Jonty's Jungle Camp

  Koh Ta Kiev, Cambodia
Friday, February 29, 2008

Hello,

Hope everyone is well. Well, we need to tell you about our stay in Jonty's Jungle Camp! Before we started our travels Andy emailed me with the website and we had always said that it was something we wanted to do. Funnily enough, the bar that the trip went from was a bar that we had been drinking in so we booked up!

When we met Jonty it was a really satisfying feeling, all the planning had finally paid off and we were on our way to a remote island to stay in his jungle camp!! He and Jan (his business partner) picked us up in their little green long boat and it was a 1 hour 30 minute journey to the island of Koh Ta Kiev. There was room for 12 people in his camp but it was only Andy and I on the boat and he told us there was just 1 person there already plus there new little puppy Nipper!

We passed a few little islands on the way which was great and then our little bay came into view. It was beautiful, deserted white beaches with dense green jungle covering the island. Jan showed us round the camp - the seating/eating area was a wooden hut with a thatched roof and next door there was a kitchen where 2 Cambodian ladies prepared all the food.
The toilet and shower rooms were little wooden huts (a spiders haven!) The shower consisted of a big bucket of water and a ladle that you used to throw the water over yourself! They had even installed a sauna - it was so cool! He showed us the 'room's - little private areas in the jungle with 2 hammocks - we found the perfect one about 5 foot from the beach so we took that one! There was a tree house too which would have been cool but we really wanted to stay in the hammocks!

We spent the afternoon enjoying the fact that we were the only ones on this lovely long beach, collected some shells and had dip in the sea (it was like getting into a warm bath!) We had already made the decision that we were staying longer than intended in this place. It gets dark really quickly here and the darkness is magnified tenfold as there is no power on the island, just lanterns. This was great as the stars were just amazing but it meant that I couldnt keep my eyes open for the tea plate sized spiders that we were warned about - this was not good!!! I knew my head torch would come in handy - creepy crawly spotting!! Luckily I got through the first night with no horrors, we had a lovely meal of fresh bbq tuna and rice. At 8pm it feels like midnight so we had a few drinks with the French girl that was already there and then headed back to the hammocks!
They were great, proper army style that you can zip yourself in - not even ants could get into these buggers!! They were really comfy and warm too, it was an experience not forgotten listening to the sounds of the jungle whilst the waves were hitting the beach.

We were giggling away to ourselves for ages and then eventually got some sleep.
The next day we spent all morning snorkelling - Andy had to pursuade me to get in as you should have seen the size of the sea urchins that we had to try and get round before getting to the reef - scary!
I'm so glad he did though as it was amazing, we saw loads of fish - all different shapes and colours, lots of purple and yellow coral and even a squid!! We looked like shrivelled up prunes when we got out but it was a perfect start to the leap year day!



We saw that boat load of new arrivals come into the camp and there were 6 couples so we new it would be a different evening than the first. Watched an amazing sunset and then met the others. They were all great and we had a real laugh over another lovely meal and some beers.
There was a lad there that was more afraid of spiders than me which made me feel much better! I dont think I put my feet on the ground all night - just had a really horrible feeling that something would run over them!! As I came back from the toilet there was the biggest spider I had ever seen on one of the posts. I had to double take as I couldnt believe the size of it! Everyone started taking pictures of it and we didnt take our eyes off it! It was there for ages and when Andy got up it started running towards him - WOH!!! I never moved so quickly in my life!! We felt much safer in our hammocks so we went to bed but it was a really great evening.

It was so nice to stay in such an amazing place and we were really sad to leave but WOW what memories we have! Hope you enjoy looking at the pic's.

Lots of love,
Team Survival xxx