It rained again that night, multiple times, in fact, but we were
unscathed in the bungalow. In the morning, we dressed and went down to the restaurant for
breakfast. After eating, we walked up the beach and found a place to rent a big
three-person kayak for $12. We paddled down the Koh Tui Beach, around the rocks
at the end of it, and pulled ashore at Treehouse Bungalows to get some water
before continuing. A sign in front of Treehouse Bungalows boasted of a wood-fired pizza oven, and we
discussed returning for dinner while we munched through a tube of Pringles and rested. When our
snack was finished, we returned to the kayak and continued on to the same beach
that we had walked to on the previous day, Long Set Beach. This time, as the tide was high, the
beach was completely deserted. People could not cross on foot. With the whole beach to ourselves, we pulled our kayak up onto the beach, took off
our life preservers, and went swimming. It was the kind of seclusion that we had imagined when planning our trip.
Snorkeling posse! |
Anyway, we returned to our bungalow, cleaned up, and went down to the
restaurant for a drink. We also wanted to pay our tab—there was no way to get more money on the island—and assess our finances. We only had the cash that we had brought with us, and we needed to make sure that, when
we left on the 30th, we would have enough to pay our taxi-driver who
would be taking us to Phnom Penh for the final couple days of our vacation. As it had
rained quite a bit more the night before, the mosquitoes were out in force.
Angela could count the new bites every few minutes and, despite being covered
in natural insect repellant, we were all quite uncomfortable. As it was,
mosquitoes had hit us pretty hard since we had arrived on the island, and we
were all sporting tiny red spots on our legs and ankles. Additionally, we had
been warned about sand flies and instructed to use coconut oil to protect against them, but they hadn’t
really bothered us.
When we finished our drinks, we walked up the beach to the Treehouse Bungalows restaurant to try the pizza. As usual, it took a long time to get
served, but the pizza had a very light crust and was quite tasty: Angela
ordered a Napoli pizza (anchovies, capers, garlic), I ordered a Capricciosa
(mushroom, ham), and Vito ordered a Hawaiian. Vito had also been enjoying chocolate
milkshakes on a daily basis and ordered his usual, while Angela and I quaffed
cans of Klang beer. We enjoyed the pizza and returned to our bungalow. We had
read about how, at night, it was possible to see the glowing or sparkling
plankton in the water, and we wanted to see it, but nothing materialized. The circumstances for observing them, whatever they were, had to be perfect.
We went to bed without much fuss but, at around midnight, Vito woke up, said he had to vomit, and proceeded to do just that in the middle of the bungalow floor. Clean-up was not difficult. Fortunately, there were gaps between the floorboards, and we washed everything down underneath the bungalow. When we had cleaned sufficiently by rinsing the floor with buckets of water, we returned to bed. Vito and I did not sleep the rest of the night as Vito continued to make trips to the bathroom. I lost count, but Vito bragged the next day that is was more than ten times. I was worried about going outside, but we weren’t attacked by geckos or giant jungle insects or monkeys. Vito was in bad shape, though, and I was really worried that his condition would not improve, and so thought about how we could get off the island in a hurry. So far from a hospital, had this trip been a mistake?
We went to bed without much fuss but, at around midnight, Vito woke up, said he had to vomit, and proceeded to do just that in the middle of the bungalow floor. Clean-up was not difficult. Fortunately, there were gaps between the floorboards, and we washed everything down underneath the bungalow. When we had cleaned sufficiently by rinsing the floor with buckets of water, we returned to bed. Vito and I did not sleep the rest of the night as Vito continued to make trips to the bathroom. I lost count, but Vito bragged the next day that is was more than ten times. I was worried about going outside, but we weren’t attacked by geckos or giant jungle insects or monkeys. Vito was in bad shape, though, and I was really worried that his condition would not improve, and so thought about how we could get off the island in a hurry. So far from a hospital, had this trip been a mistake?
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