It feels like I need to update but I have nothing to say.
All day is the same: I try to find a job, sit in the guesthouse and try to spend as little money as possible. I have hit a boring section of travels. I give this city one more week and if by this time I don't have a job, I will go to another town.
I do remember a story from Koh Rong tho...
One day I was happily doing some landscaping in the guesthouse (chipping away a big rock of sandstone from a path) when one of the Khmer worker comes up to me: "Juhis. There is a snake in the kitchen. Maybe one of you guys can come and handle the situation?"
So I gather my machete and a 4 foot long stick and head up. As I get in to the kitchen I see one of the cooks poking around with a long piece of wood in the corner, jumping and screaming. When the snake gets out and gets pinned against a wall I see my first glimpse: it's a fucking pit viper! After a moment the viper gets loose from the grip of the wall and wood and starts heading away from the restaurant with about a dozen tourists watching, I tell the other to let it go. But instead of getting out it decides to climb a hibiscus in edge of the dining area. Not a proper spot for a lethal snake in the middle of lunch rush. A Khmer guy gets a small hit on it with its stick, which then breaks down. The snake is not hurt, but stunned enough to poke its head out of the bush. At this point I give it a full force overhead swing with my stick and it connects perfect at the back of the neck. The snake drops from the bush and we collect it to a safe place. After few moments we realie that the snake is not actually dead so we need to chop off its head. When I took the body and held it next to my body I realize that I have just been battling a 6-foot killer snake with a -what at this point startedd feeling small- stick and a big knife. Afterwards I was amazed how calm I was during the whole episode...
maanantai 26. toukokuuta 2014
sunnuntai 18. toukokuuta 2014
Christmas came early!
...Well not really but I got a parcel from mom anyway! Now I have my Egyptian cotton and camel hair, my Finnish wool and some salmiakki and Fazer chocolate. Happy days!
Days flow by here in Melbourne and I'm growing to like this city day by day. Now if I only could land a job and everything would be sweet. But today will be another day of going thru some bar and restaurants and spreading my resume around. And before some wise-ass says "Gumtree!" I tell you: EVERYONE USES GUMTREE! And that means that all the interesting/good jobs get so many hits instantly that you actually have to be very lucky to land a proper job that way. Sure there is a lot of casual jobs (16-20 hours a week) in cafes and such, but I need somethign else. Can you see me in a cafe making latte and filling sandwitches? Right.
But still I am hopeful that my job is just waiting me around the corner. And atleast this way I have time to do some jewelry and have enough energy to do yoga (almost) daily.
Oh, I felt the feels of bureucracy weigh down on me the first week. I opened a bank account, but cannot get my internet banking details until I present a phone number. And I cannot get a phone with a payment plan (my phone broke down in Cambodia) before I present them a bank statement saying I have money in my account. Would I be getting a phone with a payment plan if I had the money to buy it straight away?! Idiots.
Days flow by here in Melbourne and I'm growing to like this city day by day. Now if I only could land a job and everything would be sweet. But today will be another day of going thru some bar and restaurants and spreading my resume around. And before some wise-ass says "Gumtree!" I tell you: EVERYONE USES GUMTREE! And that means that all the interesting/good jobs get so many hits instantly that you actually have to be very lucky to land a proper job that way. Sure there is a lot of casual jobs (16-20 hours a week) in cafes and such, but I need somethign else. Can you see me in a cafe making latte and filling sandwitches? Right.
But still I am hopeful that my job is just waiting me around the corner. And atleast this way I have time to do some jewelry and have enough energy to do yoga (almost) daily.
Oh, I felt the feels of bureucracy weigh down on me the first week. I opened a bank account, but cannot get my internet banking details until I present a phone number. And I cannot get a phone with a payment plan (my phone broke down in Cambodia) before I present them a bank statement saying I have money in my account. Would I be getting a phone with a payment plan if I had the money to buy it straight away?! Idiots.
torstai 8. toukokuuta 2014
The New continent
Now I feel like I'm back in the books of living after 4 hour nap and first Subway (!!) in 7 months. First Sleep in Melbourne was at the airport and that 3 hours was not quite enough. But now the first week in Greenhouse Backpackers is paid and I can start getting my bearings and look for a job.
But man IT'S COLD! moving from night time 27 and daytime 35-40 degrees celsius to night time 6 and daytime 17 was bit of a shocker! But nothing I could not get used to...
This trip has been all about recommendations. First in Berlin my friend suggested I go to Top Banana in PP, there the lovely couple running the place told me to go check out Koh Rong. Well, we all know what happened there. Then when flying here I sat next to a Filipino girl who was working in a childrens hospital here in Melbourne and she suggested this guesthouse. And so far all has been good or better. Let's see where the next recommendation leads me to. Maybe an awesome job? Only time will tell.
Sidenote on the girl a was sitting next to: She was 28 and catholic. I am not deeply religious and well marinated in seasonal restaurant work. How much from different worlds could we be? And still we had good time during the flight. Again a perfect example on how cultural or moral bounds don't matter at all if you don't let them to.
Oh well, I guess you might be getting these posts here a little more frequent now that I'm around constant internet. By the way, if anyone has some questions, please post them here. I'm sure I have forgotten to tell something someone wants to know.
But man IT'S COLD! moving from night time 27 and daytime 35-40 degrees celsius to night time 6 and daytime 17 was bit of a shocker! But nothing I could not get used to...
This trip has been all about recommendations. First in Berlin my friend suggested I go to Top Banana in PP, there the lovely couple running the place told me to go check out Koh Rong. Well, we all know what happened there. Then when flying here I sat next to a Filipino girl who was working in a childrens hospital here in Melbourne and she suggested this guesthouse. And so far all has been good or better. Let's see where the next recommendation leads me to. Maybe an awesome job? Only time will tell.
Sidenote on the girl a was sitting next to: She was 28 and catholic. I am not deeply religious and well marinated in seasonal restaurant work. How much from different worlds could we be? And still we had good time during the flight. Again a perfect example on how cultural or moral bounds don't matter at all if you don't let them to.
Oh well, I guess you might be getting these posts here a little more frequent now that I'm around constant internet. By the way, if anyone has some questions, please post them here. I'm sure I have forgotten to tell something someone wants to know.
tiistai 6. toukokuuta 2014
Funny times, funny things
It has been an interesting 24 hours or so.
Last night I was out in Phnom Pehn and was going to grab some street food with this Australian guy. A street kid came to ask for money, we straight up refused but offered him food. Few minutes later he was sitting with us enjoying some fresh water clams. Few of his friends came by asking for money also. Same routine, but these two claimed not to be hungry. The first boy told us it's because of the glue they sniff. After we made the first boy order some food from the stall for him ("You eat what you want, we pay!") we told him to tell his friends to come also. After five minutes of resisting we have 3 boys in our table happily drinking some Samurai (local strawberry flavour energy drink) and eating away rice and stuff. Not hungry? I would say that was the first proper meal these boys had in a while.
It felt good to get these boys to eat something and must have looked funny to the locals having 2 western guys and 3 small boys sitting in tiny plastic chairs laughing and eating.
Now already in Kuala Lumpur in my homely Birdnest GH and tummy fully of yummy indian.
Few things has changed here. New stores and guesthouses has popped up, a lot of road and other construction going on and few new Indian Ladymen (because these guys are well past their "boy" age) patrolling the streets in the evening. Even Bakti woodlands had raised prices, but luckily the food was as good as ever.
Tomorrow will be my last day in asia for a while. Lets see if I get as funny feeling as I did when I was leaving PP airport this morning. I got a vivid flashback of the feeling I had when first arriving there. And that felt like ages ago.
Last night I was out in Phnom Pehn and was going to grab some street food with this Australian guy. A street kid came to ask for money, we straight up refused but offered him food. Few minutes later he was sitting with us enjoying some fresh water clams. Few of his friends came by asking for money also. Same routine, but these two claimed not to be hungry. The first boy told us it's because of the glue they sniff. After we made the first boy order some food from the stall for him ("You eat what you want, we pay!") we told him to tell his friends to come also. After five minutes of resisting we have 3 boys in our table happily drinking some Samurai (local strawberry flavour energy drink) and eating away rice and stuff. Not hungry? I would say that was the first proper meal these boys had in a while.
It felt good to get these boys to eat something and must have looked funny to the locals having 2 western guys and 3 small boys sitting in tiny plastic chairs laughing and eating.
Now already in Kuala Lumpur in my homely Birdnest GH and tummy fully of yummy indian.
Few things has changed here. New stores and guesthouses has popped up, a lot of road and other construction going on and few new Indian Ladymen (because these guys are well past their "boy" age) patrolling the streets in the evening. Even Bakti woodlands had raised prices, but luckily the food was as good as ever.
Tomorrow will be my last day in asia for a while. Lets see if I get as funny feeling as I did when I was leaving PP airport this morning. I got a vivid flashback of the feeling I had when first arriving there. And that felt like ages ago.
maanantai 5. toukokuuta 2014
Towards next chapter
Time on Koh Rong has finished for me. What crazy amazing times I had there...
I felt it was fitting for me to end my Cambodia to the same place it all started. So again sitting in Top Banana but this time tomorrow morning I will board Airasia and take a small breather in a city I know allready. Kuala Lumpur here I come again! Bakti woodlands is waiting for me with delicious indian food!
But that is just a stop on my way to Melbourne, Australia. I need to start working for real and actually earn some cash to further my travels.
So interesting few days ahead. From a tiny island community to a city with population of 4,1 million...
I felt it was fitting for me to end my Cambodia to the same place it all started. So again sitting in Top Banana but this time tomorrow morning I will board Airasia and take a small breather in a city I know allready. Kuala Lumpur here I come again! Bakti woodlands is waiting for me with delicious indian food!
But that is just a stop on my way to Melbourne, Australia. I need to start working for real and actually earn some cash to further my travels.
So interesting few days ahead. From a tiny island community to a city with population of 4,1 million...
maanantai 17. maaliskuuta 2014
Labour Camp: Paradise
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.
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.
tiistai 7. tammikuuta 2014
Is it really been that long?
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
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
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