a rock and root filled path gets heavy.
And bandages and iodine. Lots of them. The local rocks here have a tendency to peel off pieces of skin when you kick them while walking barefoot and the coral sand (read: sand so fine it squeaks under your feet) from the beach will go everywhere and infect every single wound you don't take care of. Three times I have seen a person getting so many infected wounds at the same time that the body cannot keep up and every single scratch goes off. Lucky it wasn't me.
BUT I scraped the skin off from the top of one of my toes, it got infected in 12 hours and even when I went to mainland the next day to get away from the sand and dirt I still lost a toenail.
Other issues we have on the island is water. It has not rained in 3 months. Well, it has. Total of 4 hours. That's quite little considering we would spend around 2000 liters of fresh water daily. But as of now we have basically none. So before it rains again the shower will be the sea. And I have mastered the skill of showering with 1,5 liters of water.
Now I am taking a holiday from holiday here in Siem Reap. Week off will help me carry thru the last weeks on Koh Rong with out me losing my marbles completely. Those of you who have done seasonal work for example in ski resorts will know what I mean. And our place is the only one on our side. Other human contact apart from customers and co-workers is 30 min trek thru the jungle away.
So a few relaxing days away from it all and being a normal traveller again for a while. Do all the touristy stuff and all.
Until next time!
PS. Waterbuffalos have a very distinct smell.
