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.
maanantai 17. maaliskuuta 2014
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
lauantai 2. marraskuuta 2013
BHGH
Where to begin...
Times in long beach are wonderful. The guesthouse is opening up and everyday we have one more bungalow for rent. Hopefully in a month we have everything done, including bar 105B, extension to my beach bar, soon to be restaurant and reception also and last but not least my own little corner above the before mentioned. :)
At the moment we don't have internet (electricity max 3 hours a night), so I wont be posting too many updates for a while. BUT I have opened a Flickr account and uploaded some photos there for you to enjoy.
Click here to see
With the widest smile,
Yours truly.
Times in long beach are wonderful. The guesthouse is opening up and everyday we have one more bungalow for rent. Hopefully in a month we have everything done, including bar 105B, extension to my beach bar, soon to be restaurant and reception also and last but not least my own little corner above the before mentioned. :)
At the moment we don't have internet (electricity max 3 hours a night), so I wont be posting too many updates for a while. BUT I have opened a Flickr account and uploaded some photos there for you to enjoy.
Click here to see
With the widest smile,
Yours truly.
lauantai 19. lokakuuta 2013
...Or not.
Sometimes things happen on a fast pace. Few days ago I was leaving Cambodia in 2 weeks. Well, not anymore.
There is a beach 7 kilometers long. On the beach is a single guesthouse named Broken Heart guesthouse. And that will be my place of work for the next 6 months! Place is owned and run by Finnish people so I'm all good.
And did I mention the beach has been voted as one of top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world?
So yeah, Australia will have to wait for now. I think I will head out and do something since it seems it is going to be another sunny day here in paradise also know as Koh Rong. ;)
I love my life.
There is a beach 7 kilometers long. On the beach is a single guesthouse named Broken Heart guesthouse. And that will be my place of work for the next 6 months! Place is owned and run by Finnish people so I'm all good.
And did I mention the beach has been voted as one of top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world?
So yeah, Australia will have to wait for now. I think I will head out and do something since it seems it is going to be another sunny day here in paradise also know as Koh Rong. ;)
I love my life.
keskiviikko 16. lokakuuta 2013
FOKR
So I have been here in Koh Rong for what, a week now? Days flow by, sun is shining and it is absolutely beautiful. Though when sun is shining full blaze it's SO hot to work it's unbelievable! I have never been pouring sweat as much as while working here. But our group is amazing. The girls who run Friends Of Koh Rong spend their days planning curriculums and doing other office work. Us short term volunteers do the manual labour. Three times now we have also recruited travellers from the beach to carry some sand bags. When I have a better internet connection I will post some pictures of the school and whatnot.
Today we were a team of four and our task was to improve the path to Long beach, which is on the other side of the island. So off we went with 2 long stemmed machetes, the dullest small axe you have ever seen, some signs, hammer and nails and a 1,5l bottle of water each. It was good fun for a change to be in the jungle chopping vines and clearing undergrowth. And another hot day of course.
When we got to Long beach the view was in a word, stunning. Waves crashing in to a white beach that stretches out for 7km. And guess what? There is a bungalow village on the end of the beach where the path leads to and there I found the first Finnish persons on the island. All 4 of them. And 2 of them run the place.
If I had the possibility I would not be leaving this island for a long time. Needless to say that I quite enjoy my time here. :)
But my beloved bank credit makes sure I will have to put such plans until after Australia...
Today we were a team of four and our task was to improve the path to Long beach, which is on the other side of the island. So off we went with 2 long stemmed machetes, the dullest small axe you have ever seen, some signs, hammer and nails and a 1,5l bottle of water each. It was good fun for a change to be in the jungle chopping vines and clearing undergrowth. And another hot day of course.
When we got to Long beach the view was in a word, stunning. Waves crashing in to a white beach that stretches out for 7km. And guess what? There is a bungalow village on the end of the beach where the path leads to and there I found the first Finnish persons on the island. All 4 of them. And 2 of them run the place.
If I had the possibility I would not be leaving this island for a long time. Needless to say that I quite enjoy my time here. :)
But my beloved bank credit makes sure I will have to put such plans until after Australia...
torstai 10. lokakuuta 2013
Koh Rong
Who would've thought that Cambodia is an awesome place for little island relaxation? This Island is a pearl at the moment. Lot of new guesthouses and such been build so give it few years and it's like any other island in the ocean.
I am doing this post as I wait for the hottest part of the day pass. In little more than hour need to go back to work. Because what else would you do on a paradise island like this? Little landscaping in blistering heat. And it's not planting pot plants or watering freshly laid grass. It's making base for a path with run down hoes, shovels and a pick axe. And I even get to pay them for doing this! This is so much fun I will do it for 2 weeks. :)
Also yesterday we had people from the village to help us out to carry bags of sand to the previously prepared parts of the path. Oh, and the school we are building is on a hill. And beaches with sand tend to be little closer to the ocean.
So if anyone wants to help me to help this little organisation (Friends of Koh Rong) to build a school for the local kids, I can channel money to them thru my bank account. :)
I personally payed 225$ for the 2 weeks of working. Ok, I'm getting accommodation, food and drinks (no alcohol) for it also.
If by chance some one actually wants to make a donation, pls let me know so I can get the money to them.
Also, pictures will have to wait for a better internet connection.
I am doing this post as I wait for the hottest part of the day pass. In little more than hour need to go back to work. Because what else would you do on a paradise island like this? Little landscaping in blistering heat. And it's not planting pot plants or watering freshly laid grass. It's making base for a path with run down hoes, shovels and a pick axe. And I even get to pay them for doing this! This is so much fun I will do it for 2 weeks. :)
Also yesterday we had people from the village to help us out to carry bags of sand to the previously prepared parts of the path. Oh, and the school we are building is on a hill. And beaches with sand tend to be little closer to the ocean.
So if anyone wants to help me to help this little organisation (Friends of Koh Rong) to build a school for the local kids, I can channel money to them thru my bank account. :)
I personally payed 225$ for the 2 weeks of working. Ok, I'm getting accommodation, food and drinks (no alcohol) for it also.
If by chance some one actually wants to make a donation, pls let me know so I can get the money to them.
Also, pictures will have to wait for a better internet connection.
maanantai 7. lokakuuta 2013
Wordless
Well, not quite. Here I go thinking that tonight is going to be an easy night with an early ending. Guess what? There is a local kid's birthday in my guesthouse tonight. As I am writing this from my room I'm feeling the bass thud against my chest and hum in my ears. Apparently even small kids here enjoy music as loud as western teenagers.
And I have my first major injury from the travels.
Infection in my left eye. It started last night when I suddenly realized that I had rubbed my eye beyond the point of no return trying to get dirt or something out. So I knew what to expect this morning and true enough, now I have a bit swollen, bright red eye. The local doctor was a package though. In the morning when I went in to show my eye saying: "I think I have an infection in my eye", The guy immediately propped me against an eye examination thingy and started glaring. After few minutes of intense staring and turning my eyelids inside out (quite painful actually when infected) he stated: "You have an infection in your eye."
And apparently eye exams don't require gloves down here.
But the story has a happy ending. Few minutes of pain and few more waiting and I leave with 9 dollars lighter and 2 different eye drop bottles heavier. One is antibacterial and other is just plain sterile drops. That oughta sort it out.
Now I need to get out of this room even when it's raining cats and dogs outside. Otherwise I might turn in to an old fashioned Finnish axe murderer. Or at least I will go chop their speakers to something suitable of making a fire.
And I have my first major injury from the travels.
Infection in my left eye. It started last night when I suddenly realized that I had rubbed my eye beyond the point of no return trying to get dirt or something out. So I knew what to expect this morning and true enough, now I have a bit swollen, bright red eye. The local doctor was a package though. In the morning when I went in to show my eye saying: "I think I have an infection in my eye", The guy immediately propped me against an eye examination thingy and started glaring. After few minutes of intense staring and turning my eyelids inside out (quite painful actually when infected) he stated: "You have an infection in your eye."
And apparently eye exams don't require gloves down here.
But the story has a happy ending. Few minutes of pain and few more waiting and I leave with 9 dollars lighter and 2 different eye drop bottles heavier. One is antibacterial and other is just plain sterile drops. That oughta sort it out.
Now I need to get out of this room even when it's raining cats and dogs outside. Otherwise I might turn in to an old fashioned Finnish axe murderer. Or at least I will go chop their speakers to something suitable of making a fire.
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